Rooms here are pretty steep. The room I had went for a little over $200/night. A little pricey. If you want internet, they have it, for 12 dollars a night. For that fact alone I would not recommend this hotel. You're going to pay a lot of money for basically nothing if you stay at this hotel. Look for a Holiday Inn. The internet there is part of your room.

Work has brought me to the frozen north.  Sort of. 

I traveled to Lincolnshire, Illinois and while there got to take a look around RTC (Recruit Training Command) Naval Station Great Lakes.  The US Navy's only basic training facility.

The base sits on the edge of Lake Michigan in the Waukegan/North Chicago area. 

One of the coolest things I saw there was the USS Trayer (BST 21).  Without going too far into it I can tell you that it is a life-size battle simulator.  The ship is "dry-docked" inside its own building.  It floats in about five feet of water and is tethered to its pier.  Being inside it is just like being inside a 210-foot Arleigh Burke-class Destroyer.  Going through the simulator is actually part of the Navy Basic Training program.  Recruits spend time on the simulator, living, working, eating, and sleeping in it, and at certain times they will be "attacked".  The ship actually simulates being hit by a missile, fires, casualties, etc.  Pretty intense.