Welcome to Chicago!

So..... it was with great excitement that we drove up to Chicago, after having been on the road again for 2+ weeks in some of the hottest weather that either one of us has ever experienced. Fresno in August ~ don't think we need to repeat that experience any time soon! But we sure had fun. 

 

Anyway, back to Chicago. We were excited that we scored a great parking spot, just two buildings down from where our apartment is on N. Christiana Ave. Getting out of the car....well, let it be said that the next moment changed everything in that "welcome to Chicago" excitement that we were enjoying. Steve's keys slid right out of his hands...into the city of Chicago drainage hole. Steve watched the keys "plop" into the water about 8 feet under the sewer drainage grate. UGGGGGGHHHHH!!! 

 

Started chatting with friendly neighbor #1 who was walking his dogs, who suggested that we call 311 (the non-emergency number for the city), which we tried and after 25 minutes of waiting, the woman assured us that the Streets and Sanitation Department for the City of Chicago no longer did emergency runs to help stranded Chicagoans get their keys out of the city sewer. UGGGGGGHHHHH!!! 

Trying to catch the keys with the metal plate and magnet

 

We're standing over the hole, voicing our frustrations to one another, when a friendly woman (who was also walking her dogs....I mean, does everyone in Chicago have dogs that they walk in the late morning hours???!) asked as she walked past us if we had said something to her. No, we replied, just verbalizing our frustrations to ourselves about having the keys in the sewer. Friendly neighbor #2 now goes home (just up 4 houses on our street) and comes back with power tools, a metal plate, a string, and a magnet on said metal plate. We tried swishing the metal plate with the magnet on the string back and forth....then realized to ourselves that it's an old building, so the keys aren't even metal, they're brass and thus won't stick to the magnet. She went back home, brought back a cone to protect Steve from oncoming traffic (it's amazing how fast people drive down the side streets of Chicago), and a rake. We tried swishing the rake around in the sewer hole, this time bringing up lots of yucky leaves (as in really yucky!), then lost the head of the rake in the hole. We're all laughing at this point (at least we're laughing, right??!), saying now we'll have to call 311 again and ask the city to come and retrieve the rake head out of the hole! Friendly neighbor #2 goes back home again and comes back with a metal hanger, and made a killer hook which we then attached to the role pole (at least we still had the wooden rake pole in our hands). Steve kept swishing back and forth, bringing out more and more yucky leaves. And then...well, Barb decided to stand over the hole and pray down into the hole "God, if it's your will for us to have our keys today, we would have them. Amen". And with the next batch of yucky leaves came out something that sparkles. THE KEYS!!! Tossed on the grassy spot next to the car, we carefully picked them up and took them home to be cleaned off dried in the sunlight that was streaming in thru the apartment window that glorious September afternoon (cuz all of this did take some time!) 

A set of keys has never looked so good to us ~ and the car keys still work!

 

Best moment of it all....when Barb decides to witness to the veiled woman and her husband and little boy who were walking by about how great God is and telling the story of how we prayed that God would give us back our keys. BTW, the apartment is beautiful, especially in the afternoon when the sun comes streaming in the living room windows! God is great! At all times. When he protects us on the highways with flat tires, and when he gives us back our keys from sewer, when he wakes us up in the morning to meet the challenges of a new day, and when he gives us moments to share with supporters about his goodness in all spaces. 

Just so you know....we are having some beautiful memory building moments while in the US!

Keeping up the cardamon rolls baking skills while outside of Sweden ~

Found this sweet coffee/tea shop in Appleton, WI ~ name of the place:  FIKA!

 

Oh yeah....and we also retrieved the rake head out of the hole just before the keys came up.  No need to call the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation again!