april 15th is my birthday I'll be coming back in town for the weekend, so if you're planning a meet and I'll be there

 

Yeah I'd probably be up for the UBAB in Schaumburg. Julia is a pretty cool girl so my guess is that she'll come along too (maybe she'll be my passenger for FWT...MAYBE). We do have an IKEA here in Minnesota but I haven't gone to it yet so maybe I will check it out while out there since its near the hotel.

 

OK, well we made our hotel reservations tonight. Looks like we'll we at the La Quinta Inn in Elk Grove Village. As far as I can tell this seems like a farily decent area, but I just want to make sure my S will be safe sitting at both the hotel and the nearest (where is it?) comuter train station since we'll probably be taking that into Chicago. I really preferred the Schaumburg hotel, but she really wanted this one (I think because it was closer to downtown and hopefully a shorter train ride). Its all about making them happy right

 

It's not the best neighborhood, but by no means is it Cabrini Greenes Housing projects, but the area isn't averse to car theft.

Honestly, Schaumburg would have been a better location and the extra 10 minute drive would definitely worth the peace of mind. Price-wise, both areas are the same. Elk Grove hotels book market value pricing due to the close proximity of O'Hare, while Schaumburg hotels do it for the nearby shopping.

One more thing to consider, if transportation to the trains is the concern, do know that there is a Schaumburg "PACE" bus/shuttle service that should take you to either the Cumberland or the Elgin train stations.

One more note, on quick web search of three Schaumburg hotels, all three offer shuttle service to train stations upon request. This way, you can leave the car in the hotel parking lot and not have to park at either the Cumberland station (which is most likely where you'd be catching the train) or at the Des Plaines hotel.

There's yet one more option...PM me about it. It involves coming to visit one of the local S2000 owners and using his/her driveway to park the car in while you're in Chicago and get a ride to and from the closet train station.

 

Check out http://www.metrarail.com for info and track maps.

I'm not sure where your hotel is.

 

The LaQuinta Inn is at the intersection of Golf Rd (Rt. 72) and Oakton St. Just south of the intersection is Busse Rd. This hotel is less than one mile north of the most north landing strip of O'Hare airport and about two miles west of Allstate Arena. Across the McDonald's, and next to the Spaghetti Factory.

How's that for point of reference Pete?

 

Well, I'm leaving in about an hour and so far the weather forcasts are looking good with temps in the 70's I got the S all shined up yesterday....if anyone sees a Berlina with Minnesota plates wave

 

I just got back after the 1165 mile all total drive (top down at least 3/4 of that). Chicago was a great time and the weather turned out really nice. I saw more nice cars and S2k's this weekend than I have in the last year. On Friday night I got some pizza at Gino's East and did some beer drinking at Rock Bottom. Satuday I just did a lot of walking around...I guess kind of the tourist thing to do, ate some great Italian in the 'burbs, drove around downtown at night (State St. mainly) then drank a lot of wine in the hotel room with the g/f. Sunday, I caught a Sox game then headed out of town back to MN.

S2000's I recall seeing:
Spa east-bound on 90 - Saturday late AM
silver (red at 9k plates) in Chinatown - Saturday afternoon
Spa with OEM lip in Chinatown - Saturday afternoon
Berlina in downtown (heading toward State) - Saturday evening (~9-10ish)
many, many more!