To make up for the anniversary trip that hurricane Irene blew away with it and to make the most out of the labor day weekend, we went to this small town near Chicago. The place was beautiful, and displayed American culture at its best with restaurants lined up, awesome Tiramisu, biking around lakes, an university overlooking the lake, jazz and pop music in the evenings(with country food, of course), cool breeze at all times of the day, and a food festival over the weekend to top it all with.
The place had a healing effect to it, which could soothe one. After spending a couple of days in this serene location, we embarked on our journey to Chicagoland. The city does not have the hustle and bustle of New York, but is busy in its own natural manner. There is no rushing, but there still is so much energy and adrenaline. And yes, it is truly beautiful.
As we got into the elevator in the Willis Tower(formerly known as Sears tower), we were eager to see the Skydeck and go out onto the ledge. The first step into the glass floor was slow (I should probably add that a few heart beats could have been missing then :), but soon excitement took a better hold and I stepped out 4.3 feet from the Skydeck, the tallest building in the western hemisphere!
The view from here was breathtaking and on a clear sky day like the day we visited, one can see the four states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.
After Skydeck, we took a nice long walk in the city, all the way to Shedd Aquarium. And when I said long, I really did mean loooong. On the way we passed 'Agora'. It's a sculpture of men withour arms and head. Though wiki says that it depicts democracy, we felt that it more suited us, the IT professionals :)
For someone whom the biggest aquarium visited ever was the one at Trissur Pooram Exhibition, Shedd's was indeed a magnificent place. From tiny-weeny fish including the jelly fish to the killer sharks, they are all there. We were indeed thrilled at our first meeting with Penquins, sea lions and dolphins. That was about it. For the rest of the meetings, like the ones with killer sharks, anacondas and the sort I was really happy that there was a glass between us and hoping that I would never see them this close again without this amorphous solid material barricading between us!
It was then time for a cruise in the sprawling lake Michigan. It had taken to drrizzle by then, and the view was spectacular.
As we got off at Navy Pier, we watched a few weekend shows there and took a long stroll around it. The rain dampened the spirits a little bit at this point as all rides were cancelled. That was the only disappointment in the whole trip, I would say.
A trip to Chicago will not be complete without visiting the Millennium Park which is why we decided to make a pit stop there and walked away from Navy Pier. Though we lost our way and ended up walking on the bridge instead of the river walk, we eventually made our way. Thank goodness I was not the one with the map!
The 'cloud gate' was indeed bristling with tourists but we couldn't not resist taking a few pics there before we headed to Buckingham fountain in Grand Park where a music fest was happening.
A beautiful fountain, a cup of coffee and music was all we needed to decide that we should stay just there and wind our trip up without further ado.
And that was precisely what we did.
After spending quite some time there, we started our journey back home, happy that our plans for this trip worked out really well and craving for more...
The place had a healing effect to it, which could soothe one. After spending a couple of days in this serene location, we embarked on our journey to Chicagoland. The city does not have the hustle and bustle of New York, but is busy in its own natural manner. There is no rushing, but there still is so much energy and adrenaline. And yes, it is truly beautiful.
As we got into the elevator in the Willis Tower(formerly known as Sears tower), we were eager to see the Skydeck and go out onto the ledge. The first step into the glass floor was slow (I should probably add that a few heart beats could have been missing then :), but soon excitement took a better hold and I stepped out 4.3 feet from the Skydeck, the tallest building in the western hemisphere!
After Skydeck, we took a nice long walk in the city, all the way to Shedd Aquarium. And when I said long, I really did mean loooong. On the way we passed 'Agora'. It's a sculpture of men withour arms and head. Though wiki says that it depicts democracy, we felt that it more suited us, the IT professionals :)
For someone whom the biggest aquarium visited ever was the one at Trissur Pooram Exhibition, Shedd's was indeed a magnificent place. From tiny-weeny fish including the jelly fish to the killer sharks, they are all there. We were indeed thrilled at our first meeting with Penquins, sea lions and dolphins. That was about it. For the rest of the meetings, like the ones with killer sharks, anacondas and the sort I was really happy that there was a glass between us and hoping that I would never see them this close again without this amorphous solid material barricading between us!
It was then time for a cruise in the sprawling lake Michigan. It had taken to drrizzle by then, and the view was spectacular.
As we got off at Navy Pier, we watched a few weekend shows there and took a long stroll around it. The rain dampened the spirits a little bit at this point as all rides were cancelled. That was the only disappointment in the whole trip, I would say.
A trip to Chicago will not be complete without visiting the Millennium Park which is why we decided to make a pit stop there and walked away from Navy Pier. Though we lost our way and ended up walking on the bridge instead of the river walk, we eventually made our way. Thank goodness I was not the one with the map!
A beautiful fountain, a cup of coffee and music was all we needed to decide that we should stay just there and wind our trip up without further ado.
And that was precisely what we did.
After spending quite some time there, we started our journey back home, happy that our plans for this trip worked out really well and craving for more...
3 comments:
Nice Vandu.. Hope u explore Amrikaa more..
preetha here
I know ur 'comment' name by now Pree :)
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