Shane and I are attending my friend’s wedding in Mexico and as there are no direct flights from Dublin, we decide to fly through the USA and spend a few days exploring some cities. I’ve been to Chicago a few times but it’s a first for Shane. The flight time is 8 hours and we arrive in O’Hare in the afternoon. We are just off the plane walking through the terminal and an air hostess randomly starts talking to us about Kylie Jenner products in a vending machine that we pass. She tells us how they’re full of additives and poison… at first I’m not even sure who she’s talking to but it’s definitely us. Then she starts ranting about all the crap food that’s not only in the airport but that’s in most of the shops in America and how we shouldn’t even be drinking water from the tap… bizarre! Anyhooo we make it safely through the airport without encountering anymore crazies and take a taxi to our hotel on the Magnificent Mile. Bags dropped we head straight out to explore the city.
A block or so from our hotel is the Tribune Tower which was designed as a result of an international competition for the most beautiful office bullding in the world, held in 1922 by the Chicago Tribune. The competition proved extremely influential for the development of skyscraper architecture in the 1920s. The crowning tower, with its flying buttresses is derived from the design of the French cathedral of Roden and gives the building a striking silhouette.
It’s very impressive and as we walk around it we see stones from buildings all over the world including the GPO in Dublin
It’s all about the architecture in Chicago, there’s just so many amazing buildings and skyscrapers.
This one I’m not so mad about!!!
I also really like the bridges as we walk along the river walk. It’s a lovely stretch with lots of bars, shops and restaurants although they’re all “closed for the season”.
I don’t believe I took much notice of the train system when I was here last but it is really cool, known as The “L” system, it began operating in 1892 and is the second-oldest rapid transit system in the Americas, after New York City’s elevated lines. The “L” gained its name from “el” because large parts of the system run on elevated tracks.
Walking under the elevated train tracks.…
We walk to Millennium park and on the way in there’s a security checkpoint – seems strange! The whole park has guardrails around it and police officers are performing security checks. We have to raise our arms and have a security wand check we don’t have anything we shouldn’t… as we enter a park… bizarre!! [later in the week we find out there was a huge protest in Chicago earlier in the day, thankfully we missed it]
The big draw in the park is the giant sphere or “The Bean”. It’s really cool to see the reflection of the buildings in it. It was sculpted between 2004 and 2006 and is made up of 168 stainless steal plates welded together – its reflective and highly polished exterior has no visible seams
We exit the park in an orderly fashion and continue roaming around until we see the famous Chicago theatre sign. The sign is one of the few remaining original exposed lamp electric signs still in use in the United States. It really is iconic.
We’ve booked dinner at Carsons Rib house which is the place I went to about 20 years ago with my sister Linda!! Carson’s smokes their famous Baby Back Ribs in a genuine wood burning pit using natural hickory wood. That means no chemical tenderizers, no marinades, no rubs, no liquid smoke and no boiled fall off the bone ribs here.
When making the reservation I had mentioned it’s our anniversary which they congratulate us on as we enter. Shane’s face is priceless, although I did actually tell him I’d done this (you never know what we might get!), we’d both completely forgotten!! After our really tasty dinner they brought us a dessert with candles! 🤣
Cheers to our 7 year mark!!
We are knackered after an extra long day so head back to the hotel and next morning we are up early for our flight out… so long windy city!
odohertyelaine 