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Published: October 3rd 2013
Christopher Columbus statue in the museum campus 5am early start today. We need to get to a park and ride station early to park the RV. Drove the 50 odd miles from Union to Forest Park and were lucky enough to find a park! Took us 2 hours of driving to get to the Park and Ride - Chicago traffic! Parking for the day was only $3.
Navigated our way at the CTA - trying to work out the ticket vending machines-sometimes takes a Uni degree! Prices for the Chicago subway are inexpensive $2.25 for a 2 hour ticket. There are only a few lines - not like the NYC subway. Where we are parked is the final stop for the Blue line so it was a 30 minute ride into Chicago where we had to change lines to get to where we needed.
Walked over to the museum district and our first observations were how magnificent Lake Michigan looked today. The lake was so blue and calm. It certainly was a great day to be in Chicago. Blue sky and no wind! Amazing! We have been to Chicago before in 2011 as part of our Route 66 trip but during that trip the wind was
Beluga's at the Shedd aquarium blowing a gale, and the lake had huge waves over 10 feet tall! So today was quite a contrast to that.
We got a few photos of the lake before finding a cafe selling polish sausage - and real polish sausage too! Had a break and enjoyed the views of Lake Michigan before heading to our first destination of the day.
The John G. Shed aquarium is a not for profit organisation that is situated right by Lake Michigan. From the outside you can see this is no regular aquarium - the building is huge. The aquarium has more than 32,500 animals from aquatic habitats around the world on display. We purchased a city pass for $89 each which includes admission into 5 attractions. We have been to numerous aquariums but this one is very different from any other we have visited.
There are 2 floors of exhibits along with a 15 minute 4 D movie experience. We watched a beluga and sea lion show which was not unlike a show you would see at a place like SeaWorld. The aquatic show had views of Lake Michigan right behind the animal pool - brilliant! There was also
Lake Michigan - a perfect dayan extensive Jelly fish show included.
The aquarium has a large educational aspect and is a fabulous place for children. You can sit and eat your lunch watching the belugas, sea lions and dolphins swimming in the underwater viewing poolS. Plan to be here for at least half a day - it will take you that long to see all the exhibits and shows. Some of the exhibits we saw included the Caribbean Reef, the penguins, sharks, the amazing rising Amazon, the Great Lakes, rivers, islands and lakes, polar play zone and the wild reef.
Next was a walk over to the Alder Planetarium - included in our city pass. This planetarium was the first to be built in the Western Hemisphere and is the oldest in existence today. We saw the 3D movie - the cosmic wonder, the telescopes of the early years, Gemini X111 Spacecraft, the universe - a walk through space and time and several other exhibits.
The visit to the Planetarium was a bit rushed as it closed 4pm right on the dot - still we managed to get to see a fair bit. Afterwards we walked on the boardwalk of Lake Michigan
In front of the Field Museumback into the city stopping at Buckingham Fountain for photos and to enjoy the gardens in Grant Park.
Chicago is an extremely clean city. No rubbish to be seen anywhere on the road sides (the garbage bins are solar compactors) and the locals here are very friendly. Three times today while looking at our map for directions people stopped and asked if we needed help. Chicago also feels very safe morning or night we've had no drama and seen nothing to make us feel unsafe in any way.
The city is built around Lake Michigan (which is hard to believe is a lake - it's so massive). Chicago has made great use of their lake - making it the showpiece of the city. Tree lined parks are scattered across the water front - plenty of places to sit and enjoy the natural beauty of the city.
A large population of Chicago are African-American and there is a strong Asian influence too. It is a city with diverse cultures and they all blend together to make this a fantastic place to visit.
We could easy stay for a couple of weeks in Illinois - so much to
Our polish sausage....so yumsee and full of history. You have this amazing city to explore and then you have the country areas all of which is stunning scenery.
Illinois is home to Abraham Lincoln and then you have the best of Route 66! Australians often go to major cities like NYC, San Fran, LA and of course Vegas but often by-pass Chicago..in my opinion it should be a must see on your list!
Downtown we continued our walk to the Willis Tower Sky-deck - 103 floors above the streets of Chicago. You make the trip up in less than 1 minute in the elevator! Up here you get 360 degrees of up to four surrounding states. There is also an enclosed glass ledge balcony - great place to get photos of the Chicago traffic below!
While downtown we found a Garrett Popcorn shop - a Chicago favourite for more than 60 years. Garrett popcorn is handmade in old fashioned copper kettles and they make a selection of gourmet popcorns. We bought a small bag of the famous Chicago Mix which unites the sweet caramel crisp corn with the savoury cheese corn - very delicious. There is a definite skill in
Entrance to the aquariumpackaging up this popcorn - quite an interesting show watching how they shake it up in the bag without spilling one piece of corn.
Even though this city is easy to walk (rather like NYC - nice and flat), we must have walked miles today. Made it back to the car by 8pm...luckily there was a Walmart less than a mile from the train station. We parked here for the night - totally exhausted to even cook dinner.
Another big day in Chicago tomorrow.
Happy travels!
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judith chaffer
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The picture quality is just brilliant!!