Wow, what a weekend!
Two weeks ago we decided to take advantage from the incoming long weekend and go for a road trip to Chicago. The flight was not an option because
A) despite what they say, we really wanted to have a short stop in Detroit
B) the flight tickets would be three times more expensive
C) c’mon, we love driving 😉
That being said, we reserved a car from Avis, booked some hotels 1 week ahead and were ready to go. Except for one thing – we knew literally nothing about Chicago 🙂
That was one of those trips when you don’t plan much and just go with the flow.
We left late in the Friday evening and, as expected, the traffic in the city was pretty rough. The trip from Toronto to Chicago is long and quite monotonous so it’s worth dividing:
Our first stop, after a 3h drive – Plympton-Wyoming – for a great sunset at lake Huron. Next, half an hour later – border crossing in Sarnia. Prepare 4USD for the bridge to USA. We called it a night 3 hours later in Kalamazoo – a small city just off the highway. If you plan to arrive late, always make sure that your hotel has a 24h front desk. Although it was 2 am, we were welcomed by a really friendly staff in Hampton Inn.
We hit the road quite early the next day and arrived in Chicago before noon.
So.. let’s talk more about the city..
Car parks
Since the same weekend the Lolapalooza Festival took place, most of the car parks in Downtown had fixed exorbitant price. Although parkings in Chicago are held in disrepute, we ended up in a really nice, safe and not the most expensive place on Clark Street. It cost us 20$ a day, but at least there was someone who watched the car
Chicago style Deep dish pizza
I challenge everyone who thinks they can it all. Two pieces of that pizza can easily fill your stomach even if you didn’t eat for full day. Delicious!
Willis Tower (Sears Tower)
Big disappointment…
To the management – you do it wrong! If the tower is that popular the management should find the right solution to big crowd.
But not by offering crazy expensive fast lines. That’s not fair…You wait in the line for over two hours, starting outside the building, then moving forward from one room to another, then to the ticket office, then to another few rooms.. Before entering the elevators to ride to the top you are forced to watch a short movie about the Tower (nice though) and all along everyone, who paid more, could just skip the line and pass you by. There were many families with little babies, there were elderly people who can’t afford the express ticket, how humiliating and sad that was…
However once up there, the view is pretty amazing… though there is another line to get into the skydeck and to enter the elevators to go down. Aghrr
That river, those parks, those beaches…
Nicely done Chicago… This is the city full of surprises, well designed, with many leisure areas, interesting and helpful people. Wish we had more than two days to explore it.
The pictures speak for themselves.
As mentioned in the beginning we decided to stop by Detroit on our way back, but let’s leave it for another time…
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