August 3rd
Distance: 40.6 miles Train (Round Trip) and 8 miles on foot
Time On Foot: 6am to 9:30pm
Nicole and I have never been to Chicago so we thought it would be fun to stay at least a full day and explore. It was so easy to get to downtown from our secret hideaway (this place is a diamond in the rough.) Even though we only had a day, we went so many places.After getting up around 6am to exercise and swim laps, we drove to the nearby Westmont Metra Train Station to catch the 8:40am train. Though we were far out from Chicago, the train was already fairly full. Looking at the passengers (who were primary dressed in blue shirts and baseball hats) we quickly figured out that there was a Cubs game today. The train itself was nice (enough) and we took turns dozing in and out on our 45 minute ride into town.
Chicago Union Station is right across the river from the Sears Tower. Nicole (who would not go up) encouraged me to get in line to see what it was all about. After a series of elevators (both down and up) a 15 minute History Channel movie, a security check, and a photo (which I declined but they took my picture anyway) I found myself at the top of the Sears Tower.
The view from up there is breathtaking and unnerving. When I went up to the top of the Empire State Building I didn't remember being so much taller than everything else around. From the top of the tower I could see for miles in every direction even with haze in the air. It was fun to look around but I was eager to go back to Nicole (I took a photo of her from the top...it's really blurry)
From the tower we walked north to Michigan Avenue stopping for coffee along the way. We walked slowly North visiting gardens and Millennium Park taking pictures and watching children play in fountains.Chicago has to be one of the most "appealing to the eye" (for lack of a better description) cities that we have ever visited. The rivers, trains, architecture and proximity to a huge lake make this city so beautiful and constantly interesting to look at. It also felt a little more spacious than New York or Boston like the sidewalks were bigger and people's social bubble was also large for a big city.
After gazing at "The Bean" at Millennium Park for a long time, Nicole and I had a Chicago Style Pizza. Though it took forever for them to prepare the pizza, it was worth the wait. There is nothing like it in the Northwest...the portion I ate weighed 1.5 pounds (an easier way to describe portion size our bartender told us.)
From there we walked further north past the Tribune Tower (an amazing building) and creeped into the shopping district where Nicole bought nothing and I was the one who got the goods. We finally reached Water Tower Place and realized that we were exhausted and that we had to backtrack to the station.We walked back to the river to find that we had missed the last water taxi to Union Station by mere minutes. Because the trains run every two hours we knew that we had to really get going if we were to catch the 6:40p train back towards Aurora. Walking as fast as we could in flip flops we decided to walk along the river all the way to the station. Even though it was a hurried 30 minute walk, we saw some of the most amazing buildings (too many to name) that helped distract us from our aching feet.
Of course we made the train (with 3 minutes to spare.) The train was packed (remember that Cubs game?) I had to stand for a portion of the trip because there were so many people on board. Eventually I was able to sit and Nicole and I took turns sleeping for only seconds at a time. This train trip took an hour this time.
After arriving back to the station we grabbed a meal and returned to our hotel. We each cleaned up and scrubbed our feet (8 miles in flip flops will do a number on your heels.) We both asleep shortly thereafter.
Chicago is our favorite city so far and we hope to come back here (it's a great halfway point for our East Coast siblings) or perhaps bring friends and family for a shopping blitz. I can't believe that I waited so long to visit
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