A Whirlwind Tour of the Windy City

We just finished a speedy 3-day tour of Chicago as the next stop on our way back West. My legs are sore and my feet ache after our relatively inactive three weeks reuniting with family + friends in Michigan. Here, the weather's been perfect – warm + balmy - and everyone's out enjoying it. The entire east side of the city, flanking the downtown, is an almost uninterrupted lakefront avenue with biking + running trails and several sandy beaches packed with sunbathers even mid-week. I suspect employers are hip to the unseasonal epidemic that's keeping employees out of the office. Who wants to be indoors on days like these?!

Day 1 we hit "The Loop", walking up and down crowded downtown boulevards admiring the World's first skyscraper + the numerous others that followed – The Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and the Carbon + Carbide Building among others until dark. Then we head uptown on the "El" to the cheap + funky Chicago International Hostel near Loyola - a decent pick for budget digs.

We began Day 2 in "Lincoln Park", walking along it's charming streets and through several parks to the more upscale neighborhood of "Gold Coast" where we had an excellent free tour of Louis Sullivan + Frank Lloyd-Wright designed Charnley house. Built in 1892, it's a beautifully detailed forerunner to the California bungalow. After, we lunched on the lakefront with the scores of people out enjoying the warm, sunny day. From there we continued south past the Hancock Building to the riverfront and further to the Cultural Center with it's stunning Tiffany glass mosaics + domes. By then it was getting late, so we grabbed a couple of cold brews and joined the throng assembled in stunning Millenium Park for a special evening performance of Beethoven's Seventh.

For our final day in the Windy City, we hopped the "El" out to Oak Park to stroll amongst the numerous FLW works, including his own home + studio, and the Unity Temple. This filled the majority of the day, but we still managed to make it back into the City for the free evening hours at The Art Institute, containing masterpieces like American Gothic and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

As we've had the supreme luxury of time on this trip we've indulged and satisfied our curiosity so that there have been few places that really left us wanting more. Three days in Chicago was just barely enough for an overview. One week would have just given us time to see
the highlights at a comfortable pace. We didn't even have time for a dip in the lake… Aaaah, next time.




Check the "link" for more photos of our time in Chicago + The Great Lakes area