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Published: September 15th 2015
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Before bestie T et moi take on the road trip proper, we decided to fly into Chicago for a spell. Our occasional third travel musketeer, Auntie A, joined us for the Chicago bit. (And is it still "musketeer" when we is all refined ladies? Should it not be Musketrixes? Musketrettes? Or are we just going gender neutral with this? I digress.) We arrived on September 10 and left obscenely early on the 13th. Here's what we did:
1) Architectural river tour (everyone's favourite, even though it rained the whole time)
2) Hop-on, hop-off (Big Bus) a few times - we got the 48hr pass with the intention of using it often to get around to the main sites, but in the end it was more efficient to walk so that's what we did. Still worth it to do the circuit once to get a lay of the land and a number of historical tidbits. We did this first and were glad we did.
3) Adler Planetarium (awesome)
4) Field Museum of Natural History (nice, but after having been to the Museum of Natural History in New York, Field doesn't quite measure up)
5) Walks through Grant
and Millennium Park (amazing x 2). Loved the Bean. You do parks right, Chicago.
6) Walked or HOHO'd to/by: Magnificent mile, Pump House/Water Tower, Navy Pier, Start of Route 66, Chicago Theatre, Buckingham Fountain, Soldier Field, Sears Tower.
7) Rode the "L"...it was way slower than we thought, and we just rode in a circle, but still cool. Because we're tourists and Canadian tourists at that we made sure to read every sign on the way in to the "L" station because a) it's polite to follow directions and b) we didn't want to accidentally end up at the airport. It also meant that we were the only two people on the train who knew that the brown line wasn't running all the way to Kimble and if you wanted to get there you had to switch to the red line at the State/Lake station. We got to tell that to people. A lot.
If we had more time: The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Unforgetables" mobster tour, one of the Frank LLoyd Wright house tours. I'd skip Field completely in place of any of these other three options.
Best tip: The Downtown is actually totally
walkable. Superbly organized grid-system for the streets and it's really easy to get your bearings by just looking towards the lake. Also the raised "L" track loop is so easy to spot even from a distance that I don't actually think it's possible to get lost walking around. Our hotel was located on the eastern edge of the loop and from there you could easily walk 30 min in any direction to hit a major attraction.
The indulgences: Chicago-style hot dog (relish, mustard, sport peppers, onions, fresh sliced tomatoes and a spear of dill pickle on a steamed poppy seed bun). I have been indoctrinated into the "no ketchup on a hotdog" cult (resistance was futile) and am now obsessed with sport peppers. WHERE have you been all my life you gloriously spicy little bastards? Since we are actually in Chicago, it should not surprise us that a Chicago-style hotdog here is just called a "hotdog". But it did. We also tried "stuffed" pizza (otherwise known as Chicago-style deep dish). Also ridiculously good. The sauce is on top. Like on top of everything. I can tell you that it does indeed belong there.
The verdict: Big thumbs up. Besides being an absolutely beautiful city (even in the rain), every Chicagoan we met while oot and aboot was friendly and helpful. We were utterly charmed.
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:D
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What on EARTH are "Sport Peppers", do they travel well, and if so,and can you bring some back for me!?! ? Mwahs!!