Flakes on a Train

Having lived in Chicago for the better part of a decade, my view of the city's bright lights and gleaming skyscrapers has dimmed and dulled. Instead of shopping and sightseeing, I spend the better part of most days working and sitting in traffic or on transit. So I couldn't help but smile when I overheard snippets of phone conversations on the Amtrak this morning. I was heading to St. Louis, surrounded by a group of teenage girls from nowheresville, Missouri. They thoroughly enjoyed their trip and were eager to share the highlights with their friends and relatives back home. To the people on the other end of their wireless connection, they gushed:

"The restaurant we went to was so fancy, they actually took reservations!"
"I'm gonna save up my money so that, when I come back, I can rent a Segway!"
"They put an awful lot of stuff on their hot dogs!"
"Cirque Shanghai was more like a show than a circus, cuz it didn't have any animals."
"That car I saw from the Sky Deck was a Transformers car! They're filming the actual movie right in the middle of downtown, and I saw the set!"
"The Macy's stores have multiple floors here! Like, more than two!"
"Did you know that you can see Michigan and Indiana from Navy Pier?"

Ah, how I long to be wide-eyed and wondrous again, to be able to see this city through the eyes of a teenage tourist.