Road Trip 2010 - Chicago!

I think Chicago may be my favorite U.S. big city.There are several reasons for this. I thought about those reasons as Duke and I were exploring some of Chicago Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as a part of our road trip. Here are a few of them.

• Chicago is beautiful and clean. We were staying in a nice neighborhood north of the river and about three blocks from Lake Michigan. There were lots of tree lined avenues, and beautiful buildings. There was no garbage around and In spite of the fact that the weather was hot there was no smell.
• There very very few pan handlers. In San Francisco there are so many that it really detracts from my enjoyment of the city.
• Everyone was really nice and friendly. I think this is at least partly a mid-western thing. The bus driver was patient and nice when I couldn't figure out how to use my bus pass. The man on the street who we asked for directions was friendly and helpful. The door man and the housekeeper at our hotel went out of their way to be helpful and nice. I could go on and on.
• There is so much to do. We walked along the river and watched tour boats and kayaks. We walked along the lake and watched people swimming along the shoreline and playing in the sand.Last time we were in Chicago we explored Millennium Park and the Art Institute. This time we spent a whole day at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was wonderful.I loved the eggs hatching, the model  trains, the Fairy Castle but most of all I thought the German submarine exhibit was fantastic. It impressed me when I visited as a child but this tiem it was even better. On our next trip to Chicago want to explore the Field Museum and go to the top of one of the skyscrapers.
• The food was great
• The weather was impressive. Lots of sun, humidity, drenching rain, thunder and lightening and then pleasant clear weather following the storm.

Here area  few of my pictures from our time in Chicago. You can see all of my pictures from our Road trip on Flickr here.

We walked along the River and watched all the activity.

The Museum of Science and Industry has a complete German submarine that was captured during World War II. The exhibit about how it was captured, kept secret during the war, and eventually moved to Chicago and this specially built exhibit room was fascinating.

 

One of the things I loved about the Museum of Science and Industry was that they weren't too cool to have a  really big model train exhibit that was impressive and very well done.

The Chicago History Museum was very interesting and well done too. I must say though that you know you are getting old when the toys you played with as a kid are in a museum, like this Mouse Trap game :-)