Chicago

Hi guys,

It’s Chicago time, baby! We’re heading north! This is my first time leaving the south since I got here, and I’m ready for a change of scenery. Heading to a big city for the first time in a long time was definitely a change, but I enjoyed everything it offered.

Tuesday 17 December

We boarded our first flight to Atlanta, and luckily Mum and I were sat next to each other. The flight took off around 3:30pm and only took an hour, and as soon as we got to Atlanta we had to head straight to the gate for our next flight, which took off at 7:15pm (Eastern time, +1 from MS/NOLA Central time).

We arrived at Chicago O’Hare Airport at around 8pm (back to Central time), grabbed our bags, and headed for the blue O’Hare line into the city. The journey on the blue line took about 30-40 minutes, and then we had to swap to the orange line which we rode for a few stops before getting off at the one nearest to our hotel. After lugging our bags along a few blocks, we finally arrived at our hotel – Best Western Grant Park – at around 10pm.

Due to hangriness on my part, we headed down the road to get some Subway for a very late dinner and took it back to the room to eat. On the way back, it started snowing! It was very windy, though (Windy City living up to its name), so it was being blown straight into our faces. I spent the rest of the night finishing up some blog writing before finally crashing.

Wednesday 18 December

We woke up at around 8am this morning and rugged ourselves up real good since today’s temperature was forecast to be -8C! We took a 20 minute walk up Michigan Avenue towards the Gray Line ticketing office to pick up our tickets for a 4 hour bus tour we wanted to do this morning. After securing tickets, we popped around the corner to Dunkin’ Donuts where we got some egg, bacon and cheese breakfast bagels and hot drinks for breakfast. When we saw the driver get on the bus, we headed over to get on too.

The first half of the tour was around the North Side of Chicago, which was mainly skyrises and streets lined with restaurants. We stopped off at Wrigley Field (Home of the Chicago Cubs), and also at Lincoln Park.

We then returned to the bus stop and shortly after started the South Side tour. We passed through some more city streets, Chinatown, saw the Obama family’s former residence, drove through the University of Chicago’s campus, stopped by the Adler Planetarium to see a great view of the city, and then we eventually headed back to the bus stop where we hopped off the bus.

We then went out in search for some lunch, and we decided on a well-known chain of deep dish pizza restaurants known as Giordano’s. We headed to the nearest one, sat down and ordered a small one each, where I ordered mine with a side of garlic parmesan fries and mum chose a salad. We also ordered an entrée of mozzarella triangles, thinking our pizzas would take ages to come out, but it all came out together and within about 10 minutes of ordering. The food was delicious, and I can definitely see the appeal of deep dish!

After we ate, we headed to the American Writers Museum, and spent a bit more than an hour exploring the exhibits. The museum was dedicated to how writing has shaped America in all its forms, and the development of styles over time. One of the famous writers that was recognised in the first exhibit we walked through was William Faulkner, who was a fiction writer, Nobel Peace Prize winner (for Literature) in 1949, and spent most of his life in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi! Another one of the interactive exhibits included using old-style typewriters, and it gave Mum a bit of a throwback to her schooling days.

Once finished here, we figured out how to use the trains to get to our next destination, passing by the famous Chicago theatre on the way.

We eventually got to 360 Chicago, which is an observation deck on the 94thfloor of the John Hancock Building, with 360 degree views of the city. We got up there just as sunset was in its prime, and the views were absolutely spectacular! We spent a good hour or so up there until we started getting hungry and wanted to head off to dinner.

We caught another two trains to get into Greektown, where we found a Gyros shop to have dinner. We both got the #1 combo (regular lamb gyros with tzatziki, tomato and onion, and a drink and fries), and I also grabbed a piece of baklava. The food was fantastic – I’ve missed kebab-like food as there’s nothing really like it in the South.

After dinner, we caught the train back into our station, popped by Trader Joe’s to pick up some groceries, and headed to sleep shortly after getting back to the hotel room.

Thursday 19 December

We were super tired from our big 12 hour day yesterday, so we slept in a little this morning and took a while to get up and ready. We eventually headed out around 11am, and strolled through lower Grant Park to get to Adler Planetarium.

At Adler, we strolled through some exhibitions and watched two shows – “Skywatch Live”, which was about the position of stars in Chicago’s night sky during this time of year, and “Imagine the Moon”, about human exploration of the moon and what we know and wonder about it. We also entered a dome called the “Atwood Sphere”, which was a small dome with little holes drilled in the metal sides that let light in to show the positions of the stars. The dome was constructed around 1913, and while the position of the stars haven’t changed, you can no longer see as many due to Chicago’s current light pollution. A recurring fact that the planetarium shared was that the human eye can see roughly 4,500 stars with the naked eye, but in Chicago’s sky, we can only see about 35. There was also an exhibit in the planetarium that educated on light pollution reduction.

We left the planetarium around 2pm and walked through the park and up Michigan Avenue, splitting off from the main road to grab another Dunkin’ Donuts egg, bacon and cheese bagel for a late lunch. Further up the road, we grabbed some Starbucks, and then headed towards Millennium Park, which is like the Federation Square of Chicago’s inner-city.

We walk up to find a beautiful ice rink right in the middle of the park, people of all ages skating or watching, and jazz-style Christmas music blasting through the speakers. It was starting to get a little darker, so the sun was starting to set and the decorative lights all around were starting to shine more. It was so beautiful, and Mum even started tearing up.

After watching this for a little while, we walked up above the rink to find the famous Cloud Gate sculpture, or “The Bean” as it is more commonly known. It was such a cool structure, and something I’ve wanted to go and see for some time. We snapped a few pics in front of it, walked around the park, and then headed back towards our hotel, grabbing a sandwich and salad to go for dinner.

When we got back to the hotel, we immediately jumped online to see if we could secure some tickets to the Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker show on at the Auditorium Theatre just a few blocks down from our hotel. After looking at a few sites, we weren’t finding anything less than $80, and most were around $130, but at the last minute I stumbled across two tickets going for $44 each! What a score! We headed off around 6:15pm, and the show started at 7pm. Our seats were actually great – we were at the very back of the first level/tier, but the rows raised the further back they went, so we had a perfectly clear and uninterrupted view of the stage. The performances were beautiful and the story was very well told, and Mum and I both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We got back to the hotel around 9:30pm, and spent the rest of the night packing up our suitcases and watching Dr Pimple Popper on TLC (I’m obsessed with pimple popping).

Friday 20 December

We woke up around 8am this morning, packed up our last few things, and headed off towards our two trains of the morning. We were pros with the system now, and the rides went really quick. When at O’Hare, we checked our bags in, went through security, and sat in our departure lounge for an hour or so before being called onto the plane…

Chicago was so beautiful, albeit freezing, but we managed perfectly fine. The feet are a little sore from all the walking around, but it’s not going to stop us from enjoying the next city we’re headed to. Where do you think it might be?

- Emily xx