Of Chicago - Best City Ever!

I have found my place. I had that same gut reaction to it as I did when I visited London ... it just felt right. Let me preface this by saying that what may have added to my experience (besides the architecture, layout, etc) are the PEOPLE. I don't know why there's a general belief that Canadians are the nice ones, because Chicagoans are BY FAR the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of interacting with. At the airport, at the hotel, in the stores and the cafes - everyone is so NICE! They smile, they ask about your day, they chat ... Even the TSA agents. That's right. And as soon as I was passing through Canadian customs (with Canadian workers), the change was so abrupt, it was kinda ridiculous. Gone were the smiles and the jokes and back were the abrupt "move along Ma'am" and such. But that's just my two cents ...

In any case, we started out our day in Evanston ... Now my original plan was to walk to Chicago downtown, because on the map, it all looked so close! My new friends quickly disabused me of the notion however, and we hopped on the metro.

Good to know that if I run out of cash, I can just pay my way with kisses!

 The train runs above ground and it was really great to be able to see the surrounding areas. I was pretty jazzed about the day ...

It may have been the coffee.
Just maybe.

I was also lucky enough to be visiting during the warmest and sunniest weekend in recent history, so there was that as well.

The one thing I do have to say about the trains ... well, I prefer Boston`s T. Which is saying a lot. Thankfully I was chilling with my new friends and didn`t mind, but this thing took forever and a day. It was also quite jostl-y. On the way back, I had to stand and I felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride.

But then we arrived in the downtown area of Chicago, and all that was forgotten. I was in love! The city is just so grand, and so clean and so white! The sense of space (due to the large side walks) but also depth (due to the extremely tall skyscrapers) was extremely pleasing. 

And the thing about the downtown area is that it`s BIG and stretches out for more than just a few blocks (which is the case in all Canadian cities I`ve visited). It`s not just - oh hey, a couple of towers and then we`re back to the suburbs. Nope, it was a veritable city.

After a short stroll, we grabbed some food and headed in the direction of Millenium Park.

Can you tell I was jazzed about getting Chipotle? And my friend Angela was equally jazzed about photobombing me ... In any case, it was my first time at this fine establishment and so I asked for the salad and the extra guac, thinking I'd get a nice little scoop on the side. Nope. The lady shovelled what seemed to be the equivalent of two whole avocados worth of guacamole on top of the lettuce. Needless to say I was full pretty much the entire day.

Eating our lunch outside, picnic-style in Millenium Park was great. The park is so big! And it's not heavily wooded or anything, so you really get the sense of space from how it stretches out between all the tall buildings. And the lake ... ah, the lake. I have determined that wherever I end up living HAS to be in close proximity to water and preferably a lake or an ocean rather than a river. I need to feel the vast expanse, man!

Oh, and as we were eating lunch, we were of course people-watching (because duh, that's what you do in parks, right?) and guess what we saw ...

What, they don't do segway tours in your city? Pity.

I was mega jealous, of course. The only thing that prevented me from rushing out for my very own segway was my equally intense desire not to wear those little yellow helmets in public. Also, they screw up your hair.

Now on the far side of the park is the infamous Bean.

Pretty cool, but I've already seen something similar when I visited some scienc-y museum in Paris. Still, it was pretty darn cool!

Of course from the inside, the bean looks like something ... very very naughty. I of course possess the dirtiest mind in existence and could not help myself from giggling like a five year old.

After passing by a skating rink (right in the middle of the city and everything!) and a couple of drumming bands (seriously, just groups of kids busking on street corners by playing on the backs of buckets and such ... reminded me very much of the fine film Drumline), we stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center to tick off our cultural visit of the day. (Too lazy and cheap to go to actual legit museums).

Therein, we inadvertently stumbled upon another rather inappropriate exhibition (which we of course examined with gusto, and which I will go into more detail on in a future Culture Shock post). Having done our requisite artsy visit, it was onto the Michigan Mile!

God, it was beautiful. I was just having intense I-want-to-move-here-immediately-please-someone-marry-me-and-give-me-a-green-card thoughts. Almost jumped random pedestrians and everything. (On a side note, while I would rank the city as a whole a whopping 10000000 out of 10, the quality of its men was closer to a 2/10. I don't know if all the good looking ones were hiding or something, but man, there were slim pickings!).

And the river, oh wow, the river!

Just ... the colour, and the bridges and EVERYTHING!

However, while I was snapping away tons of photos of the buildings and the river and such (my poor poor new friends, manhandled into being my photographers for the day ...), every male over the age of five was snapping photos elsewhere.

Why yes, that IS a giant status of Marilyn Monroe, and OF COURSE every male in the surrounding area wanted to take a photo standing between her legs. Looking up. Keeping it classy, Chicago!

Walking up Michigan Avenue gave me an insane urge to shop, of course, but I kept my dolla bills close to pay off the hotel for all the room service and mini bar snackage that I had managed to accomplish in my short stay.

So basically, in summary - looking for potential rich future Chicago-residing husband/sugar daddy who would like to finance my move there.

Also -

It's true. They don't call it the Windy City for nothing!