Tom's Travel Blog

In April 2023 we went to Chicago and Mississippi while visiting our daughter. She lives in Mississippi with her husband and his family. This was a trip of two halves: some days in Chicago at either end of the trip, and some days in Mississippi in the middle. This first post will cover Chicago.

We’ve never been to the Windy City but other people had told us that it’s worth visiting, and having now done so ourselves, we would agree. We landed at O’Hare airport (Chicago’s main airport, of two) late afternoon at the end of our flight from Heathrow. Flying time was about eight and a half hours. O’Hare is 20 miles or more from our hotel in downtown Chicago, and the taxi we took cost us over $100. Partly this was because it’s a long way, and partly because, thanks to hold-ups caused by roadworks, it took us over an hour. It’s also possible that we ended up in the wrong sort of taxi, i.e. a more-expensive mini-van. Happily we had a couple of hundred US dollars in cash with us so were able to pay – the taxi didn’t take cards – but it was an expensive start to the holiday.

We were staying at a hotel at Wolf Point, in the downtown area – just across the Chicago river from the Loop. This was fine – a spacious and comfortable room, good facilities in the hotel, and of course handy for downtown. Not the cheapest but anywhere significantly cheaper was a long way further out. We enjoy being able to walk around the cities we visit, so staying centrally was our natural choice.

We had three nights in Chicago at the beginning of the holiday which gave us two full days, plus whatever was left on arrival day. However the time difference of six hours meant that arriving at about 4:30pm felt like 10:30pm to us so we were in bed by not long after 8pm – that felt like 2am to us, and we’d had an early start to the day in London.

On the first morning we had book a walk with a Chicago Greeter. This gave us a three to four hour walk around the downtown area and into Millennium Park. We had expressed an interest in Chicago’s architecture, and our guide, Peter Orlinsky, gave us an in-depth exploration of that topic, covering the main developments from the time of the great Chicago fire in 1871. This destroyed almost all of the existing downtown area, and it so happened that the rebuilding period coincided with the development of steel-frame construction, so the skyscraper was born in Chicago and has never really left. Peter took us into many buildings both historic and new, and explained their history and significance. This was an interesting and rewarding excursion, and was also free – Chicago Greeter’s policy is that there shall be no charge, or tip, for the tours – it’s Chicago residents talking about their city. Thoroughly recommended. Here’s a link the to website.

Still feeling tired from the flight we explored the Chicago riverfront area for a while after the walk, found somewhere to eat for the evening, then went back to the hotel and rested for a while. It’s worth saying that the weather during these two days was excellent – sunny, with temperatures into the low 20s, and dry.

The following day – our second full day – we took the elevated railroad – the L – out towards Lincoln Park. This is north of the downtown area and stretches alongside the shore of Lake Michigan for several miles. It’s a mixture of open grassed areas, some sports fields, beaches, a zoo, and other cultural attractions. On our way from the L at Sedgwick towards the park we called in to a Foxtrot Market on the edge of an area called Old Town and had an excellent coffee and sticky bun, then pressed on to the park.

We walked around it for a while and then decided to explore the zoo (a free attraction). We found that we didn’t really enjoy this so much – it was a very traditional zoo on a constrained site, so numerous rather small enclosures containing large animals. There were better features, for example a pavilion with a collection of very small reptiles and mammals all in very carefully-built and suitable environments, and that was more enjoyable, but I don’t think I would recommend the zoo. In all zoos I’m aware that the animals are in very artificial and often constrained environments. These days I wonder what visitors can learn from visiting a zoo that they can’t actually get from a David Attenborough wildlife documentary.

The zoo was followed by one of the highlights of the trip, a visit to the Chicago History Museum, which is located on the edge of the park. This is a big institution and we were already tired, so we restricted ourselves to a big exhibit about the Great Chicago Fire. Even so, we were there for over an hour. This was interesting and engaging – there are lots of exhibits from the fire itself, for example photographs of the aftermath, documents about it (e.g. letters from those who experienced it), paintings, and artifacts saved from the fire. We enjoyed it. Then it was back to the Foxtrot Market for a reviving cup of tea, and back to the hotel on the L.

After our days in Mississippi we returned to Chicago during the Sunday evening. We were staying at the same hotel, and used the L from Midway into the loop to get there. But it was cold – temperatures had dropped while were in the south to just about freezing, and slight snowfalls were forecast were the night. Walking back to Wolf Point from Clarke/Lake L station was a cold business, especially as Chicago was living up to its epithet that evening.

Our flight back to London was the following evening, so we had the day to fill. We had a lazy morning, including coffee at Merchandise Mart (attached to the hotel) then checked out at noon. We left our bags with the concierge and got an Uber to the Science and Industry Museum, where we spent just a few hours. This is a huge museum – we could have spent whole days here – but time was limited so we contented ourselves with some time in the Great Train Story gallery, followed by stepping inside the fuselage of a Boeing 727 which was suspended from the ceiling. We finished our visit by visiting their U-Boat (!) – U-505, captured intact by the US Navy in 1944. It was towed back to the US for investigation and research, and eventually put into storage. Some years later the submarine was handed over to this museum and installed in a basement gallery. It’s difficult to explain just how imposing it is – much bigger than I had anticipated.

We really enjoyed our visit to this museum and wished had more time, but we had a plane to catch in the mid-evening. So it was back to the hotel by Uber again, then a walk round to the L to get the train out to O’Hare – no $100 taxi ride this time!

We were very impressed with Chicago, and I have a feeling we’ll be returning.

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