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I wrote the trip up in longhand, but as ever, I can't read my writing. We left on Wednesday morning and immediately ran into a storm. Wow. We were on the 401 and people were pulling off to the edge of the road and stopping, it was so bad. We left it behind us and carried on, with me navigating using a Mapquest set of directions as we'd only bought a Chicago map.
Big mistake.
Mapquest let us down and the junction we were supposed to get off at didn't exist. We drove seat of our pants for 500 miles, using tiny maps the size of a stamp and the compass in the car. It added about 50km to the journey so we did okay.
It felt weird being in the States. Different. People were very friendly, but it took an hour to cross the border; we had to leave the car and go in and fill out paperwork and get our passports looked at and pay $6 each... very weighty and serious and when we said we were going to Chicago people kept narrowing their eyes suspiciously and asking 'why?'.
Hotel was very snazzy but a bit of a letdown. The suite which on the photos looked like a bedroom with a dividing wall, even doors, turned out to be one large room, divided by a desk with a TV on it, so once the girls went to bed, David and I were doomed to read in silence under one dim light. The restaurant was so bad, we used it just twice; once for the evening meal that first day, as we arrived at 7.00 and we were a 45 min train ride from the city, and once for breakfast the following morning (very, very expensive). That evening meal... Eleanor got cheese on her burger after saying she didn't want any. I got bacon and ham on my turkey panacetta after asking them to hold it. Lauren's plain pasta was fine. David had an expensive boullibaise (okay, I can't spell that after three times; I give up. Sorry, Mmme Pilkington...) with a lobster tail on top. He picked it up, sniffed, took the shell away and recoiled. Totally off. He called someone over and several people got involved without anyone actually admitting the lobster was food poisoning waiting to happen. David ate the rest of it and paid for it later, and they comped it. Then we found all the desserts had alcohol in and Lauren wanted one so we had to put in a plea for a bowl of icecream and she's wanted something fancy as they were displayed on the table as you walked in.
We took the train in each morning as driving/parking would've been a nightmare. The girls loved it as they'd never been on one and had fun counting down the stations. We bought a CityPass that got us into five places and set about cramming as much as we could into two days. Thursday we did the Shedd Aquarium, then took a water taxi to Navy Pier and had supper at Pizza Duo which was quiet but very hot when we got there. We decided (sorry!) that we're not wild about deep dish Chicago pizzas and prefer the Italian-style.
Friday we did the Sears building, the Field museum, the Planetarium and ate at Berghoff's which was lovely, excellent food and service.
I found that people didn't understand me, but they did David.
Humph.
I needed to get my passport notarized by an American notary and one reason we chose that hotel was becuase they said they had a notary public in their business section and you had to book. So I went to the reception desk and said, 'I'd like to make an appointment to see the notary public tomorrow, please'.
I said it many times and she just stared at me, saying 'you want to copy your passport?' and looking deeply baffled, and eventually she gave up and turned to David who translated for me.
She wasn't the only one. Clearly, my accent is a problem in the US (though not in Canada; go figure).
The notary was very nice and did two copies for free, bless her, so if the IRS eats one, I have a spare.
Chicago is a stunning city. So, so beautiful. The skyline from the lake, the incredibly ornate, solid, beautifully crafted buildings. The library -- oh God, that's one pretty place. We stood outside and David said, shall we? and I knew it would KILL me to go in and not have time to read so I shook my head and we stared wistfully some more and walked on.
We walked a LOT as we hadn't quite figured out buses and the free trolleys (we did the last bit of the second day). Miles and miles and it was very, very hot, with one storm that we sat out in a cafe on Thursday afternoon.
People were very open to speaking to you; we got asked for directions twice as we had a map out :-)
I couldn't find many shops though, which was strange; maybe we were in the wrong bits. Starbucks and MacDonalds EVERYWHERE but we wanted a DVD/music shop (Eleanor thought the US was the land where anime flowed like milk and honey and was a tad upset to see no Pokemon shops and no rare Webkinz (no Webkinz at ALL in fact) and nope. No HMV, Virgin Megastore, Sam the Record Man, or their equivalents. Mostly, it was food shops. I was looking for an upscale mall, like the Eaton Center in Toronto but we didn't see one.
Anyway, I'd love to go back one day. And![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nwhepcat, I took the bag you gave me and it carried all the snacks and stuff every day and is a much-traveled bag now :-))
Here are a few photos.
Sue the dinosaur in the Field Museum.
The storm gathering over the city.
Random skyline (I took a lot of these :-))
Big mistake.
Mapquest let us down and the junction we were supposed to get off at didn't exist. We drove seat of our pants for 500 miles, using tiny maps the size of a stamp and the compass in the car. It added about 50km to the journey so we did okay.
It felt weird being in the States. Different. People were very friendly, but it took an hour to cross the border; we had to leave the car and go in and fill out paperwork and get our passports looked at and pay $6 each... very weighty and serious and when we said we were going to Chicago people kept narrowing their eyes suspiciously and asking 'why?'.
Hotel was very snazzy but a bit of a letdown. The suite which on the photos looked like a bedroom with a dividing wall, even doors, turned out to be one large room, divided by a desk with a TV on it, so once the girls went to bed, David and I were doomed to read in silence under one dim light. The restaurant was so bad, we used it just twice; once for the evening meal that first day, as we arrived at 7.00 and we were a 45 min train ride from the city, and once for breakfast the following morning (very, very expensive). That evening meal... Eleanor got cheese on her burger after saying she didn't want any. I got bacon and ham on my turkey panacetta after asking them to hold it. Lauren's plain pasta was fine. David had an expensive boullibaise (okay, I can't spell that after three times; I give up. Sorry, Mmme Pilkington...) with a lobster tail on top. He picked it up, sniffed, took the shell away and recoiled. Totally off. He called someone over and several people got involved without anyone actually admitting the lobster was food poisoning waiting to happen. David ate the rest of it and paid for it later, and they comped it. Then we found all the desserts had alcohol in and Lauren wanted one so we had to put in a plea for a bowl of icecream and she's wanted something fancy as they were displayed on the table as you walked in.
We took the train in each morning as driving/parking would've been a nightmare. The girls loved it as they'd never been on one and had fun counting down the stations. We bought a CityPass that got us into five places and set about cramming as much as we could into two days. Thursday we did the Shedd Aquarium, then took a water taxi to Navy Pier and had supper at Pizza Duo which was quiet but very hot when we got there. We decided (sorry!) that we're not wild about deep dish Chicago pizzas and prefer the Italian-style.
Friday we did the Sears building, the Field museum, the Planetarium and ate at Berghoff's which was lovely, excellent food and service.
I found that people didn't understand me, but they did David.
Humph.
I needed to get my passport notarized by an American notary and one reason we chose that hotel was becuase they said they had a notary public in their business section and you had to book. So I went to the reception desk and said, 'I'd like to make an appointment to see the notary public tomorrow, please'.
I said it many times and she just stared at me, saying 'you want to copy your passport?' and looking deeply baffled, and eventually she gave up and turned to David who translated for me.
She wasn't the only one. Clearly, my accent is a problem in the US (though not in Canada; go figure).
The notary was very nice and did two copies for free, bless her, so if the IRS eats one, I have a spare.
Chicago is a stunning city. So, so beautiful. The skyline from the lake, the incredibly ornate, solid, beautifully crafted buildings. The library -- oh God, that's one pretty place. We stood outside and David said, shall we? and I knew it would KILL me to go in and not have time to read so I shook my head and we stared wistfully some more and walked on.
We walked a LOT as we hadn't quite figured out buses and the free trolleys (we did the last bit of the second day). Miles and miles and it was very, very hot, with one storm that we sat out in a cafe on Thursday afternoon.
People were very open to speaking to you; we got asked for directions twice as we had a map out :-)
I couldn't find many shops though, which was strange; maybe we were in the wrong bits. Starbucks and MacDonalds EVERYWHERE but we wanted a DVD/music shop (Eleanor thought the US was the land where anime flowed like milk and honey and was a tad upset to see no Pokemon shops and no rare Webkinz (no Webkinz at ALL in fact) and nope. No HMV, Virgin Megastore, Sam the Record Man, or their equivalents. Mostly, it was food shops. I was looking for an upscale mall, like the Eaton Center in Toronto but we didn't see one.
Anyway, I'd love to go back one day. And
nwhepcat, I took the bag you gave me and it carried all the snacks and stuff every day and is a much-traveled bag now :-))Here are a few photos.
Sue the dinosaur in the Field Museum.
The storm gathering over the city.
Random skyline (I took a lot of these :-))