Chicago, Illinois

We flew from Nashville to Chicago on Tuesday 20th September, and this time our bags managed to arrive at the same time as us. Will wasn't visiting any universities in Chicago, instead, it was a launching pad for our trip to East Lansing, Michigan to visit Michigan State University. For our first two nights in Chicago we stayed at an Air BnB apartment in the Gold Coast area, within walking distance of the city centre. The apartment was on the 26th floor and had awesome views over the city.

It was a beautiful day when we arrived, so we ended up going for a long walk along the shores of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is the third largest of the five great lakes, and the only one located entirely in the United States. 

We ended up at Navy Pier  just as the sun was starting to set and spent a couple of hours hanging out there.

We didn't feel the urge to join in the exercise class... It looked a bit too much like zumba for my liking, so far beyond my coordination capabilities!

It was very pretty with the sun glancing off the mirrored surfaces of some of the hi-tech skyscrapers. There is some interesting lens flare in the pics below!

There was lovely soft light as the sun went down

Then pretty sparkly lights once the darkness set in.

Will had fun taking photos of the coloured fountain in front of the pier.

The next day involved lots more exploring on foot. It is a beautiful city with some lovely architecture. The Chicago Tribune building was impressive. It contains stone and rock fragments from famous buildings from all over the world.

We decided we wouldn't want to be having to escape from the top of this building via the fire escape!

Here are a couple more cool buildings. I do like the gothic (neo-gothic?) style of architecture.

We loved the Cloud Gate sculpture and spent a while playing around with photos. We are actually in all of the photos below, you just need to look carefully in some of them to find us!

Our wanderings did take us past the huge big Apple store, where I might have bought myself a nice new shiny toy... I love tracking my exercise, but my second fitbit within a year recently broke, and I didn't want to take a chance on a third. The clincher for me was that the Series II Apple watch is water-resistant so you can wear it in the shower or when swimming. It will even track laps of a pool when swimming which is cool. One of my favourite features is using Google Maps with it. It will count down how many meters to go before you need to make a turn, then vibrate when you need to turn left or right. This has been brilliant for exploring cities, and means I don't need to walk around with my phone out. Getting notifications of calls, and being able to read text messages and emails on the phone is another bonus. Suffice to say, I love it! By the way, check out how unseasonably warm Chicago was for late September! It is known as the windy city, but we mostly had blue skies, sunshine, and hardly any wind for our first couple of days there.

On Thursday we took a train to East Lansing, Michigan, but I'll write about that in the next post. We returned to Chicago via train on Sunday 25th September. I had found an amazing deal at the Sofitel Chicago (approximately 70% discount!) so we spent our final two nights in luxury (for us, anyway!). It really was a good hotel, with the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in.

After checking into the Sofitel on Sunday we then had another afternoon of exploring. It is a fabulous city just to walk around. There is a lot of public art around the place, including the interactive billboard waterfalls below which were very cool.

When we were leaving Nashville our Uber driver who took us to the airport told us we had to try some Garrett Popcorn which is a Chicago institution. You can smell the shops long before you see them. I'm not usually a fan of caramel popcorn and often find it sickly sweet. However, this wasn't, probably due to the fact that they take the caramel quite a long way until it is very dark. The caramel coating is also super thin and crispy. Yep, it really was that good!

There is always time for selfies when exploring cities! Especially when we come across rose gardens, which we seem to quite frequently... Looking back at these pics I can't believe how shaggy and in need of a cut my hair was! The last cut was over 3 months ago in California. Oh well, my hair is really the least of my worries when travelling...

We headed back to the hotel as the sun started to set

It did amuse as that the positioning of the sun managed to turn Trump Tower into Rump Tower!

There are parts of Chicago which are meant to be a bit dicey, but we felt very safe in the downtown area, even when walking around at night. Everywhere was well lit with plenty of people out and about, and nowhere near the same presence of homeless people that we saw in Los Angeles.

We grabbed a Freshii bowl on the way back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice night in. The sooner Freshii comes to NZ the better. We've had it several times for meals in the States and loved it. Super fresh, healthy, tasty and filling food that is very reasonably priced. Bit by bit there are franchises opening throughout the world.

Monday was our last full day in Chicago. Now this was a windy day! In saying that though, not too dissimilar from when it is blowing a gale in Wellington, just a heck of a lot warmer! This fountain was impressive, but the wind meant you got absolutely soaked when walking around one side of it.

Most of Monday was spent in the Field Museum which was absolutely brilliant.

It is an 'old-school' natural history museum, which aren't that common any more. Lots and lots of dioramas and stuffed animals!

Having left UCI, it was nice being acquainted with some anteaters again...

There is even a Wharenui at the museum, one of only three outside New Zealand. It was very nice seeing a little slice of home in the middle of Chicago.

However, what the Field Museum is REALLY known for is Sue, the largest, most complete and best preserved T-Rex in the world!

We spent so long in the museum we had to be kicked out at closing time. There was a special Terracotta Warriors exhibition running, but having seen the real thing in situ in Xian, China, I didn't feel the need to go. Just as well since time was already short.

After the museum shut at 5pm we slowly made our way back to our hotel for our final night, admiring the city skyline for the last time.

We stopped at Navy Pier as we walked past and walked around a small but very good stained glass exhibition.

Back at the hotel we packed up, ready for our departure to Philadelphia the next day.