Chicago trip

This is the best time of the year to visit Chicago. Beautiful skyline from the lake shore. It's a business trip that we have to stay in three different places.

The first place is the AmeriSuite Vernon Hills. It's about 20 miles north of the city in a nice suburb area. It's about 3 miles to the Vernon Hills MetroRail station on the North Central Service line. You may park there for free and the train ride to the Union Station is about 50 minutes. Unfortunately, the hotel shuttle won't go there, so rent a car is needed. The hotel is within walking distance to many big shopping centers in the area.

The hotel staff is nice and friendly. Hot breakfast is one of the best I've seen among those providing it for free. The room is relatively small for a suite but it does have a pull out sofa in the not so separate living area along microwave, frig, and sink. Again, the living area and bedroom are not really separate with the TV in the middle so both sides can view the same TV. Bathroom has a fan that works well but pretty loud. There is a mid-size pool without Jacuzzi. Fitness room is also small.

Main complain: our room is next to the elevator which is very noisy when it's moving. It sounds like a huge AC unit next to you. Since a kids summer camp was there over the weekend, so we can't switch room.

Since the Q-Center is full and we have to stay in theCountry Inn in St. Charles. It's about 5 miles from the Q-center and the shuttle bus does go there. Since we're the only one use the shuttle that day, the manager used his own car to pick us up at the end of the day. Like him, everybody in the hotel are very nice. We stayed in their King suite room. Similar to the AmeriSuite, the Country Inn is also located in a shopping area in a nice suburb. It's a much nicer hotel but smaller. The room is big, two separate TV for the completely separate living and bedroom rooms. The king bed is very comfortable and there's also a ceiling fan in the living room where the AC is hard to reach if the bedroom door is closed.

The breakfast is also hot but not as good as the AmeriSuite. The fitness room and the pool are very small but Jacuzzi works fine.

The room key always needs to be reset at the front desk, which is not very convenient. It also only have wired high-speed Internet. Wireless would be better.

The last place we stayed is the Q Center. I have mentioned earlier that it's the only thing left running in the Mighty Arthur Anderson. The staff are professional and nice. The meeting area is super and it has WiFi throughout the big complex. The standard rooms are extremely small.