Seriously, Chicago may be one of my favorite cities to visit. I mean, I've only been twice now, but I haven't been disappointed! We took the train from Hammond to Chicago, which was a lovely and stress-free trip (unlike flying and having to deal with security, lay overs, baggage claim, etc.). We arrived 15 min. before departure, walked on the train, picked our seats, placed our luggage in the overhead compartment, pulled out the leg rest, and enjoyed the ride. We ate dinner in the dining car (Tyler got a steak, of course; I got baked chicken with veggies) which was delicious, and then enjoyed our audio books and roomy seats' leg rests for the rest of the evening. We arrived around 10 the next morning in the Windy City, and walked into Union Station with our bags in hand straight to the McDonald's to eat hot cakes and sausage. Yum!
We were fortunate enough to check in to our hotel early (we were so glad for showers!), and then headed off to see the city. We were in walking distance to downtown, and decided that we'd take advantage of the mid-70 degree temperatures (that the Chicago natives were complaining about) and walk to Willis Tower. The wait at Willis tower was over an hour and a half, and I didn't want to waste my day waiting for the elevator (I mean, literally). So, we caught a bus (with our nifty and affordable unlimited CTA passes) and headed over to Navy Pier. We enjoyed the ferris wheel, the views of Lake Michigan, fudge, and the souvenir shops there. It's just a fun place to go, and did I mention how nice the weather was?! Didn't get to go on a cruise around the city like we'd planned, but we'll save it for our next trip. After a nice nap at the hotel, we went to eat at Cafe Ciao a few blocks from our hotel. It was cute, quaint, and DELICIOUS. I will go back next time I'm in town. We were running a little late for our NKOTBSB concert, and we opted to walk the "approximately 8 blocks" from Cafe Ciao to the United Center instead of catching the bus. Looking back, I don't know why we chose option A...it was a long way. We made it inside and found our seats just before Jordin Sparks took the stage. Then the squealing began and New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys made their grand entrance and put on a great and entertaining concert. We finally made it back to the hotel after midnight after some public transportation fiasco: day 1 complete. Needless to say, we crashed and decided to sleep in the next day.
We woke up Sunday morning and packed up our things to head out for our last day. We were thrilled to discover how easy it was to rent a storage locker at the train station, and we stored our bags there for the day. We spent the entire day at the Museum of Science and Industry, and could have spent another day there if we had more time. It was phenomenal. It was a mixture of untouchable exhibits as well as hands-on discovery activities pertaining to the exhibits. We did the Omnimax thing and went inside of a tornado, wandered through the space exhibits with actual capsules that had housed astronauts in space, looked down at a capture U-Boat and saw inside one of the torpedoes, and the list goes on and on. It was three stories of great science and history exhibits, and I don't think we saw but half of them. We can't wait to bring our niece and nephew with us when they're a little older and can enjoy it with us! :)
We got back downtown that evening and went back to Union Station to get our bags and eat before leaving at 8PM. It was a smooth and easy ride, and we arrived back in Hammond just after lunch the next day. The first thing I wanted was a Coke from Sonic (no Sonic + no Coke= Chicago) :( Can't wait to go back and enjoy more of the city sights! It was definitely a wonderful weekend getaway!
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