This was my second visit to the American Airlines Flagship Lounge, as I had visited on day 13 of my trip, and I was very excited to be back. I was one of the first to enter the lounge for the day and was given my special card to use to be allowed onto this luxury floor. I must warn my two loyal readers that there is quite a lot of mention of food in this post.

First it was time for a quick shower in one of their decadent bathrooms. I had to be smart for a decent lounge like this.

Then I got some pick and mix to go along with my welcome drink of a mimosa. What a time to be alive….

This was just what I needed after a week of excess in Las Vegas. I say excess, it was hardly the Hangover movie, but there we go.

This is pretty much the perfect breakfast for me.

I can still remember this plate of food, pure luxury. I didn’t sit far from the food. I was quite amused that a staff member went on for some time that the omelettes were coming soon as the chef was coming out to make them. She told everyone where they’d need to queue and explained it was best to get in first before the wait. I’m not really an omelette person so I focused on devouring capers and chorizo, but I thought that I’d watch the rush and the countdown for opening. Let’s just say that the rush wasn’t quite what the staff member expected. The chef came out, there was no-one there and they went back into the kitchen.

Note that the Americans can cook bacon, all crispy and the fat burnt off, which is the correct way of serving it as far as I’m concerned. My breakfast was all about the cold selection, but there was no shortage of choice here for those who wanted it.

I had seven hours in this lounge, so a lot of it was spent with my laptop whilst occasionally gazing out onto the tarmac.

And it wasn’t always raining.

The boardroom area.

One of the many quieter seating areas and I think this was the easiest lounge I’ve been to in terms of finding a plug to charge my devices at.

The cinema room.

I fell a bit asleep in the cinema room and a staff member came over when I was slightly awake, I initially thought to complain at me. Sleeping in lounges is a bit controversial, as is evident from the latest discussion about the matter on the BA forum of Flyertalk. However, she wasn’t complaining at all, she wanted to let me know that they had these sleeping areas if I would prefer that. I did.

After my little nap I thought I’d better check the beer selection in the lounge and there were around five craft beer options. This was certainly one of the better efforts that I’ve seen in any airport lounge and although I don’t really drink wine, there looked like an extensive range of those as well.

And then the cakes, as it was starting to get to lunchtime.

For anyone interested, they were delicious.

It’s important to stay hydrated.

And before I knew it, I was ready for lunch and the menus were switched to excite me.

The chicken and prawn dishes were very moreish.

Note the vegetables nearly covering my plate.

A post meal snack and beer.

I sat here pondering that I could happily live in this lounge for a couple of days, or, at a push, around ten months.

Not long before my flight, so I thought I’d better have a final snack.

I changed my mind and thought I’d better have another final snack. I don’t get to go to Flagship lounges very often.

I thought that this looked exciting, but it seems to just be a cargo aircraft.

With that, it was time to leave. It’s fair to say that I’d had a quite marvellous time. I was here on my silver status from BA that I got back in January 2019, with the flight I was about to take costing $9 and some Avios. I’m not sure that BA have made much on me to be honest. With regards to this lounge, it’s one of the finest going and American Airlines should be very proud of it.

I’m really not sure there can be many other cities in the world where the departure gate is packed with these machines crammed in between the seating areas. I was just pleased though that my flight was going as scheduled as it would have caused problems with my itinerary if it had been cancelled or delayed, but all was going to plan. The boarding process was a bit muddled and something of a free for all, which I didn’t quite understand why as there was assigned seating and there’s no problem with getting space for bags in the overhead lockers due to how Spirit charge. I just hung back and waited for the rush to dissipate.

I didn’t pay to pick a seat, but I was randomly allocated a window seat and that suited me fine to have a last look at Las Vegas. I put my backpack in the seat in front of me and there were no issues with having sufficient space or the size of my bag being queried.

These aren’t very clear photos as the window was quite scuffed, but 100 years there was just about nothing here other than a desert floor and likely thousands of snakes prowling around. Today, it looks like this. After watching Las Vegas go by I then fell asleep for most of the flight as there’s not much else to look at in the dark.

This was the best photo that I could get of the aircraft at O’Hare airport after departing. It was another smooth flight, everything was on time, the crew were friendly and they were selling plenty of food and drink to passengers from what I could gather during the brief times that I was awake. For the price paid, I was suitably impressed with my first two flights with Spirit and I’d use them again if I’m back in the United States. I was also surprised and delighted that the arrivals gate was just a two minute walk to the American Airline Flagship lounge. As this was a red eye flight I was pleased not to have to navigate anything complex and it feel strange not having to go through the security process again at O’Hare due to how American airports work.

After a pleasant several hour long visit to the American Airlines Flagship Lounge I was pleased to note that the gate area for the flight to New Orleans was spacious and comfortable. The flight was leaving on time and was expected to get into New Orleans at just after 19:00 and as a spoiler, I’m pleased to say that it did with no delays. It had been a relaxing day and I thought quite productive (not just in terms of eating through their menu), but I was getting quite tired by this point despite my little nap in the lounge.

I was able to get an emergency exit row seat, although was sitting in the middle, which I had picked as I realised that there’s something called Main Cabin Extra on American Airlines that had nearly entirely passed me by. These are the seats with extra legroom and also free drinks, and this is an upgrade that can be paid for, but which also comes free with the Silver status that I had with British Airways at the time (now gone I’m sad to report…..).

I boarded fairly early and put my bag into the overhead lockers, a process which is less time consuming than with British Airlines short-haul where it’s like watching a complex game of Jenga as bags are moved in and out. And there’s usually one passenger that tries to fit a bag into the overheads that simply cannot physically fit. It’s entertainment for a while watching the arrangement and seeing the exasperated, but yet ever so polite, looks of the cabin crew. Boarding on American Airlines was efficient and the crew were offering a positively upbeat welcome, it was all very agreeable.

Despite having read up on the arrangement, I still wasn’t entirely sure what I could get on Main Cabin Extra and I was disappointed when the lady seated to the left of me ordered a water. I was hoping to see if she got her drink for free, but as she asked for water then that told me nothing. I asked the crew member if I could get an alcoholic drink and he said that was what I had paid extra for and I most certainly could. I picked the Goose Island IPA which gave me fond memories of my brewery tour in Chicago and that came with a little biscuit snack as well. The lady to my left then said she hadn’t realised she got a free drink, which the man on my right then repeated, leading to a confused crew member as to why three of us had paid for this upgrade that we didn’t understand. In reality, I suspect that the other two just wanted an emergency exit row seat, whereas I was just getting the best free seat that I could.

That’s the best photo that I could get of the A319 aircraft after disembarking. The air bridges make it difficult to get photos, at least with budget airlines they make you walk to the airport terminal which gives an opportunity to take a photo of the aircraft.

And safely into New Orleans airport. I was only planning to be here for two evenings and just one full day because I wanted to visit the national World War II museum. I had missed it on my previous trips to New Orleans as I didn’t have time, but I was determined on this occasion to not just visit, but to make sure that I had sufficient time to see everything. This was my third and final American Airlines flight of this trip and all of them met or exceeded my expectations.

Just to increase the anticipation about the number of posts that there will be about this Goose Island brewery tour, I need to add that the manager here in Chicago told me that the London outlet was soon closing. I wrote about that when I was in Chicago, and the venue is now the Queen’s Head. I’m not sure how many of the same staff are still there, but I hope that it does equally well as Goose Island did and I’m still moderately annoyed at what was apparently a profitable venue (or so they told me in Chicago) was closed.

Anyway, back to my visit. I had a brewery tour booked for later in the day, but they without any quibble just moved it forwards when I asked on entry. The omens were positive….

On Sunday morning, Scott and Deb started back on their drive back up to Wisconsin and kindly dropped me off at Goose Island where I was going on a brewery tour later on in the day. However, the brewery didn’t open for around an hour and so I went to Metric Coffee as there’s not much else to do in an industrial estate in Chicago. This is very on-trend, impeccably well reviewed and also bloody expensive. They’ve even got little hanging baskets to add decoration and excitement to the whole arrangement.

There was no inside seating area, but there were a couple of outside tables free and so I sat there merrily with my laptop. I must admit to positioning it so that no-one could come by on a bike and pinch it, this felt like a high-risk strategy effectively sitting in the middle of the road with little protection from fly-by motorbike. I’ve never really got the hang of sitting outdoors and have little idea why people do it when there’s the option of a lovely nice indoors with no insects and usually lots of power points. I think they like the sun and nature or something.

I think this coffee cost about £5 which was partly down to the exchange rate I must have complained about 25 times on this blog, as well as being a quality establishment which seemed to have some decadent ways of making the coffee. Although I notice someone else queried the pricing (not me), which let to the coffee shop replying:

“As for your comment about price- if you value (like we do) company sponsored health insurance and a living wage for some of the most passionate and dedicated coffee professionals- even 5 dollars is barely enough to cover our expenses- specially with how expensive the cost of every single line item in the value chain.”

There’s a danger of rating a coffee or beer higher highly because it cost more, that feeling of getting what you pay for. However, this one did have a richness of flavour and depth of taste, and my hour or so here did pass quickly so I felt that the value met my expectations. I rather liked the whole experience and if I come back to Goose Island again, which I hope will happen at some point, then I might pop in once more.

It was a little odd that there were so many people getting a coffee to takeaway when there didn’t seem much else going on in the area, but I think some customers were coming out of their way to visit here such is its reputation. And, what else could be expected given that this coffee shop is near to one of the best breweries in the world, the brewery visit that I had been so much looking forwards to…..

It’s not the easiest of treks back from central Chicago on the BNSF railway line as there’s just one train in each direction every two hours at weekends. It’s not ideal. Although I was fortunate that I couldn’t buy a public transport pass at O’Hare when I got there as this service isn’t included. This is outside Western Avenue railway station and the skyline of Chicago is in the background.

A pigeon and it wasn’t clear what I could do to help it, if indeed anything. I should have saved some of my McDonald’s if I had known.

Buying tickets for this service in advance is impossible if you don’t have a US phone as for reasons unknown to me (and indeed the Chicago public transport authority who run the service) they’ve blocked access to the app to foreigners. At the same time, they’ve shifted the ticket purchase system for BNSF to the Ventra app which is blocked, including putting all of the special offers on it. Great planning as they also advertise these offers to visitors to the city from around the world. For those who haven’t been able to pay on-line, tickets for the BNSF line need to be purchased at the station itself if ticket facilities are available, but they weren’t here as this station was hardly packed with anything of use. Although there was a bin on each platform, so it could have been worse.

It wasn’t exactly packed with passengers either.

I liked the double decker train when it arrived though, although I’ve been on this some years ago so it wasn’t entirely new. Usually trains in the United States are operated by Amtrak, but this is one of the relatively few exceptions and it’s run by the same company who own the rail lines.

The Burlington reference is a throwback to the Burlington Northern Railroad and the line itself is named after the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

I like double decker trains and I headed upstairs. The conductor walks through the middle on the lower section and does the ticketing for both levels from there. After reaching up to give me my change and ticket, the conductor wished me a pleasant time in Chicago, it was all rather convivial. My bag needs some repairs incidentally.

It’s shiny and quite lovely. I do like these great behemoth trains, they sound like a proper piece of engineering on rails to me. And there’s a big step to the platform to add just a little more excitement to proceedings, although I’d note that there are disabled access carriages as well across all rail services in Chicago.

And off it goes having set me down at Brookfield railway station. The line runs from Chicago Union station all the way to Aurora transportation centre, which is just to the west of Naperville.

Scott, Deb and I were refreshed with gossip, food and drink and so were planning to do something in the afternoon around Chicago. I had no specific ideas, but thought it might be rather lovely to go somewhere that I couldn’t usually reach with public transport. Then I saw that Waterfall Glen was well reviewed as a nature reserve, so I expected something like the above photo, which is Niagara Falls.

We were able to park for free in the large car park and so we set off, with me promising that this was genuinely a short walk and not 100 miles. Have I mentioned that I walked 100 miles?

I tried to make it look as though I had been walking through woodlands, although I obviously wasn’t as I imagine that this was packed with snakes ready to jump out at me. I’ve been watching TikTok videos of a snake catcher in Australia and I feel that I’m getting more ready to tackle any snake that surprises me, but I don’t feel ready yet to go hunting them.

This wasn’t quite the thundering tributary that I had been expecting.

Some trees. I don’t know what they are and this isn’t a nature blog anyway.

I might have uploaded this photo to Facebook to suggest that we had walked 6.5 miles which it’s fair to say would be a slight exaggeration.

I could almost heard the thundering waterfall now and I was pleased to have navigated us to the right spot. I was wondering whether there might be a cafe at this major tourist attraction.

I was sceptical that the waterfall was going to be quite as thundering as I had expected given that the river was mostly dried up.

Here’s the puddle that the waterfall was cascading down from.

I had expected more white water from the waterfall that was coming crashing down. There was no cafe.

And here is the waterfall. It’s not exactly Niagara Falls is it?

I did wonder whether it might be more appropriate to rename Waterfall Glen into Trickledown Glen.

The landscape after years of being bombarded by the trickle of water gently caressing the rock.

Here’s the information panel and I note that the creators of this site originally called it Rocky Glen. Yes, this is more bloody appropriate than Waterfall Glen. I didn’t say anything though, I wouldn’t want to upset the locals who might be proud of their collection of puddles.

Deb had heard good things about this chain, which I must admit that I hadn’t previously been aware of, despite them having over 600 locations across the United States. Note the recently tarmacked exterior, they’d been getting some complaints about trips and falls. One customer noted:

“That being said, it’s dangerous just to come here! There are Giant potholes EVERYWHERE. It’s litterally not safe for your car to come through the drive thru. And if the outside is this bad, it makes me question the integrity of the inside and it’s standards.”

I was a little disappointed to not actually see this showcase of potholes.

I’d note firstly that this was food for three of us, not just me. I had to look up the difference between a steakburger and a hamburger, with the latter being made up of minced beef rather than individual cuts of beef, although I’m unsure if there’s much differentiation here. Anyway, I really liked this, the beef was juicy and rich in flavour, the fries were thin and crispy and the Dr Pepper was bottomless. The prices were reasonable and there were plenty of special offers available, with the whole offering being better than McDonald’s in terms of quality and not much more expensive.

The environment was generally clean, although the floor was one of the stickiest that I had encountered which I think is down to the presence of lots of spilled drinks rather than some overly adhesive cleaning product. The service was friendly, with customers ordering via a self-service machine and then the staff member calls out the order number when it’s ready.

I’d definitely go back to this chain if I was in the United States and I see that they’re trying for an expansion into Europe. The real problem here is potentially their name. They don’t serve steaks, they’re a fast food burger restaurant, but that’s not what the company name suggests to a European market at least. They did open in Chester in the UK in 2016, but that restaurant closed after two years and I’m not sure that this concept is easily transferable. It also seems that the company have spent years battling their franchise holders, something which rather did for Quiznos, my favourite sub fast food chain.

I was pleased to try somewhere new though, a good choice from Deb ? This location is the one at 1520 Ogden Avenue, 60515.

After the minor disasters of the previous evening, all was soon well once again on the morning of day 14. I had breakfast at the hotel, and more of that in another post, before Scott and Deb came to meet me at the hotel. We didn’t have much of a plan, so decided that we’d drive (more specifically we decided Deb would drive) to Naperville, which is in the metro area of Chicago, but is 45 kilometres away from the city centre. Given the whole pandemic situation, I hadn’t been to the United States since 2019 and I think that’s when I last saw Scott and Deb.

It’s a pretty town which is centred around the DuPage river which runs through it, which has been rather beautifully landscaped. The town is named after its founder Joseph Naper, who created the settlement here in 1831. It’s something of a shame that countries are so heavily settled today that it’s unlikely there are many new towns created by individuals, these things tend now to be organised by Governments. I suspect I’d struggle to create a little town near to North Walsham given the planning restrictions and likely angry neighbours. Anyway, I digress, although I like the name Whiteville. Takes me back to the days of Sim City.

We meandered down the river which was suitably clean and calm, I think there’s a fair bit of money in this part of the country.

Beautiful and I was very reassuring to Scott and Deb that I wouldn’t take them on a walk of over 25 kilometres.

The bridge over the river.

The Millennium Carillon, an observation tower and bell tower.

We were here on 1 October (I accept I’m very behind with this blog) when it was all closed up for winter, although I’m sure it’s all quite vibrant during the summer months. Scott and Deb are from Wisconsin, so they’re used to everything outdoors being cold and shut during the winter months.

Walking back along the other side of the river, merrily catching up on gossip.

The town’s farming heritage is commemorated here.

The millennium wall and labyrinth, installed at the beginning of the century. The wall “stands proud and strong for the thousands of people who lived in Naperville at the turn of the third millennium” and the labyrinth is to “mark the unity and continuity of life”. We were fortunate with the weather, it was warm, whilst there was a gentle wind to ensure that I didn’t overheat.

A war memorial commemorating all those from Naperville who have died in military conflicts since 1812.

Very powerful imagery.

I thought it was Morecambe and Wise at first, but it’s actually the visionaries behind the riverwalk which was planned in 1986.

A lifetime together, a slightly over-sentimental statue perhaps, the story of this is at https://www.centurywalk.org/impact/art_details.cfm?artID=19. I did like how much artwork that has been placed in this area, it adds some atmosphere and interest to proceedings.

For the evening meal, after our busy day chasing puddles on the waterfall trail, Scott and Deb chose Connie’s Family Restaurant which proved to be a very good choice. Established in 1944, it’s a well reviewed traditional American restaurant which is family owned and operated that is open relatively long hours, from 07.00 until 22.00 every day.

I can’t say that this is rare in the United States, but I did think that the menu was too large for the size of the restaurant. Although, having noted that, the food they served was excellent, but I do wonder whether they need such a breadth of dishes. I’m afraid that the name of the restaurant has escaped me, but when I was three (so just over 15 years ago….) I do know that I went to a restaurant chain in the United States and the whole stylistic element of this menu reminded me of that (I’d add that the menu must have come back with me from the United States, I don’t have an encyclopaedia memory of past menus). All very exciting.

As is common in these family restaurant style set-ups, there is a free soup provided to start with and also a heap of crackers and breads are carefully heaped up on the table. This is the United States, they can also pile up butter without people complaining that there’s not a clear calorie count available.

The bacon blue burger with, well, bacon and blue cheese, as well as the heap of fries and salad on the side. Incidentally, let me mention once again that the United States know what to do with bacon, it should be streaky, crispy with the fat nicely burnt. Delicious. Also, I liked the subtle gherkin at the back, this should be included with all burgers. Indeed, this burger meal is set out just as I would serve it, with the meat being cooked appropriately to medium. Note Scott’s heap of chicken in the background and they’re his vegetables, I would hardly ordered those.

The service was as expected in the United States, which was attentive, personable and welcoming. The surroundings were dated, but I think that’s part of the concept with a family restaurant, it’s about being homely rather than necessarily on-trend. Although the restaurant is located in a suburb of the enormous city that is Chicago, this still felt like a venue in a quiet backwater and retained its charm because of that.

I didn’t feel the need to go for a dessert, not least as the portion sizes of the starter and main had meant that unnecessary. But they were, of course, available in a cabinet near to the bar. I didn’t delve too deeply into the beer options here as I noticed the rather generic nature of the selection, with a limitless coke seeming more suitable in any event. I was also aware that the next morning I was embarking on a pilgrimage to the holy land of Goose Island.

A very good choice and if I was in the area again, I’d merrily return here.