My trip to Chicago was very nice.
I was there from 27th to 30th. Except some light rain on the first night it was all sunny with a temperature in the 30s. My friend Joel and I stayed at Hyatt Regency Chicago on the south bank of Chicago River and 3 blocks away from Lake Michigan. From our room on the 9th floor we got a clear view of the lake. The customer service of the hotel was disappointing and I will avoid them in the future. The internet access was not free but come with a charge of $14 per day. Upon checking in we were also warned that they have booby trapped everything in the snack bar with motion sensors so we would get charged if any food or beverage was accidentally touched. The room was filled with a bunch of unnecessary household articles seemed out of place: an Ipod docking station, odd pillows etc. Later we found a catalog with a price tag on each of them. This probably is a good marketing strategy but I found it amusing.
We arrived at the hotel at 10 pm. Joel, a cab driver who works 3 pm to 3 am shifts, suggested for a walk. So we headed north along the Michigan Ave. across the river to the magnificent mile. All the fancy boutique stores were closed so there was not much to see. We stopped to admire the Hancock center for a minute. Its top was shrouded in fogs. We saw the landmark stone water tower and pumping station which survived the great fire of 1871. We turned left and followed the underground pedway to the lake shore. Lake Michigan was all quiet and dark with scattered icebergs. We walked along the beach for a couple of minutes and got bored. So we headed back into Streeterville to look for food. Many bars were still open at midnight but their kitchens were closed. We ended up getting several hot dogs at Mister J’s and cheesecake and coffee at Tempo restaurant across the street. The Chicago style hotdog was new to me. The frank was pretty much the same but they put a variety of toppings – pickles, hot peppers and tomato slices - on it. Tempo restaurant was a well lit 24 restaurant serving Greek food but both the coffee and the cheesecake sucked. We took a different route back and got see some other streets. One thing that struck me was that there is still a lot of construction going on in Chicago despite the slow economy.
The second day we got up at noon and decided to go to the aquarium. While we were debating whether to walk or to take the El, two young foreign girls approached us for directions and their destination too was the aquarium. Somehow Joel convinced them the aquarium was only a short walk away and we knew exactly where we were going. The walk actually took 30 minutes but we did have a pleasant chat. The girls were Israelis who just finished serving 2 years in the military and started their tour of the world before going to college. We were told that they would spend 1 to 2 years traveling around and they had already been in Chicago for a month and planned to take a train to the east coast next. When we go to the aquarium there was a mile-long line in front and it probably would take us 3 hours to get tickets. The girls had advance ticket arrangement so we parted ways. Joel and I went back to the ArchiCenter across the street from the art institute for an ‘architecture, culture and commerce’ walking tour. Our docent was a lady in her 50s and a former school teacher. She first told us about the 1893 Columbian Exposition and pointed to the various buildings from that time. The highlight of the tour was definitely the Chicago Cultural Center. When initially built half of it was the public library and the other half was a civil war museum and it was called ‘People’s Palace’. They cultural center got a beautiful Mosaic Tiffany dome. Every Sunday afternoon at 3 a free chamber music recital is held under the dome. The concert was about to start when we got there and Joel almost wanted to quit the tour and stay. Inside the civil war museum there is another beautiful hall which the public can rent for parties and functions. Our docent proudly announced that she got married in there 3 years ago. Another interesting site was the Reliance building, currently the Burnham Hotel. According to our docent the architect acquired the lease to first floor years before that of the upper floors became available. So he jacked up the upper floors mechanically, knocked down an rebuild the ground floor first. The currently standing 14 floor structure was build in 15 days. Yet another impressive building is the Palmer House hotel. An interesting fact is that the then owner Palmer first met his future wife Bertha there when she was 13 and fell in love. He waited 8 years before they got married when he was 44. I was reminded of Humbert Humbert. Bertha was a lover of art and built a huge collection of Impressionist works which went to the Art Institute after her death.