Coinfest Oct 9-11 2009

All these comments makes me glad of the Chicago area even more. There is virtually nothing in this area you can not buy. There are places to go all the time. AND we have coin shows almost every weekend and all within 15 miles. And the gun shows, cat shows, dog shows, car shows of which we just had one of the biggest, knife shows, computer shows and on and on and on.
No need to drive more than a few miles for anything.
And of course in the right area at night you can watch a gangland shooting.

 

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O'hare Airport is one of the worst. Spent the night the night there when a flight was cancelled. The hotel had window bars. Wanted to take a walk and get a six pack, but the Hotel staff convinced me not to because of the crime rate.

 

Oh you don't believe all that stuff about our murder rate now at the highest in a long time do you? And that stuff about the most amount of kids being shot in the entire country? And those reports of 50,000 cars stolen per year? I suspect that one is exagerated.
And you mean to tell me that all hotels DON'T have bars on the windows?
Why the 34th Annual Chicago International Coin Fair April 23 to 26th is only about 5 miles or less from that airport. And the guards at that show have nothing larger than light weight machine guns. Same as most people here.
By the way how did you like the prices of drinks at the airport bar?

 

Actually had a few the beers Hotel bar and a nice "Chicago style hot dog
at the airport." I have traveled much in my career, the top 3 Airports I avoid, Atlanta, Chicago (O'Hare) and JFK New York.

 

Add LAX to the bad airport list. I fly directly to Long Beach.

 

I'd like to see Seattle. My sister lives there and it is an interesting city. Its not just the size of a city that makes it special. It is also the quality. There are bigger cities in the world than NYC, but they're not quite the five boroughs.

 

Funny you should say that. One time in Chicage when my kids were living for a time in Milwaukee I took everyone to the Fields Museum. the women at the Museum asks my youngest son, "So where do you come from." He answers, "I came from Milwaukee". So she say, "Oh they have a very lovely little Museum there with lots of Art. Have you been there before?". My ten year old son says, "yeah". So she says to him, "What did you like best" My son looks up at her and says, "I like the Rembrandts and the Van Goughs. In the place with the big spiral I like Kassidy and Kooring, but I hate Picasso. And then the one with the water fall I like the Rothko's even though they are simple. But they are so big. And the Egyptians and Chinese stuff we saw once that come from the Kings Palace was cool...and" So at this time the poor women is looking completely bewildered as my son is names dozens of artists and exhibits and I finally grab him by the shoulder and look at the lady and say, "He's from New York and he's talking about the Met, Moma, Guggenhein, Whitney, Brooklyn Museum, the Frick and the Museum of Natural History. He's confused".

Ruben

 

Seattle rocks. I was flown up there once by Boeing on a job thingy. Beautiful city, just toooooooooo expensive. I spent 5 days there, it rained every day, I did not care. Downtown was the cleanest and best looking " downtown" I have ever seen. Pike Street Market is the hotspot I think, but I also visited the REI camping store, the flagship store, that was cool too.

The traffic was average.

 

yeah - I've heard good things about Seattle but I'd never live there. And some point in the near future (next 250 years), Mount Rainer is going to blow in an explosion that will make Mt St Helen's look like small potatoes and every living thing in 100 miles of Seattle will be vaporized.

I'll stick with San Fransisco and the occasional earthquake.

Ruben
Ruben

 

Traveled so much with my job in the past, as far as the West coast goes, Seattle, Portland Oregon, LA, Phoenix AZ-to New Mexico
and to the Canyon. Have to see the Canyon again, a magical place!!. Saw the Painted forrest/petrified forrest.

 

I love your story. The reason is that lady probably has no idea what either of you were talking about. Most people here know that people that work in our Museums, Zoos, Planatarium, Aquarium, etc have no idea of what is what.
Same with probably 99.99% of our stores. People are hired that at times have no idea where they even are. I ran into a similar situation at the Brookfield Zoo in thier kids area. My son made the lady in the barn area feel like going home. He had to tell her which cow was what.
In your case I'm surprized she didn't tell you where to go. Usually rude enough for that.
Hope you didn't drive West when you left there.

 

She was a middle aged women and I think she had some expertise in the facility. I think she was just no match for my kids. I've traveled around quite a bit, both when I was in the Army and as a civilian and when I was young I lived in Florida. I've lived in San Antonio, Ft Lauderdale, Colorado Springs, and New York, both up and down state. Its easy when you live here to sound like your bragging, but you'll have to take my word it's not so much as bragging as much as that we live in a very rich environment. I have affection for other places. I especially liked the Springs, and San Fransisco. But nothing really matches for me the width and breadth of this city and state. I really believe that unless someone understands New York City that they really don't understand America. The opposite is also true. If you only understand New York then you don't understand America. And its always a bad deal to tell a New York Native how another place has the best of this or that, because its a battle you can't really win.

But there is a lot about this city that is hard. It's expensive, and while its one of the friendliest places on earth, its also the rudest. It's unexplainably dirty, although not what it was 30 years ago. Living here is a struggle. You never get a break. The communities are very tight, especially in Brooklyn, and sometimes I wonder if I woke up in a small town. It's enormous on the scale that until you live here for a decade, you don't fully comprehend. 80% of the people born here leave for the suburbs, or other regions. Nevada, California and Florida are almost built by ex-New Yorkers. Meanwhile nearly all of the inner-city is occupied by Europeans, Midwesterners and imports.

But to travel all the way to Connecticut and not experience this city is just an unfathomable error. People come to be here from across the globe. ANd yet the charm of this town is that it is taken for granted until something like 9-11 or the banking industry collapses.

When I go to other places I try to experience them. Frankly, most places don't have enough community life to experience anything and I run around banging my head on the wall looking for locals to do things with. But many places still have quite a lot to afford visitors and residents. And I have a long list of places I still want to visit including Nashville, Cincinnati and Kentucky, Seattle, San Diego, Montreal, London, Amsterdam, Rio, St Louis (if nothing more than to see a Cards game), and the Grand Canyon area.

I've already traveled both Carolina's, Washington DC, Phili, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Texas, Germany, South Texas, Colorado from Leadville and Mount Massive to Bolder and Pueblo, Buffalo, Rochester, Lake Placid and vicinity, a good part of France, Israel, Jerusalem, Haifa, all of South Florida from Key West up to Dana Beach and Orlando, New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay area and Silicon Valley, most of Connecticut, Long Island out to Mountauk, Milwaukee, the Dells, Chicago, more of Goergia than I care to remember, and I'm likely leaving something out.

But I never really feel at ease until I cross that Brooklyn Bridge and grab a bagel at 2AM.

Ruben

 

BTW - Chicago was the hardest place in the Country to drive. I felt like everyone in Chicago has two speeds on their car. Full Throttle on, and screetching stop off. You guys are worse than Israelis.

Ruben

 

Have you ever been to Maine?

 

Nope - not even the White Mountains. The Peaks are very high there and the Skiing I hear is great.

Ruben

 

White Mountains are in New Hampshire which are beautiful. Sugarloaf in Maine touts the most verticle feet of skiing in New England http://www.sugarloaf.com/TheMountain/.

Mt. Kahtahdin is something out of this world, highest in Maine. http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=150219 Which is inside Baxter State Park.

And everyone should see Acadia Natl. Park. http://www.acadiamagic.com/

My point being Maine is someplace you should visit, these are only a few of the beautiful places to see. And most of the northern part of the state is unpopulated with no established towns just townships http://www.aroostook.me.us/indexhome.html. Biggest county east of the Mississppi.
Even hosted a war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroostook_War

 

October is still a little while away, but I would love to make it to this show. I think it said around 150 dealers, very nice, and its a pretty quick trip for me on Metro-North.

 

That is unbelievably cheap!