Chicago, Il, and Rapid City, S.D.

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Arriving in Chicago was a bit nerve racking to say the least. We approached the city at about 10:00pm after spending about 15 hrs. on the road driving from Boston. Needless to say we were both pretty tired so when all of a sudden we were thrown into bumper to bumper 8 lane highway traffic and needed to get to the far right lane to exit the highway. I was definitely feeling uncomfortable and stressed to put it mildly. Of course Dale did an excellent job getting us there safely as per usual. After checking into our hotel we set out to find somewhere to eat and ended up catching the Chicago Blackhawks overtime win that put them into the Stanley Cup Finals. When the winning goal was scored the restaurant/pub went wild! It was quite a sight.

Dale and I didn’t really do much research into Chicago before we left and didn’t have any set plans, so the next morning we decided just to explore the city and walk around. We quickly discovered that our hotel was about a block away from Michigan Ave which is the main street through the city; comparable to Fifth Ave in NYC I would say. We started our walk through the park which is on Lake Michigan. Looking at the Chicago skyline from the lake was very spectacular; the city had so many skyscrapers with both new and old architecture entwined in the city. It was very beautiful. As we walked along the water way we stumbled upon the Chicago Blues Festival which to my amazement was FREE. Apparently many festivals in Chicago are free to the public. The city even built an outdoor auditorium in Millennium Park where the public can come and bring blankets or chairs and enjoy live entertainment throughout the year for free. This was mind boggling to me as events in Vancouver are rarely ever free. It was nice to experience as it felt like Chicago was giving back and showing its appreciation to the people who live in the city. Anyways we walked around the blues festival enjoying the music and looking around the kiosks. After the festival we made our way to Millennium Park where we discovered the auditorium and walkways around the river. We also visited Cloud Gate which is a beautiful piece of art in the park.

For lunch/breakfast Dale wanted to experience the famous Chicago deep dish pizza, so we went to Pizano’s (which as per the menu write up happens to be Oprah’s favorite pizza place!) and had deep dish pizza and a giant chocolate chip cookie for dessert, low calorie of course. After lunch we needed to walk off the food coma so we headed further down Michigan Ave and walked the Millennium Mile which takes you through the financial district, downtown waterways and the shopping district. We walked all the way down Michigan Ave and ended up at a beautiful white sandy beach where we sat for a while on a park bench and relaxed while watching the waves of Lake Michigan.

After yesterday’s long drive and today’s walking Dale and I were very tired so we decided to go for sushi dinner and call it a night.

The next morning Dale and I weren’t sure what we should do with our last day in Chicago since we didn’t do any research, when as luck would have it my friend Crystal sent me a Facebook message saying how she was reading the blog and how Chicago was one of her favorite cities! Of course I emailed her back right away and asked her for suggestions on what we should do today. Crystal recommended Navy Pier and shopping so that’s exactly what we did. We made our way to Navy Pier which ended up being a great suggestion. The pier was a combination of Granville Island meets a carnival meets a museum and we spent a few hours walking around the shops, looking at the glass museum and taking in the views of the city from the water way.

After Navy Pier we headed into the shopping district and shopped for an hour or so. I could see Dale was getting a bit tired of the shopping time, so I thought it best he head back to the hotel while I shopped for a few more hours.

When I got back to the hotel Dale was well rested and I had new outfit for dinner so we headed out to the famous blues club called Kingston Mines. The club had a great old time feel. The atmosphere was casual and fun. Food was self-serve and drinks were a flowing. The club had two rooms where different blues artists would perform and the talent was absolutely incredible. We got to see J.W. Williams and Carl Weathersby. It was a great way to spend our last night in Chicago; we definitely fell in love with the blues scene.

The next morning we woke up the earliest yet, 5:00am. After the insane traffic we experience the night we drove in we decided to get out of the city as ASAP to avoid anything like that again. Although the traffic was better it was still extremely heavy. While Boston has the best public transportation, I will say that Chicago had the worst traffic I have ever experienced.

We drove 13 hours to Rapid City South Dakota where we stayed the night. The next morning we discovered what a neat city we were in, one I would definitely like to go back to. The city has so many things to see including Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, cave exploration tours, mammoth museums and site digs, old western cities and even a drive through wildlife preserve. Dale and I hadn’t done any research on Rapid City and didn’t budget any time for this city so we had to choose only a few items on the list. We chose Mt. Rushmore and Crazy horse. On our way to Mt. Rushmore we came upon a drive through wildlife preserve and on a whim decided to do it. The preserve consists of many acres (I have no idea how many but a lot) of forest and land with a road driving through it. The animals are not caged, but are roaming free all around you as you drive slowly through the park. (The animals aren’t living all together; they are separated into their own acres of living). I asked the park lady if the animals ever ram the vehicles in anger. She giggled and said that they hadn’t done so in quite some time, but they have been known to tear licence plates off vehicles. She reassured us that this didn’t happen “often”. Well we figured the cars already been hit by a deer, so what’s a licence plate?

The first animals we saw were a group of Elk, followed by Big Horn Sheep. They were quite literally a few feet from us. After the Sheep we saw wolves which had gathered at the front of the car in front of us causing a bit of a back-up as the car couldn’t get by. The car would try to move around them but they would just move the same way. Eventually they moved aside and let us through. Mixed in with the wolves were Black Bears. What a sight! So many back bears just roaming around free mere feet away from us. You could almost reach out and touch them, not that we would given their size. We spent a long time just gazing in amazement at these animals. You see them on TV or from afar, but to see them right beside you was something else. What a priceless experience. We also got to see mountain lions and Buffalo all of which were awe inspiring.

After our animal preserve detour we made our way to Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore was not what Dale and I were expecting. All the pictures make the carvings looks so big and incredible, when in reality they are quite small in the mountain. It was nice to see it, but it wasn’t as impressive as we had expected. We didn't stay long before heading to Crazy Horse. I hadn’t heard of this monument but Dale seemed to know what it was so we headed there. Crazy Horse was bigger than Rushmore, although it wasn’t quite finished yet. Still, I can imagine it will be quite impressive when it’s done.

After Crazy Horse we made our way to Butte, Montana, where we stayed the night and wrestled with the idea of weather we should head for Mount St. Helens the next day or home. Both happen to be equal distances…

After talking to my mom on Skype and seeing Levi all snuggled on his bed the choice was obvious.

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Comments

[Michele W]

love the pics
well the wolves have to have some fun...lets piss off the tourists lol.....Love the picture of Levi....so Dale....no Wrigley's Field :( that is a shame...I tried....travel safe you two and see you too soon