I can't believe how much of Chicago we were able to cram into such a short time period! I had a few ideas of what I wanted to do in the city, but you never know how things are going to go, especially when the Weather Channel is predicting thunderstorms all weekend long. We had already experienced one terrential downpour at Navy Pier our first night in the city, so we were trying to be prepared for a weekend full of that kind of weather and had looked into a few museums in town as indoor alternatives to river boat rides and walking thru parks. However, we never made it to the museums because the weather was perfect all Saturday long! Yay! We were so excited! Once we saw the sun outside, we quickly got ready and walked a few blocks from the hotel to the John Hancock building, one of the two tallest buildings in Chicago with observation decks (the other being the famous Sears Tower) to see cool Chicago skyline. The views from the 94th floor were spectacular despite a little haze, which we definitely weren't complaining about, better haze than rain!
I was so happy I even offered to wash the windows outside.
Then I remembered I was afraid of heights! So I decided I'd better lay down and catch my breath, but that wasn't much better! 
If you go to the Observation Deck at the Hancock Building, just enjoy being a tourist and don't offer to wash the windows, trust me!Once we'd gotten our fill of the city from the sky down, we thankfully headed back to the ground floor. We walked a few blocks to the L Train and took it uptown to Wrigley Field for the Giants vs. Cubs game that afternoon. 
Riding the L was something I wanted to do partially because of all the episodes of ER I've watched over the years in which the characters constantly referred to and even went on location to ride the L in Chicago on occasion. I know, it's wierd, but it's my road trip and that's what I wanted to do, plus it's really the easiest way to get to Wrigley Field, so we probably would have ridden it regardless, but it's more fun that it has a unique meaning for me other than it being the best means of transportation! However, because it's the best way to get to Wrigley Field, it was packed tighter than a can of sardines and it was hot as hell in that little train car, which made for a painfully long ride to the game, but we made it and as usual it was worth it!
Riding the L was something I wanted to do partially because of all the episodes of ER I've watched over the years in which the characters constantly referred to and even went on location to ride the L in Chicago on occasion. I know, it's wierd, but it's my road trip and that's what I wanted to do, plus it's really the easiest way to get to Wrigley Field, so we probably would have ridden it regardless, but it's more fun that it has a unique meaning for me other than it being the best means of transportation! However, because it's the best way to get to Wrigley Field, it was packed tighter than a can of sardines and it was hot as hell in that little train car, which made for a painfully long ride to the game, but we made it and as usual it was worth it! One thing I've learned about Chicago is that it's a tough place to drive because everyone drives crazy there and they don't really pay attention to stop signs, no offense to native Chicagoans. The city is spectacular, but if I ever live there, I will walk or take the L wherever I need to go. This seems to be the consensus throughout downtown as the streets were constantly bustling with pedestrians, both native and tourist alike. I also think that Chicago is a very clean city, especially the nice area along Michigan Ave. 
It is one of the main streets downtown and has such a fun atmosphere. It is within walking distance from most places, including our great hotel, The Allerton, to the many shops along the street, the Hancock Building and both Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, which runs from the lake through the city. With the exception of the small and slow elevators and slow valet/baggage services, the Allerton was a great hotel with the perfect location and recommend it to all of you - just remember, it's downtown Chicago, so it's a little on the expensive side, but totally worth it! Plus, it's a historic old building, which makes it kind of unique too.
Anyway, sorry for the random tangent, so much for the short blog tonight! Cut back to...
It is one of the main streets downtown and has such a fun atmosphere. It is within walking distance from most places, including our great hotel, The Allerton, to the many shops along the street, the Hancock Building and both Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, which runs from the lake through the city. With the exception of the small and slow elevators and slow valet/baggage services, the Allerton was a great hotel with the perfect location and recommend it to all of you - just remember, it's downtown Chicago, so it's a little on the expensive side, but totally worth it! Plus, it's a historic old building, which makes it kind of unique too.Anyway, sorry for the random tangent, so much for the short blog tonight! Cut back to...
Wrigley Field was very cool! 
It has so much history and is one of the very few remaining ballparks that dates back to the early years of baseball! It even still has a manual scoreboard! I'm glad I got to experience it at least once before they someday tear it down. It's much smaller than most ballparks with only two decks of seats so even though we were in the upper deck, we were actually a lot closer than we normally would be. We had a somewhat obstructed view of right field due to a pillar, but had a perfect view of the diamond looking up the third base line and we were under the shade awning, so we stayed cool and out of the sun. 
We stayed until just after the 7th inning stretch, during which actor, comedian, and Chicago native Jeff Garlin sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," which was a fun surprise and a cool Hollywood sighting on the trip! 
We left early because we wanted to avoid the sardine situation on the L train and we did, thankfully! Unfortunately, we left when the score was still 0-0, which meant we pretty much missed all the action in the game, but we found out later that the Cubs won and since they weren't playing the Padres, we were glad to hear it!
It has so much history and is one of the very few remaining ballparks that dates back to the early years of baseball! It even still has a manual scoreboard! I'm glad I got to experience it at least once before they someday tear it down. It's much smaller than most ballparks with only two decks of seats so even though we were in the upper deck, we were actually a lot closer than we normally would be. We had a somewhat obstructed view of right field due to a pillar, but had a perfect view of the diamond looking up the third base line and we were under the shade awning, so we stayed cool and out of the sun. We stayed until just after the 7th inning stretch, during which actor, comedian, and Chicago native Jeff Garlin sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," which was a fun surprise and a cool Hollywood sighting on the trip! We left early because we wanted to avoid the sardine situation on the L train and we did, thankfully! Unfortunately, we left when the score was still 0-0, which meant we pretty much missed all the action in the game, but we found out later that the Cubs won and since they weren't playing the Padres, we were glad to hear it!Oh, we had our photo taken by a Fanfoto photographer at the game, so if you want to check it out, go to www.cubs.com/fanfoto, then search for the July 11 game, gallery 80, we're the first photo in the 5th row.
We rode the train past our hotel a few stops to wander by the river front and possibly try to take an architectural boat tour on the river before heading out to Oak Park, a cute suburb outside of the city, to have dinner with my cousins Boyd, Bonnie, and Maggie.
We missed the boat rides, but the weather was still wonderful so we walked around and looked up at all the tall buildings and just enjoyed Chicago for a bit.Most of this trip has been about seeing sights and not seeing people, but I knew I wanted to see Chicago and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see my cousins who I haven't seen in almost 9 years at our family reunion! Time sure does fly! My cousin Maggie is studying drama at NYU so we have an interest in entertainment in common and I was so glad she was able to get the night off work so we could catch up. Since I'm between jobs at the moment, I joked that I was just waiting for her to graduate so I could be the producer of her first feature film, but I would be totally happy riding her coat tails as her assistant if she'd give me the job (no joke, Maggie, I'll email you my resume for consideration just as soon as I finish blogging)!
Maggie McDowell is bound to be a Broadway star someday, so remember the name!It was great catching up with Boyd and Bonnie as well. Now that I'm an adult, I'm realizing how important it is to start building my own relationships with my relatives. I can't have my parents speaking on my behalf forever. Family is very important to me, but, at the same time, I have a lot of cousins that I never speak to mostly out of laziness or shyness on my part. I hope that this trip and this visit with my cousins in Chicago will be the first step in me working on renewing my relationships with my relatives. Most of my family lives outside of California, many clear across the country, and long distance relationships can be difficult, but I think family is worth it! If any of my family is reading this blog, I hope you hold me to these words and feel free to email me anytime, jessa.shannon@gmail.com!
Anyway, very long story short, my cousins, my Dad, and I had dinner at Emilio's, one of their favorite Spanish restaurants. Being from California, I thought that meant tacos and burritos, but that is Mexican food, which is not the same as Spanish food. Spanish food is tapas, which are little appetizer sized dishes. You usually order several of them and split them with your group, which is what we did. I can't tell you what I ate or what it was called as all the dishes were in Spanish, but they were all excellent and it was a fun experience eating a different type of food. Then of course we took the required, but important family photo!
Can I just tell you that whoever invented the timer on cameras is a genius! Seriously, one of the greatest inventions, I couldn't have documented this trip very well without it!And that ends yesterday's blog, although the problem is that it is now once again very late and I have to get up early to visit the St. Louis Arch with my dad before dropping him off at the airport. I'm sad to see him go and I want to get to bed now so I can be up early and spend some more quality time with him before he leaves. I loved traveling by myself and I'm looking forward to the solo journey once again, but it's been an equally amazing time with just me and my Dad, so I'm sad to see him go. Unfortunately, that means I'm not going to be putting up anymore photos on the blog tonight other than the 2 that are there because they are take too long to upload, but if you're curious, feel free to check out http://www.snapfish.com/, username: jessa.shannon@gmail.com, password: hollywood. There are over 200 pictures of just Chicago in the last 2 or 3 days, so it should make up for none being on the blog at the moment.
Also, there won't be a blog for today until tomorrow either. I'm slowing the trip down this week, possibly staying in St. Louis an extra night so I can catch up on some sleep, maybe go to a movie, read a book, and just be normal for a day. That should give me extra time to catch up on blogging as well! Road tripping is fun, but it's exhausting!
No comments:
Post a Comment