Chicago, Chicago... That wonderful town

It was another beautiful day…We didn’t know what to do first cuz there are so many things we want to see and do but we finally settled on a train ride into Chicago… There is a commuter train that goes all along the South Shore of Lake Michigan that starts at South Bend Indiana and ten stops later you are at the Millennium Station at Randolph… That is the corner of the famous Michigan Avenue and Randolph…. The train ride was a lot longer than normal because of all the extra people traveling into the city for the Holiday Weekend… There were tons of things going on and it draws people from everywhere… From our campground we had to drive a few miles to the station. When we arrived, the huge parking lot was full up so we went to the first overflow parking area.. That one was full also but another few blocks and we found a place in the second overflow lot… There started our first ½ mile of walking….

It was well past our normal lunch time when we arrived in Chicago so the thing most on our mind was food… We walked toward Millennium park and found a nice outdoor grill called Park Grill, but the wait was 1 ½ hours… Right across the road was the little more upscale version. This one was called Park Restaurant….. The wait there was only 15 minutes so we put our name in and I walked around taking pictures of Chicago. … Once we got our seat and we were handed the menu, I knew why this place only had a short wait… The food was wonderful but my salad, Bill’s hamburger, one glass of house wine and a fruit punch put us back $60.00…. Just the glass of wine was $17.00…. Gee’s, I don’t pay that much for a whole bottle.. Well, it was a special occasion so we ordered it anyway… It turns out that we needed all the energy the food provided for the rest of our day…

We had planned on taking the double decker bus around the city but because there was so much going on this weekend right where we were, we opted to save that for the next time. We will go back within the next couple of days and do that trip… This time we just walked, and walked, and walked…. There was lots to see in the Millennium Park and a few blocks further was Grant Park. Grant Park had a three day Jazz Festival going on that was free to the public… There were dozens of groups playing everywhere in the park…

We continued our walk toward Lake Michigan and after walking to an area that has awesome high rise apartments, beautiful townhouses and wonderful landscaping we found a couple that told us how to get to the water…. The water took us under the highways…. I’m sure that this is where a lot of the homeless sleep at night but we only saw a few on our walk..

We finally arrived at the Lake where we stopped for a bit and people watched before finding our way back through the underground again…. I know that there is a better path we could have taken that the bikes use but it was a lot further around…. By the time we got back to where we started from we still had lots to see and do so we continued on down Michigan Street…. Wow they sure do have some beautiful old buildings…

It was finally time to head back to the station and catch the train back to Michigan City….. Wow, were we tired… I know that we walked much more than five miles but it was worth every step… I promise you that we will take the double decker bust next time and get on and off where we want…. We also will go to the hot dog stand and have our lunch… Then we will find a nice little lounge later in the afternoon that has beer and wine for $5.00 a glass…

We will return to explore more of the National Seashore today but may just take a picnic basket and sit at the beach instead of hiking… I’ll tell you all about it next time…,

Sep 6, 2009

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