Chicago, the Windy City

Having no time to write and put up photos during my intense travel schedule, I am writing this in the comfort of my new room in O'Rorke Hall, in Auckland. So, there were eight main points that I traveled to during the 16 or so days, starting with Chicago!

Instead of going directly to the East Coast of the US as first planned, I changed my mind and decided to add Chicago as one of my stops, instead of simply flying over it. Chicago is the third largest city in the US, and is located near Lake Michigan, one of the Great Lakes. I thought that going to a non-coastal US city like Chicago would be a different experience.

First up, in the morning I took a walk down Michigan Avenue and then towards the lake to Navy Pier. On the way there were some interesting points, such as the shallow pool on the city side of Millennium Park which... cooled people down, to keep things simple. The day was scorching hot, so walking through the shallow pool with bare feet seemed like a good idea, until I saw that the average age of the people actually using it was around 8 (with parents of toddlers raising that average).

Navy Pier used to be a shipping facility, but is now more like an entertainment center both for tourists and locals. What used to be a training base for the US Navy now has on it a McDonald's Ferris Wheel (one of the largest ones in the USA), justifying its popularity.

Views of the Chicago skyline from Navy Pier were nice, such as this one. The cool looking building that stands out is the Hancock Observatory.

I then strolled into Millennium Park again and saw some very weirdly shaped stuctures, such as the Petrillo Music Shell (its unique construction perhaps serves to maximise sound transmission efficiency?) and "the Bean" (I am not sure what its function is...maybe just to be shiny and look cool). On my way out of the park, I met another guy that went to UCSD recognizing my shirt, both of us remaining loyal to our schools.

I headed further south towards where many museums were, where I had a nap under a tree near the Adler Planetarium (which was real good).

Buckingham Fountain is seen during the intro of the sitcom "Married with Children". This huge fountain would every hour, sprout a massive jet of water.

The next day, I spent the morning hours seeing the shops on "The Magnificent Mile", which is the northern part of Michigan Ave, briefly visited Northwestern University, and then went up the Sears Tower later on that afternoon.

The Sears Tower is one of the tallest buildings in the world with 110 stories! At the observatory deck, I could see the broader Chicago area including the suburbs, and could also trace the steps that I took over the past two days.

Chicago is nicknamed "the Windy City" and I could attest to that after my brief visit. Also, I noticed that there were not many Asians here at all, with African Americans making up most of Chicago's population. Personally though I enjoyed Chicago, partly since it was very new-looking in terms of infrastructure. This is mainly due to the famous Chicago Fire of 1871 that once wreaked havoc in the downtown area.

Next up...Toronto!