Introduction
After a week of sightseeing New York, I went on a family visit to Chicago. My uncle moved to the United States, since his wife is American. Sadly, due to the long distance, I rarely see them or my two cousins who are about the same age as me. This post picks up right after the previous one, since I flew out of LaGuardia Airport Thursday night.
Friday
Today was sightseeing day. I did a long walk through downtown Chicago with my cousin, and we hit all the major landmarks. We started of in Millennium Park where The Bean is located. The official name for this very popular sight is actually Cloud Gate, but I guess next picture explains pretty well where the nickname comes from:
We then continued along the Lakefront trail, with gorgeous views of Lake Michigan and proceeded then along the Riverside walk. This is what Chicago is best known for and there are many tours showcasing the architecture around the river in downtown Chicago. Here are some pictures to show what that was like. And yes, the summer weather here is indeed very nice!
After a quick lunch we continued towards Navy Pier where an airshow was taking place. It was very impressive to see actual fighter jets roaring over your head in formation around 100 meters high. Sadly it is a very real possibility that all the spectators around will have gone home with some hearing damage. Next video shows what that was like, however I do apologize for the high compression rate:
Finally, we concluded our day by walking to the Magnificent Mile, which is the commercial district of Chicago. Here are all the big shops and there was even a type of Starbucks I had never seen before. A Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which consisted of no less than five floors! In this type of Starbucks they sell much more fancy types of coffees, with beans they roast locally. I have to admit that after looking it up, there also seem to be Starbucks Reserve shops in New York. I’ll Have to check that out. On our way to the Magnificent Mile, we also made quick stop at the Union Station, so I could scratch another grand railway station from my list. It was very impressive, but you can be the judge of that:
In the evening we still went to a comedy show, which was very funny, I really enjoyed that! I will have to look if there are comedy clubs close to my room in New York as I seem to have got a taste of it.
Saturday
Today we started off with some sports! I think all the European readers will be as surprised as I was when hearing about it. Pickleball! Honestly, it’s very similar to tennis with the major differences being the racket is more like a large ping pong paddle, the ball is hollow and made from plastic with holes, so it’s very light and there are some complicated rules for scoring and foul hits close to the net. The region close to the net is called the kitchen, and apparently you can’t hit a returning ball directly when you’re standing in it. It has to bounce first, otherwise you would have committed what is called a “kitchen violation”. I have to admit it was really fun and after getting used to the small paddle I wasn’t half bad thanks to having quite some experience playing tennis.
Afterwards we continued to the Naperville settlement, since the pickleball club was already close to Naperville, which is a town very close to Chicago. This is where they relocated all the historical houses of the region, mostly the houses built by the first settlers of the town. It was very nice to see some authentic parts of the United States. Here’s what that looked like:
Sunday
Today was a quieter day, consisting of sleeping in after a couple of long days and going to grocery stores. This way I can also say I went inside a large Costco and a Walmart Supercenter. I have to say it was a very different experience to the supermarkets in Belgium and the ones I went to in New York. In Manhattan there also simply isn’t enough space for this kind of superstores.
During the afternoon, my family however did plan their monthly charity work and of course I was happy to join in on the action! With a couple dozens of people, we packed meal packs and in 90 minutes we managed to almost fill 30000 meals! Here’s the proof:
Monday
Today was sadly my last day with the family. To conclude the trip, I went to the Shedd Aquarium with my cousin. It was a really fun excursion and I always love to see some penguins. I must however admit that the beluga whales and sharks were also very impressive. Here’s a sneak peek:
Tuesday
Early in the morning I had to fly back to New York. The trip was very nice and of course I am very thankful to my family for having me over. The landing in LaGuardia however was very memorable as well and a very nice welcome back to the Big City:
That was it for this post. Thank you for reading and for me that means I should start preparing for welcome day at Columbia University! See you next time!