Our time in Chicago has come to an end and tomorrow we begin
our last three days before arriving in our new home town, Toronto. Chicago has
been wonderful and is definitely the highlight of this summer. A world class
city, Chicago has everything that an urban citizen needs wants and desires from
a large modern metropolitan. A beautiful setting is provided by Lake Michigan
and the Chicago river. This is complemented very well by the city’s
architecture which seamlessly blends historical buildings with ultra- modern
ones to create a stunning skyline.
There is no lack of green space and beautiful parks, and the city seems
to make an extra effort to create an atmosphere where art, music and culture
thrive to enrich the lives of both the locals and the tourists. ( I was happy to read in the local magazine that the city has just invested in creating a new cultural plan with help from consultants from Toronto!)
We cramped a few things in our short stay here, and in the interest of
keeping this short, here is a list of the highlights of our time in this great
city:
Grant Park: This is a very nice big park with trails that
connect it to the main streets downtown, the lake shore and multiple museums and
the aquarium. In our few days there, we passed by Grant Park many times and it
was always nice to stop by a sculpture,a piece of public art or fountain.
Millennium Park: Another park right outside our hotel in the
middle of downtown is Millennium Park. This park is home to the famous “bean”
sculpture and many other works of art. This park also seemed to be the cultural hub of the city especially in the summer. We picked up a booklet that listed all that was going on in the park during the summer
months and all the activities were free of charge. There were music, theatre and dance performances almost daily, and every Sunday morning there is a 4 hour
workout session that includes an hour each of Tai Chi, Yoga, Pilates and Zumba.
All for free! There was also a fee public dance party every Friday evening and
a Family Fun Festival was on the week we were there. This is only to count a few of what was happening in Millennium Park throughout the year.
The Field Museum: We’ve been to many museums on this trip and
several of them were natural history museums, but this one by far tops all of
them. Housed in a beautiful looking historical building, this museum contains
many permanent displays of natural life and a few feature exhibits and shows.
Of the featured ones, we chose to visit the bugs exhibit which had us shrink to
the size of little bugs so that we can go underground, a few feet into the soil
and explore life under the surface. Zaid loved looking at all the bugs
and pretending to be underground with them. Definitely a great exhibit for the
little ones. A great hit was also the exhibit of African animals especially
the big cats and the apes. And just for good measures there was a little
exhibit all about earth evolution including the rise and fall of dinosaurs and
so Zaid’s satisfaction with the museum was guaranteed with this addition of a
few giant dino skeletons to look at. We spent about 3 hours in the museum and
did not even get around to see everything. Definitely a great museum by all
measures.
Deep Dish Pizza: You can’t go to Chicago and not have
Chicago style pizza. We followed the recommendation of a friend and visited a
local deep dish pizza chain. I was expected something heavy and over the top
but instead we got a classic sausage pizza with what seemed to be a nice light
homemade tomato sauce. The pizza tasted good but I still prefer thin crust. I found the deep dish to come with just a little too much dough and
cheese for my liking.
Tower Observatory: There were a couple of options as far as
looking onto the city from a super high tower. We chose to go up to the John Hancock tower's 94th floor for a coffee treat and unbeatable 360 degree
view of the city. You could see all of the downtown sky scrapers, the actual
city neighbourhoods, the lake and the sky. The afogatos we had were delicious
and for less than $5 each, more reasonably priced than a Starbucks drink back
down on earth!
Baseball Game: We wished we could have done this together
but since we waited too late to buy tickets it was almost impossible to find
three tickets together, unless we were willing to pay upwards of $1,000 for
them. So Ben, being the one who cared the most about this particular activity,
went to the game by himself. The boys and I had some time for a nap back at our
hotel and then a walk and lunch in Grant Park.
In addition to this list, we also met up with a childhood
friend of Ben’s who now lives with his wife in Chicago. We all had dinner
together at a nice pub downtown. Unfortunately our two boys were in a grumpy and tired
mood which did not make for a relaxing dinner. Ben and I fear that our boys may
have driven our friends away from the idea of having kids, ever! To Alex and
Jenna: we are very sorry!
On Sunday morning we checkout of our hotel on Michigan Avenue and were on the road again in no time. Next is the Sand Dunes in Indiana
and the Henry Ford Car Museum in Detroit, and then home.
Haifa
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