Chicago - The Windy City

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Our US vacation didn't get off to the best of starts. Before we left Brighton to head up to Heathrow, we discovered our flight had been cancelled! We got ourselves booked onto the following day's flight and made our way to London. Thanks for the lift Phil! At Heathrow we were rescheduled again and put onto a flight to Dallas with a connection to Chicago. Getting on the plane we were amazed to find we had been upgraded to Business Class!! Such luxuries we could never have dreamed of. The plane had to wait 90 minutes on the ground waiting for a departure slot so we sat there sipping complimentary champagne. It was such a comfortable flight but unfortunately the delay meant we missed our connection to Chicago. Ironically we flew over the Windy City to get to Dallas which was pretty frustrating and made us wonder exactly why our flight had been cancelled. Their excuse of "volcanic ash" didn't really wash as British Airways were able to fly their route to Chicago. So, after a night at a Dallas airport hotel, we finally got to Chicago the next day where our friend Mark was waiting for us.

We met Mark and Abbey when we were teaching in Argentina. They got married last year but we couldn't make it over for the wedding so we made them the first stop of this trip to make up for it. It was so good staying in their condo and meeting their lovely dog, Hugo, who became such a part of our life during the week! After a short rest we went out with Mark and Hugo to stretch our legs on the beach alongside Lake Michigan.

On our first full day in the city we went to the Adler Planetarium. It was amazing to see all of the exhibits. Russ got to try the "moon gravity simulator" and Trish got to drive the "Mars robot explorer" which was cool. There were countless parties of school-kids which became a feature of the week! Even so, we had a fantastic time in there, especially as it was free on a Tuesday!!

In the afternoon we had a look around part of the city centre and saw the open air artwork in Millennium Park. The Chinese artwork was most unusual! A real highlight was the object known locally as "The Bean". This strange sculpture is highly reflective and you get some peculiar views of the city's skyscrapers by looking at it. See the photos to see what we mean.

That night we had the amazing experience of going to the Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs. Although they lost (!) we had a great time. Mark and Abbey were on hand to answer our many questions about baseball and it seemed a much more exciting game than last time we went in Toronto. Hope you like the panoramic image at the top of the page with our baseball pics!

The next day we wanted to do a boat trip along the river to see the city's architecture. The weather in Chicago wasn't exactly kind to us for most of the week and the buildings were shrouded in low cloud. The boats were also full of school-kids which put us off somewhat. Instead we got a good soaking doing our city walk and dived into a few buildings to see the lavish interiors. It was rather bizarre to see sculptures by Picasso and Miro in the streets. The evening saw us take a stroll out to an Indian vegetarian restaurant which was amazing.

After phoning to see if the boats would be full of kids again (they were!) we did a walk around the Wrigley Field area. That took us into Gracelands cemetery where we saw the graves of important Chicagoans like Pullman (rail coaches) and Pinkerton (detective agency). We got told off for sitting on the grass and eating our sandwiches!! Mark and Abbey made us some fabulous pizza later on!

The sun finally came out for us on Friday morning. Abbey took the day off and went with us to the Northern suburbs. There we saw the magnificent Baha'i Temple which was both beautiful and tranquil. We also had a nice walk alongside Lake Michigan. In the evening we went to Transistor, a quirky photographic/book shop where we watched the moving film Born Into Brothels.

Our final day in Chicago began with a trip to the local farmers market but most of the products had sold out before we got there! We did manage to sample some cheeses, biscuits and apples, as well as some delicious ice cream. After that we walked into the city centre and took the super-fast lift (elevator!!) to the 96th floor of the John Hancock building. There we had a lunchtime beer and admired the vistas of the city. We wrapped up Chicago with a stroll along Navy Pier, but we didn't go on the big wheel!!

For our final evening we went out to an Ethiopian restaurant where we feasted on African food eating with our hands, not with knives and forks. It was delightfully messy! We were joined there by some of Mark and Abbey's friends and a good night was had by all. After the meal we retired to a typical Chicago bar for a few beers.

And that was Chicago. We had an amazing week. It was so good to see Mark and Abbey again and we were so sorry to be leaving. Still, we were heading to Las Vegas next so it wasn't so bad!!

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Photos

Pinkerton's Grave
Precursor to the FBI!

Comments

[Abbey]

great pics!
I find the chinese art in the park much more odd than Miro and Picasso. I guess the city is doing it's best to be diverse. Glad you had a good time.

[anonymous]

Hugo
Now if people Google image Hugo there will finally be something t see. Miss you both already.

[Leila]

Wow, this sounds amazing! We're heading around USA in 5 weeks time, and have been looking into attractions in Chicago. This has been really insightful, glad you had a great time!