Chicago: The "L"

You can't go to Chicago and not notice this badass in the middle of damn near every street. This is a street view of the "L", which if you don't know is part of Chicago's public transportation system. It's an elevated train system that is operated by electricity. Way to be green, Chicago.

Anyhow, after our long day of touring and soaking up the sunshine, we went back to our hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, and cleaned ourselves up for the long anticipated Girlyman concert. More on that, in my next blog. This blog, I am dedicating to Chicago's public transportation system, because I am purely in love with it.

We considered driving from our swanky hotel over to The Old Towne School of Folk Music, but number 1. we didn't have directions OR time, and number 2. I was drooling over riding the train. While my love finished getting ready, I headed down to the concierge to ask a few questions. We were taking a shot in the dark that the "L" would take us to our final destination. After all, it was almost 9 miles away. But hey, it never hurts to ask.

I inquired at the desk if they might possibly have a map of the "L" and all of its routes. The concierge lady was more than happy to help me out. Not only did she give me a map, but she got online for me and looked up the exact locations where we would board the train and how long our trip would take. SCORE!!!!!!

It was super convenient that our train stop was only about a block and a half from the hotel. I went back upstairs, with a complete glow in my eyes, anticipating riding the train and announced the news to my lady. She put on the finishing touches and out the door we went.

A short walk and we had arrived at our stop. It was a little confusing with the revolving doors that only went one way (which of course was not the way we were going), but we eventually figured it out. The fee for one ride on the "L" is a mere $2.25, which made riding even more enjoyable. (Note to any future riders: take EXACT CHANGE). We snagged our CTA passes and through the crazy doors we went. I was amazed at what the platform looked like...

A look to the left...

A look to the right...

The train *ZOOMING* by...

The ride itself wasn't all that amazing. Really, it was kind of like I was in another world. The buildings were seriously inches away from the window as we passed by. On top of that, there was a lady that looked like a corpse who would not stop staring at me. Whatever, I lived. Our ride was about 35 minutes or so and when we got off the train at our stop, we only had to walk about three blocks to Old Towne. WOOT!!!

Silly me, breaking CTA rules...and eating ice cream on the train.

My love, being beautiful on the train...post-concert.

So, the train kicked ass and I can't wait to go back and ride it again. It really makes everything super accessible and for a little country girl like myself, it's just an added bonus of something new and exciting!

Chicago: Trolley Tour

So my love and I did in fact make it onto said trolley tour, sans complications (and also food and beverage...bad idea, more on that later). We boarded in front of the Art Institute and were off to a wonderful start! Of course, taking a moment to snap a picture (or 20) along the way. First, and foremost..we are IN LOVE in Chicago!


Lindsay was clearly in heaven, due to the blazing ass sun.

















We rode the trolley around for a bit, taking in the sights such as the Field Museum. We didn't have time to actually see any of the exhibits, but I hear the pirates ARRRRRRGH awesome! HAHA.

Moving on. We passed by the Adler Planetarium, which I somehow did not get a picture of...so I'll just use Lindsay's. (Thanks, baby!)



Clearly, it's the dome-topped building.












The next big attraction for the bus full of wandering eyes to see was the Buckingham Fountain. Good thing we didn't want to go have a picnic there...it is seemingly under a great deal of construction (still beautiful nonetheless), as you can see here:



Full of hope to what would be around the next corner of our tour, we were delighted to see Centennial Fountain. It only dances over the river for ten minutes of the top of every hour, and we were lucky enough to catch it.
















After winding around skyscrapers and loopty-loops, we were feeling SOOOOOO in love. Let me share with you.



Oh wait, before moving onto the Navy Pier section of this tour de Chicago blog...just let me tell you that we randomly had to move from our nice, open, airy seat on the trolley to a pit of hell bus. The top deck (double decker) was full so we were forced to sit on the bottom level which had: A. ZERO air conditioning B. a complete lack of any type of air movement AT ALL C. the goddamn windows didn't even open D. smelled like a dirty armpit and E. was just all around not pleasing, until this sat in front of us.



Thank you, to the world's largest red mullet for being completely oblivious to the shit head (that's me) behind you. Your heinous hair made my ten minutes on that bus from hell worth it.

(Please note, I tried to get a side view of this lady, but she was deep in conversation with the gals in her group and kept flipping her head from side to side. Surely her Wisconsin Waterfall coulldn't have been hot.)



Next, we finally arrived at Navy Pier which we just HAD to see. This is my babe in front of the world famous ferris wheel.


We walked up one side and found some lady to take a picture of us near the water...

















Then thought it would be fitting to walk around the pier to the other side and grab a bite to eat. Oops, our bad...there is nothing to eat on the other side. But we did find this....an absolutely gorgeous view of the city


Let me just add that whoever thought of putting self-timers on cameras is a genius. If it weren't for that person, we wouldn't have captured this little gem...
















Back on the bus we go...and to our surprise the top level had plenty of seating this time AND we had a tour guide with the personality of a comedian. Here we are, happy to be sitting in the sunshine



I thought this was kind of interesting: Oprah owned two (maybe three) floor of the building below. She wanted to have a personal elevator built so she could have more direct access to the connecting floors. The building owner said "no" so Miss O said "see ya" and blew that Popsicle stand.




















It's a different experience riding on the TOP of a vehicle with the world exposed directly above you. I'd advise not standing up on one of these behemoths...you might lose your head.


So we continued along our journey, completely amazed at the unique architecture of Chicago. There's something for everyone...whether you like more modern style buildings...





















Or you prefer something a little more aged...

But no matter where you go in Chicago, there is art all around you...check out this larger than life sculpture of American Gothic. Lindsay was convinced it was something out of a horror film and they were going to come to life at any time and kill us...




















The bus made it's way down the Magnificent Mile, where I'm certain Lindsay would have been happy to spend all of her money (and mine if I had any), but time didn't allow for that so we just committed it to memory via photographs...



I think her mouth may have watered just a little bit when we passed this store....





She does love THE fashion, but thank god is way too cheap to want any of the really expensive stuff.









I was too busy looking at all of the architecture to really care about any fancy clothing stores. Plus, let's face it..when you cruise around in cargo shorts and t-shirts all day like I do, clothes are the least interesting topic. It was still fun to see the stores and hear crazy facts about them. Our guide told us that in some of these stores you have to make an appointment just to walk in the door and some of the places don't put a price tag on anything. All I could think of was the movie Pretty Woman....and YEA...NO THANKS!!!

Anyhow, so the buildings seriously AMAZED me, which from this blog doesn't seem hard to do, but keep in mind this is my first trip to Chicago. I'm a country kid from a small town who over the past two years has been slowly transforming into the city life. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the city and all it has to offer: diversity, entertainment, people, culture, art, and so on. However, there is nothing like being way out in the middle of nowhere and looking up at the stars and seeing each and every one of them. And, there is the added bonus of silence. Regardless...I'm a changed woman and would never go back to living in a podunk town.

I kind of got obsessed with shooting skyscraper photos at different angles. Here is one of the Hancock Building.



Fun picture of the river and a water taxi....
















Check out the building on the left side of this picture. It's an apartment building with a parking garage on the bottom. Those cars look a little close to the edge. How would you like that to be your parking space???




Another angle obsession picture..



















This building is SUPER cool. If you look at what seems to be the lobby of this one, there is a staircase-type ceiling. That is actually the ramp to the parking garage...the under side of it.


The Sears Tower was next on our adventure. Now, we had originally planned on going to the Skydeck from our tour. However, due to circumstances out of our control (not enough hours in the day, traffic) we didn't have enough time.We did end up going the next day. Oh yea...and we had to take some random detour because of a fire in the Sears Tower. Go figure. One of the many facts we learned about the Sears Tower is about the entrance that is shaped like a mailbox. According to our tour guide, this is because Sears made their fortune from catalogs and they didn't ever want to forget where all of that money came from. What a reminder every day you go to work, eh??? The other nifty fact I'd like to add is that the building was recently (March 09) purchased by Willis Group, a london-based insurance broker, and will shortly be renamed Willis Tower. They are even considering painting this monstrosity silver to make it more energy efficient. The projected cost of that little project is 50 million dollars. Here it is...still as black as black can be...





The mailbox-shaped entrance...











A look up at the tower from wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down below...


Everything seems so tall in Chicago. I mean, we have some kind of tall buildings in Indy, but nothing even close to what Chi-town has to offer. Ultimately, I think it all has to do with my pure love of being in a new place. One of my favorite things in the whole world is exploring new cities and not having a clue where I am. Thank god for public transportation. You'll get to read about that on my next blog.

Chicago: The arrival

We left from Indy at about 945am on Friday. The drive was GORGEOUS...and entertaining, as always. As soon as I saw the first glimpse of anything that even halfway resembled a city skyline, I started snapping pictures. Traffic was a bitch, so in light of that, this is one of the better pictures that I took. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather.

We were lucky enough to score ourselves a four-star hotel on priceline. Originally, we bid on a three star, but lady luck was on our side. There was no indication of where the hotel would be, other than somewhere in downtown Chicago. We took our chances and ended up with a room at The Palmer House Hilton. Which to me was awesome for three reasons: A. because I'd never stayed at a Hilton B. I've never stayed at a four-star hotel and C. it's located in Chicago! Any city that is not Indy, is right up my alley, especially if it's bigger than Indy. The bigger, the better.

I digress. I had to act like a silly little kid and jump on the bed and take crazy photos of myself to celebrate the occasion.



I was being literal when I said jump on the bed.

But in all seriousness, we had to celebrate LOVE in Chicago with an arrival picture:


Of course we didn't want to spend all of our time, holed up in some fancy, shmancy hotel. We had to get out and explore the neighborhood! It was sooo convenient that our room was close to pretty much all of the main attractions the city has to offer. We wanted to be total tourists so we prepurchased tickets for a hop on hop off tour. But before we did jumped on, we had to check out Millenium Park. The first thing that pretty much anyone would notice (when entering from the same point that we did) are these two HUGE fountains.



It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so there were plenty of folks out in the sunshine. Once we got closer, we realized that people were running around in the water, splashing and soaking themselves. There were several groups of small children chaperoned by teachers and parents.









Those of us who didn't want to get soaked, chose to admire from afar. Although, I think Lindsay did get a light misting from the wind!








Next, we moved on to the world famous BEAN! Now, I had seen this in pictures and what-not but I never imagined how intrigued I would be. I'll let the pictures do the talking...


It really was super cool to me. I couldn't stop taking pictures.


This is what you see when you look up in the center of the bean. Kinda trippy, if you ask me.


The BIG picture of the bean.


Clearly, lots and lots of people, but the only one that mattered to me was this special one!


The next place we checked out in the park was this cool ass amphitheater. We learned that they have FREE concerts here all summer or when the weather permits and the venue holds 11,000 people. If you look in the pictures, you can see that there are speakers suspended over the entire lawn. We hear it sounds like being in a concert hall.



This is from the side. I couldn't quit capture how
GINORMOUS
the place is in one picture, so.....











I took another one from the back. Lindsay and I will definately be going back this summer for a show. For a complete lineup of this year's shows visit this link.







A little more exploring and we found some pretty cool art from the students at The Art Institute.
I don't exactly know what the hell this is supposed to mean, but whatever. It was interesting. Especially when you look at the detail in the piggy's nether regions...




And just for the record, this dinosaur had nothin' on me! Well. maybe he does now. HA.














We browsed around a little bit more, checked out some more artwork from the students....


















And decided it was time to find our way to the trolley. But not before this happened:


Yes, that's right. The seagulls of Chicago had their way with my head....

And my shirt. Oh well, at least they got me instead of Lindsay. Apparently, she always gets shit on by birds, hence her pure hatred for the beings. Regardless, it was still a great beginning to what turned out to be the best one-day getaway of my life. More to come!!!!