The Island

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This is a picture of the view from our cabin on the Maine island on which I spent almost the entirety of last week. This picture was taken at about 6:30 AM, as the mist began to rise off the lake and dissipate into the cool Maine air.

The island is owned by Craig Larsen and his family and is roughly an acre in size. Made up mostly of trees and large rocks, there's room only for a small cabin, which Craig's grandfather built by hand, and a small outhouse that's no longer used. The island has no running water or electricity, and it's very difficult to get a cellular signal. The cabin does have a toilet, but there's no water line to feed it, so you have to go down to the lake and fill up a bucket of water in order to flush it. We typically started our day by taking a bath in the lake - on the other side of the island is a large flat rock with a sandy area adjacent to it. I would place my toiletries, towel and clothes on the rock, jump in the lake and scrub up with a bar of soap and some shampoo. As soon as the soap started making a lather, smallmouth bass and perch would swim out from their hiding places near the rock.

The small boat in the photo was our only means of transportation to and from the island. It took between 20 and 30 minutes to get to the mainland, depending on the amount of weight in the boat.

Chicago Is My Kinda Town, Especially at $130 a Night

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The view from my hotel suite

So I made it into Chicago last night, pretty much without incident. (I'm running a panel today about behavioral marketing for the Chicago Internet Marketing Association.) I arrived at Hotel 71, a hotel that was recommended to me, pretty late last night to find out that it was one of those ultra-swanky places. I had my usual air travel garb on (Allman Brother T-shirt, jean shorts, sneakers without socks) and looked a bit underdressed as women slinked by in cocktail dresses and whatnot. Anyway, I went to the check in desk and told them I had reserved a room through Hotels.com. The woman at the desk told me my room was unavailable.

As I was about to launch into my best Noo Yawka "What the F--K?" speech, she asked me if I would be interested in upgrading to a suite at no charge. Next thing you know, I go up to the 15th floor and check into a room that's easily twice (probably 3X) the size of my NYC apartment. It's got a huge bedroom, cavernous lounge area, a walk-in closet and a massive bathroom. (And yes, there's a phone in the can for the busy executive who needs to cut deals while he's doing a #2.) All of this for $130/night.

The photo on the left is the river view from the suite. Nice, huh?