Chicago

My train pulled into Chicago Saturday morning and at Union Station I met up with my friend who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We grabbed breakfast at a nearby cafe and spent a couple hours there chatting and catching up on life. These days we talk about our jobs, our apartments, and our love lives, way different from the days when we were dreaming about what high school was like. It’s always bittersweet seeing old friends, watching the ways in which you’ve changed and the ways in which you’ll always be the same.

After breakfast we walked. A lot! It was supposed to rain in Chicago but instead it was 85 degrees and very humid. We walked over to Millennium Park which has all sorts of sculptures and statues, an outdoor performing arts center, and a lot of events for the community.

My favorite part of Millennium Park was the Bean. The Bean is this ginormous kidney-shaped reflective piece of art that just sits in the middle of this cement patio. You can see the reflections of the skyscrapers and all the people nearby.

If you walk underneath the Bean you get caught up in all the crazy reflections where the surface is curved. It’s cool!

I also liked this exhibit. It was two large sculptures with videos of faces. You can see one here, and the other one was across the way. They would smile at each other, and sometimes squirt water out at the crowd. It must have been nice for those kids down there in the fountain!

We stopped into a couple of shops, but didn’t buy anything — mainly we just wanted to get out of the hot Chicago air and into some lovely AC! Chicago is a very artsy city.  There are sculptures and intricate architecture all over the city.  It was quite a vibrant place to stroll through, and presumably, to live.

Navy Pier was the last stop on our day trip. The Pier is chock-full of things to do: the Chicago Children’s Museum, a ferris wheel, a mall, lots of boat tours, and many options for food. We refreshed ourselves with some ice cream

Instead of walking all the way back to Union Station, we hopped on a water taxi for only a couple bucks! Not only was it nice to feel the cool breeze from the speed of the boat, but the water taxi was a nice way to tour the city on the Chicago River.

Shortly after we hopped a train to Grand Rapids. Our train ride took almost an hour longer, but I had no problem giving up control to the good people of Amtrak. All I wanted to do was enjoy the scenery and doze. Tomorrow we’ll spend the day in Grand Rapids, then it’s up bright and early Monday morning to start making my way west again!