We left Melbourne early in the morning on the 19th of Dec aboard VAustralia flight VA11 non-stop to LA. The flight was fairly comfortable, as far as 13 hour flights can be, and we were able to get some rest as we landed in LA early in the morning of the 19th, courtesy of a 19 hour time difference! We had a 3 hour layover in LA, so we grabbed some breakfast at Chili's @ LAX before heading over to the domestic terminal to board our American Airlines flight to Chicago. The AA check-in counters were a total mess, with way too many people squeezed into way too small a space, and the signs for checking in via the self-service counters were very vague, so there was lots of confusion everywhere! After spending some time in line for the self-service counters without making any progress, we decided to go through the regular check-in counters despite the even longer lines there. Thankfully, we had plenty of time and made it through both the check-in and security lines with time to spare. The flight to Chicago was obviously less comfortable than our international flight, but we arrived on-time and with all our bags in order so we were happy!
Upon landing at O'Hare international airport, we looked around the terminal in an attempt to find a prepaid mobile phone so that we could keep in touch with friends and family during our trip. However, to our surprise, we were not able to find anything! We were rather tired from our long journey, so we decided to just get to our hotel, the Four Points Sheraton @ O'Hare Airport, and check-in. We took a free shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel, checked in, freshened up and got some dinner at the Mirage restaurant downstairs before calling it a day.
The next day, we got up slowly around 8 am, got ready and called our friends, Super Babe and her hubby, whom we were supposed to meet that morning. They were quite close to our hotel already, so we decided to have some breakfast and just wait for them to arrive in our room. They arrived around 11:30 am...it was good to see Chase and Sarynna after a year (since my sister's wedding in Chennai)! We then proceeded to downtown Chicago to see the Field Museum. It was a cold day, but bearable enough for us to walk outside without too much trouble. The main attractions at the Field Museum were Sue, the dinosaur, the Lions of Tsavo and the Egyptian mummy exhibit. After spending all afternoon at the museum, we were famished so we headed down Chicago's famous Magnificent Mile stretch in search of an authentic pizza place to have some deep dish pizza.
Along the way, we passed by the Bean, an outdoor skating rink, and several downtown Chicago shops, all brightly lit in the dark. After a good 20 mins of searching, Chase found a restaurant called Pizano's. It turned to be a great choice, as the food was great and ended up with a very talkative and interesting waiter who called himself Uncle Chach! Once we had our fill of some deep dish pizza, we went back out onto the streets of downtown Chicago and walked towards Navy Pier, in search of a German Christmas market. However, when we did get there, what we found was a rather cute kids' Christmas fair with kiddie rides, lots of colourful Christmas trees and plenty of kids! We took a much-needed breather there as the Wife went around taking plenty of pictures of the fair. Afterwards, we took a cab to La Salle station to catch a ride back to the hotel after a long day of sightseeing!
The next day, we had breakfast in the morning with Chase and Sarynna at the hotel, before they departed back to Lansing, MI. Then, we headed back into downtown Chicago by train to first see the Shedd Aquarium. Along the way, we managed to finally find ourselves a prepaid mobile phone so we were finally contactable outside our hotel room! The main highlights of the aquarium for us there were the dolphins, penguins and their playful antics! Afterwards, we walked through downtown Chicago to the Willis (formerly known as Sears) Tower and went up to the Skydeck to enjoy some fabulous views of the city. It was quite a foggy day but we still got to see the city skyline at night, and we especially liked going out onto the Edge, a little glass box protruding from the main structure of the tower (see the picture below).
Hungry by then, we went to a dodgy Indian place near La Salle station called Chutney Joe's. The food was distinctly average, as we knew it would be, but the Wife was craving some Indian food and we were too hungry to be picky about the quality of the food! We had some biryani, naan and aloo gobi before returning back to the hotel exhausted again.
On the 22nd, we checked out of our hotel after breakfast and headed to O'Hare airport once again to catch a bus to Madison, WI, to see my sister, who just had a baby a few weeks prior, and my mother, who was staying with her to help with the baby. Our Madison adventures will be covered in Part 2. You can see pictures from our Chicago visit here.
1 comment:
It was so much fun seeing y'all! I had to giggle when I read the part about the wife craving Indian food ;) Can't wait to read the rest of the adventures!
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