#15 Ride a Segway – CHECK!

Back in December, the Groupon gods must have been reading my mind (or my blog) because a Segway Experience Tour landed in my inbox. (Riding a Segway happens to be #15 on my 30 for 30 list.) Of course, I hopped on––no pun intended––this incredible deal, buying two for me and The Fella. For half off of $70, this was a steal! (Never mind that we would have three very cold months in which to use it before it expired.) For any Chicagoans reading this, you are reading between the lines and thinking: are you effin' crazy to think about zipping around on a scooter in the dead of winter???

The answer is yes. And yes. This weekend we took advantage of a miraculous heat wave of 40 degrees; we nixed our original plans to check out a Windy City Roller Derby home match (#20 on my list) in favor of doing a two-hour Segway tour. If you've never done it, DO IT! 

It was the most liberating feeling* I've had in a long time, maybe even ever! I can't ride a bike, but it turns out I sure can ride a Segway! Once you get the hang of standing on a self-balancing piece of motorized equipment on wheels and loosen those hips, you experience a feeling of pure giddiness as you zip around town. It's the equivalent of being a little kid riding a roller coaster, arms flung wide up and out as you scream of pure thrill and joy. (At least that's what I imagine it's like for most people; personally, I'm terrified of coasters and take no pleasure in this.) Gliding around on a Segway is overall pretty easy and smooth (except for the part when you're about to exceed the pre-set 8mph limitation mode and then the machine violently rocks back and forth and you have to consciously fight the urge to lean with it and instead shift in the opposite direction to come to a stop!) Yea, except for that, it's pretty cool and you get to see major landmarks around town.

Here we are starting out on Michigan Ave., just learning how to balance ourselves on a Segway...

And here I am now! Look, ma, no hands!

We're old pros by now, zipping away past Grant Park, down the lake front, and over to Museum Campus Row, passing by the Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum and Sue!

Weaving our way over to Soldier Field now! We've never been to a game here and didn't even know you could just walk (or zip, as in our case) in on a regular day. Was a real treat to roam the innards of our very own Neo-Classical spaceship-shaped stadium!

Gliding now past the frozen marina where boats are usually docked...

And around the bend and over to the Adler Planetarium and a STUNNING view of the Chicago lakefront skyline!

And finally, this is the part where we take a little break from all our fun to hop off, bend our knees, shake things out a bit. Our expert tour guide, Damian, gives us a little surprise (even though it's against policy, shhhh): Do we want to try out "Turbo Mode" now? 

Do I ever?? So off we went, racing each other at 13mph and doing zippy 360 turns all the way down Michigan Ave. back to the shop! And the whole way, I kept going "Wheeeeeeee" like the little piggy in those GEICO tv commercials. Sweet ride!

*I plan to do this again once every year!