Chicago - The Windy City

We flew into Chicago on 19th September 2016 from San Francisco and spent 3 nights in the windy city. The 3rd most populous city in the US (after New York and Los Angeles). It was our first time in Chicago.

Our airbnb accommodation was very conveniently located in between the airport and the city on the blue line, near Logan Square station. 

The public transportation system in Chicago is much like New York. We bought a 3-day CTA pass for $20 USD which allows us unlimited rides on all CTA trains and buses. The pass activates the first time you use it and is good for the full length of time from that moment.

Even though we had the CTA pass, we thoroughly enjoyed walking in and around the city. Specifically The Loop, Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, Navy Pier, Lincoln Park and Old Town. 

What's The Loop? The loop is sometimes used to refer to downtown Chicago. It's bounded by the Chicago River to the north and west, Harrison Street to the south, and Lake Michigan to the east. It's called 'L' because of the elevated railway which surrounds the downtown area, especially two lines that share the loop constructed in 1882.

The Loop - Source: Wikipedia

Art Institute of Chicago

Next to Art Institute of Chicago. Love the trees - a lovely place to read a book!

Art on the Farm - Urban Agriculture "Potager" Kitchen Garden

Alex & I at Buckingham Fountain which is located in the center of Grant Park

It's also one of the largest fountains in the world

Lake Michigan - it's so huge when I saw it I thought it was the ocean, only to remember that Chicago is landlocked

Next, we walked to Millennium Park which is located in the Loop. Did you know that the park was originally intended to celebrate the second millennium, however it only opened 4 years later due to construction delays and it costs a whopping $475 million! It is also considered the world's largest rooftop garden because it sits atop of a parking garage and the commuter rail Millennium Station. A really nice place to chill and hang-out.

The Great Lawn @ Millennium Park

Cloud Gate is a public sculpture made in stainless steel by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park.

Hello reflection!

Also known as The Bean because of its shape, made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, the exterior is so highly polished that it has no visible seams

Us & The Bean

Artistic Ceiling @ 100 W Randolph St

We hopped on a bus to Navy Pier which is a 1,010 m long pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Navy Pier

Navy Pier Park

Swing Ride

Merry-go-round

Panoramic view of Chicago's skyline & Navy Pier

A trip to Chicago would not be complete without trying the Chicago-style pizza also more famously known as the deep dish pizza. It's as the name suggests deep dish, almost like a pie with buttery crust filled with a thick layer of cheese and topped with slightly sweet tomato paste. 

We went to Lou Minalti's based on a recommendation by a dear friend {Eeps}. Do note that it takes a while to bake this dish so don't order it when you're hungry. We waited for an hour! It's likely they misplaced our order because even the waiter was surprised why our order took that long. When it finally arrived, we gobbled it up like two hungry dogs (kidding.. well, not really).
 

Famous Classic Deep Dish Pizza

At Lou Minalti's

We also found this hole in the wall pub (called Polk Street Pub) at the city fringe kinda in the middle of nowhere, really quiet neighborhood via Groupon. Check out our post Groupon our "Travel Buddy". We were pleasantly surprised that it served really good burger, spinach salad and Philly cheese steak sandwich! (with our groupon voucher of $30 value for $15)

Wish we had discovered this place on our first night.

Goodbye Chicago

A short stay but it was good enough. Loved all the architectural buildings in downtown Chicago. Will definitely try to get up on one of the high rise towers next time.