The Great Big Wonder

I have wanted to go to Chicago for years now. I had dreamed about hopping on a train and visiting the city for a week, looking at the bean and spending hours lost in the museums. However, I never got the opportunity until September 2016. I was under the impression that we would have time to see the Windy City.  Then I was told that a portion of our trip was canceled, only to have it reassigned. By the end of the debacle, Victoria and I were ecstatic to see the city.

I stayed with my teammate Victoria in an Airbnb owned by a young college-aged man in the Chicago suburbs, where one-way streets and unprotected crosswalks are king. We decided to take the train to the city and forked over ten dollars for an all-day ticket for the city’s transit system. From then on we knew it was going to be an interesting day. We were used to Los Angeles’s inexpensive and (somewhat) effective Metro system. But nevertheless, we boarded the rail propped up in the sky and made our way to the ‘Loop’.

Once off the train, I noticed one thing right away; the streets were strange and dark and the buildings needed attention. Although they were old and beautiful, some just needed to be torn down. I’m sure if anyone from Chicago heard me say that they would disagree. Police sirens echoed off the buildings causing babies to wail and cover their ears, and heads to turn searching for the cause of the ruckus, hoping to see some real Chicago action.

Regardless of the police chase, we had an agenda, Millennium Park. We contemplated attaching ourselves to the university class having an informative outing in the city to learn the history, but the professor greeted us as we walked past apologizing for blocking the street and we knew it was a no go.

Cloud Gate, or “The Bean” is beautiful. To say that I wasn’t slightly in aw would be a lie. It may just be that Cloud Gate was a part of my bucket list for so many years and here I was checking it off, or it could have been the way it looked against the city backdrop. The bright blue sky shone on the silvery surface of The Bean making it light up amongst the city’s old buildings that lay behind it. Tourists crowded around the kidney bean shaped installation to take pictures of their reflection on its surface. I was one of those people. Snapping far too many photos hoping to ensure that I had enough to prove my visit. Soon after fighting our way to the center of a bean and taking a selfie…or 12 we decided it was lunchtime.

Chicago knows how to do food. We ate well the entire time we were there and everything was fairly inexpensive. For lunch, we walked to Cafecito a block away from the center of the park. It’s a small coffee shop attached to the popular hostel downtown where we got delicious Cuban sandwiches for cheap. The café was filled with young people mostly college-aged kids chowing down on the homemade sandwiches and sipping soda. My Cubano was fresh and filling and cost me $6.99, so worth it.

After lunch, Victoria and I parted ways to see different museums. I wanted to look at the Art Institute of Chicago while she wanted to see the Field Museum. The Art Institute of Chicago was a short walk from the café, where I forked out 19 bucks for an entry ticket and immediately got lost. I was there for one collection specifically, ‘America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930’s’ which focused on art created between the economic crash in 1929 through the beginning of WWII. I wadded through the swarms of people to marvel at ‘American Gothic’ by Grant Woods in person. It’s the painting of the farmer with a pitchfork next to his daughter or wife both looking particularly somber. The collection was amazing, filled with Georgia O’Keefe’s, Joe Jones, and Charles Sheeler.

After I had finished perusing the collection I quickly became lost again and stumbled upon some contemporary art, Asian art, and a few other sections before finding my favorite style. European art. As expected people crowded around the Monett’s and Georges Seurat’s ‘A Sunday on La Grande Jatte’ (which was absolutely impressive to see in real life). The museum was wonderful and had a large collection of many different art styles across the centuries. I highly recommend checking it out if you like art or want to see some interesting collections that the museum curates.

Victoria and I met up again after adequate time in our selected museums and took an 8-dollar ferry ride with Shoreline Sight-Seeing across the Lake Michigan bay to Chicago’s Navy Pier. It was a short slightly choppy ride to the pier but it was a better alternative to walking and you get to see the entire Chicago skyline which makes for some amazing photo opportunities. The Navy Pier is a long stretch of concrete dotted with expensive dinner and sightseeing cruises, restaurants, rides, and a Ferris wheel. We milled about, ate chocolate covered bananas and watched a group of older ladies dance at the end of the pier. The Navy Pier is great if you have money to blow or want a classy evening on the water.

We had dinner at Gino’s East for some classic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Victoria and I shared a four-slice pizza and had leftovers, that’s how big these pizzas are. While petty expensive the quality was fantastic. We were able to split the pizza in half Victoria opting for the meat lovers and I for a BBQ Brisket. The pizza takes about 45 minutes to make once you put the order in so we sprung for some roasted brussels sprouts and were not disappointed. In fact, I don’t think they stayed on the table for more than five minutes before they had been completely devoured. My BBQ Brisket pizza was delicious and I recommend it if you want to try something different than your average pepperoni pizza.

We finished our day with a walk back to the loop and a train ride home. Overall Chicago was a fun city to visit, but it was just that. Unless you are willing to make a week or a weekend out of museums then there was really not that much to do. It’s a great two-day trip to see the important stuff, eat some good food, and take a picture with The Bean. I could be wrong, someone invite me to your house so I can experience Chicago again.