Chicago!

In a fashion similar to last year, we spent the Fourth of July week not together as a family. The kids all headed to the Sequoias in California for junior high and high school church camp. Thus, we took advantage of the opportunity and headed to Chicago.

I’ve been to Chicago before.  My family moved out to California from the Midwest when I was young, however we still have relatives living in the suburbs outside of Chicago.  However, that said, it is much different traveling with your significant other compared to parents, and it was nice to travel as a tourist with no other agenda than to relax and explore.

I love Chicago. It has a different big city feel than Los Angeles and is so much cleaner. There is an electric feeling to the city, and there’s so much to do and see.  Also for some reason, I’m drawn to cities that are on a body of water, like San Francisco, and of course, with Chicago being on Lake Michigan, it fits my bill.

We flew Southwest Airlines from LAX to Midway, the smaller (and easier) Chicago airport. Midway is only about 10 miles from downtown and is easily accessible via the L train.  We stayed in the Loop, which is the official downtown area.  This location was perfect for us, as we didn’t need to rent a car. We relied on public transportation and our own two feet.  And this was great, as traffic could get dicey as in most big cities, and parking would have been expensive.  Also as in most big cities.

All that said, there is no shortage of amusements when staying in the Windy City, and I’ll share just some of the ones we were able to do during our five-day adventure. In this first post of this three-part series, here are some of the places we visited on our trip.

Chicago Parks:

Millennium Park is one of Chicago’s most visited tourist attractions and is home to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and probably most famously Cloud Gate, the jelly-bean shaped sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor. I didn’t get any good photos of the cloud ‘bean;’ it was super popular on this hot summer day.

Nearby Grant Park was a nice walk and is located across from Lake Michigan. There are beautifully landscaped gardens and grassy areas to sit and enjoy the views. The photos above are of Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest fountains in the world with a capacity of 1.5 million gallons and installed in 1927.  Kate Buckingham dedicated it as a memorial to her brother Clarence. It is now a designated Chicago Landmark. It is also famously featured in the opening credits of the show “Married with Children.”

Lincoln Park is a great place to visit, though we went on a day that was rather hot and humid.  The Lincoln Park Zoo is free to visitors and has some nice exhibits.  Our issue was that it was too hot for the animals, so we didn’t see many the day we went.   There is plenty of green space, a pond, and gardens, and the park is beautiful all around.

Garfield Park located in Chicago’s West Side is also worth looking at.  There we visited the Garfield Park Conservatory, another free attraction.  The greenhouses were built in the early 1900s and opened in 1908. The Conservatory is said to be one of the largest and most beautiful conservatories in the nation. With 184 acres on garden space and thousands of plants on display in artful arrangement, I was not disappointed. It was not the Huntington, but it was still a very pleasant afternoon.

Tours:

Chicago River Architecture tours- multiple vendors, $31 and up– A great way to hear about the history of the Second City and its interesting architecture is by taking a tour on the Chicago River.  We did this midway through our trip, and it was a lot of fun.  We went with Summer of George who we found on Groupon.  Our tour guide was really funny and presented the architectural history in a manner that was engaging. There are several different companies that offer the tours, some with different-themed events. If you’re looking for a basic tour at a decent price, I would look at Groupon and other discounted sites for ticket packages.  We purchased a two-ticket package for $58 on Groupon compared to $47 per person at the Riverwalk stand.   We didn’t seem to get more or less tour by being economical. One thing to note, there is an ‘amusement tax’ on activities such as ball tickets, boat tours, and other fun activities, to be sure to take that into account.

The Theater:

I can’t even begin to write about all the Broadway shows playing in Chicago theaters.  Our hotel was next to the Cadillac Palace, where at time or writing, they are performing Les Miserables. On this trip, we finally saw Hamilton, which was the perfect way to celebrate the Independence Day week. At time of writing, it’s showing at CIBC theater, and tickets were quite reasonable, at least compared to when it was out here in Los Angeles. The theater was beautiful, and though we were quite high up, we had a pretty good view.  It was a night to remember, and if you love Broadway, I would recommend catching a show at one of Chicago’s many theaters.

Lake Michigan:

We did walk over the Chicago’s main tourist trap, Municipal Pier 2, also known as Navy Pier.  We’ve visited the pier before with the kids, but it has been built up since our last visit.  There are still the typical boardwalk rides and Children’s Museum, but there are more shops and restaurants to patronize and enjoy.

There are many other fun and educational options for all- kids, students, and adults. The City Pass is a way to save money if you plan on seeing the sites offered with the pass. We did not do this as we had a limited amount of time in the city, but we’ve purchased city passes when we visited San Francisco with the kids a few years ago.

This post is the first in a three-part series on the Windy City. The fun, food, and culture are abundant here, and I hope to share some of it with you. After all, life is an adventure meant to be shared. And Chicago is my kinda town.