From the first look up at the awe-inspiring ceiling of the Palmer House lobby, we knew this would be a special weekend.  It was Chicago at its best - perfect weather, great sights and friendly people, especially our hosts Al and Doris Perez, who made everyone feel right at home.

Being right in the center of downtown, there was plenty to see and do.  Chicago is all about tall, beautiful buildings, and the group saw them from unique vantage points - 94 stories up at the John Hancock Observatory, and below street level from the deck of a boat cruising the Chicago River.  After the on-board guided tour from our Chicago Architecture Foundation volunteer, we'll never look at buildings the same way again.  We also got a history lesson with dinner at Berghoff's on Thursday night, including the iconic post-Prohibition liquor license #1.

A little rain Saturday morning moved everyone indoors, but with some of the country's best museums close at hand, we grabbed a little more culture.  At Saturday's dinner, company poet laureate John Gidmark introduced commemorative verses for Janet Music and Bob Harper.  Then we added another streamer to the company guidon, posed for group photos, and started looking forward to our next get-together in Seattle.

Here's Ted Kim's photo album (you can post comments there, too!).  Click the icon below to see some more pictures.  

Tom Corrigan:  What a fantastic reunion we had in Chicago hosted by Al and Doris Perez. It is a great city to visit and there is no absence of things to do. It was also enjoyable to see Joe Sheyka and Bill Rawlings who live in the greater Chicago area. We even got Bud Park to drive over from Kansas and learned he has family in the area as well.

Doug and Jerri Knight attended their first reunion and they said they plan to be at the next one so we look forward to seeing them again. We have nominated Ted Kim to be our official photographer since he did a superb job taking all our pictures. Kudos to him. All in all, we had over 50 people in attendance!

Although we can never duplicate the emotions we had at our first reunion in Washington DC, I feel that each subsequent reunion has strengthened the bond that we all have towards each other. Our wives and significant others are creating their own bonds which is wonderful to see.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in Seattle the fall of 2012! (Also stay tuned for some male bonding events next year such as CJ's Grand Canyon Rim Walk or Gidmark's Canadian canoe trip. I also may be looking for some participants for the Jeff Taylor Memorial 20 mile bike trip on the Cape. For information on this, ask Taylor, Music or Linn )