Chicago day 2

Today was a long and exhausting day but a good one! I started the morning with a long walk across a lakefront, down a river and through a city filled with amazing buildings, ending up at Millennium Park. Some awesome sculptures and many photo ops, including trying out the panoramic feature on my iPhone.

Back to the hotel after having lunch near the Trump tower, and it was time for my presentation to the teachers. I’ve been to many publisher previews in my time as a bookseller at Indigo, and usually the biggest thing I come away with is a renewed passion for books (not to mention a million new titles I want to read). That’s due in part, I think, to the people who work for the publishers – they believe in the books they’re selling and are excited to share that with people. Well, today for the first time I got to share my excitement about what I do with people. People who actually understand what these books are all about! So that was a great thing. With so many books and little time, we really tried to choose books that teachers would find useful, that they could best recommend to their students, or that they would consider using in classes. I’ll go into more detail on these specific books in a later post (it’s been a long day!), but I just hope the teachers went away with one or two titles in mind that could help with their students and their classes.

After the presentations many of us went on an architectural boat tour… right through the centre of the city, on the river, on a boat!

ABTA adventure!

The tour was breathtaking as I tried to take in all the details about almost every tall building surrounding us. It seems everything in Chicago has a story, and the history of the city is right there in front of you every turn you take.

I also got to try a local craft beer called Revolution golden ale, brewed right here in the city. It was very refreshing. 

Kathie MacNab and I enjoying a pint on the boat.

After the tour, we went for dinner at a highly-recommended restaurant called Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab. The name says it all. Amazing.

Tomorrow we find out (and I get to present a trophy to) this year’s winner of the Teacher of the Year. And in the evening, the winner of this year’s ABTA Book of the Year is also announced. Whether we win or not, book awards are always a good thing.