After our 24 hours in New York our next stop was Chicago. We had an early flight and managed to get to our air bnb apartment for 10am where our friends and sisters (Sydney and Elizabeth) that were coming with us on the road trip joined us. The first thing for us to do was to go and pick up the car. I have never driven in America before so you can imagine the dread and anxiety that shot through my body when we found out the car we had reserved wasn't actually available and that we ended up with a Ford Expedition....it was definitely the biggest car I had ever been in, I had to climb to get into it. Thankfully Sydney did all of the driving around the cities and my brother (Ryan) and I drove mostly on the interstates when we were driving to our next city.
We had a couple of days in Chicago and so there was plenty of time for us to look around and soak in the city. We spent our first day, surprisingly, at the beach. Loyola beach was busy enough for it to feel like a beach day but there was enough space that we could comfortably listen to NSYNC and Taylor Swift without any judgement. Usually I am not one for a beach day but after our busy day in New York it was actually really nice to just lay down in the sun, drink lots of water, chat and listen to music. In fact the day would have been pretty much perfect if Ryan hadn't sprayed sun cream in his eyes...It definitely said not to do that on the instructions. Before heading back to the bnb we stopped off at bopNgrill for some dinner: it is an Asian american fusion restaurant that we had seen on Diners, Drive ins and Dives and well...the novelty of trying out restaurants that we have seen on the TV hasn't worn off yet. Although the menu wasn't huge we definitely made some good decisions, I was struggling slightly because...vegetarian...but the staff were great and helped me put together an absolutely incredible burger with tofu, caramelised onions and a pretzel bun that even a month after eating I am still banging on about (it was so fricken good). This day was also the finale of Game of Thrones and while myself and Elizabeth don't watch it (or at least are not up to date) Ryan and Sydney had a great evening sitting super close to an ipad, narrating and reacting to the entire episode...I think they were pleased with how it ended.
Day 2 in Chicago was hot...like it was ridiculously hot. We got the train into the centre of the city (the loop) and had breakfast at the Wild Berry Cafe: I had cranberry and pecan pancakes with mango lemonade...you know just your average american serving of sugar in the morning. Oh and I ate the whole thing, my appetite for large quantities of sugar was definitely growing even though this was only day 3 of the trip.
It was only 10am by this time and the heat was incredible. We took a walk through Millennium Park, had a look at The Bean, took some pictures and felt like a tourist. It got to half 10 when we decided to spend the rest of the day in the Art Institute of Chicago, and it was so worth it. We spent the next 6 hours looking at art from all over the world and from lots of different eras, there was some incredible photography including some of Cindy Sherman's work which I definitely geeked out at and an incredible exhibit called the Invisible Man which was based on the book by Ralph Ellison...The imagery was so incredible that I ended up buying the book and I am really looking forward to reading it, it sounds like such a powerful tale of how the authors skin colour renders him invisible to others.
There was a lot of incredible pieces of art at the museum its no wonder it was listed as the best museum in the world in 2014, I would recommend visiting if you are ever in Chicago. By the time we left it was dinner time and we made our way to Lou Malnati's for the main reason I wanted to visit Chicago...to try deep dish pizza. I was not disappointed in fact I felt a little food drunk, I had a serious food crush in the form of The 'Lou', their vegetarian option: spinach, mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, loads of cheese and a butter crust...*dribble Face*
Our final day in Chicago and we started the it off well. We drove into the city to find a Jewish deli and we all had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. Our plan for today was to head to the Field Museum and learn lots of things and see dinosaurs and stuff. It wasn't too expensive to get into the museum and again we stayed for a good 4/5 hours and so it really felt like we got out monies worth. It was great reading about other cultures and time periods, the only real problem was that we had come to the museum on a day that it was free for Illinois residents and so it was pretty packed...after a little while it became difficult to read things because there were just children running around all over the place.
It just so happens that this year is the 30th Anniversary of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, neither Elizabeth nor Ryan had seen it and there was a screening of the movie this evening at Millennium Park - it was such a coincidence that we had visited the Field Museum on the same day as the screening. Unfortunately the park was completely packed and so we didn't get round to watching it, but we didn't end the day there. In fact we went to The Hancock building and went all the way up to the 96th floor to take a look at the views...I took a picture from the bathroom window that I am pretty proud of (its the first one in the blog right at the top).
It is funny, even though I live in a city (a rather small one) I can't say that I have ever been to a city and really enjoyed it. There is always some form of anxiety or something for me to worry about being in such a busy environment but Chicago definitely felt different. Although its a big city it feel like you are never too far away from some greenery, there are parks, all the usual city type beautiful skyline and its also really close to the water. Chicago does a really good job of encompassing a lot of different environments in one place. I really enjoyed our stay here and I am hoping I will come back in the future. Chicago: thanks for all the pizza, art and knowledge.
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