Places visited: Chicago: Lake Michigan, Maggie Daley Park, Millennium Park, The Art Institute, Navy Pier, Centennial Wheel, Kelley, Lincoln Park Zoo.
Date: 22/6/2018 to 24/6/2018
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika
For last many weekends we are trying to plan a trip to Chicago but due to higher prices of bus, we could not make it. Finally Radhika started crying "I want to meet Kelley Mavshi and Tara" and she got very angry on us that we were always cancelling the Chicago trip. So finally we found a good weekend and booked the Greyhound bus.
22/6/2018:
On Friday Uday dropped us at Davenport bus station. It is actually a Trailways bus station which is Greyhound partner. The bus started at 12:15 PM. It was full of people. Usually business people do
not travel by bus, here. There were many people who did not appropriate to be friend of. These people were not looking like the ones I see if office. So it reminded me exactly of the state transport buses from India. In mid-west USA, one of my friend told me that, the bus is used by those people who do not have driving license; And then the people who do not have driving license are either drug addicts or criminals. Hahahaha. scary? Though, I felt safe in the bus, but I would not recommend the bus journey if you are looking for a classy and comfortable ride. The seats are not much reclining, the wifi was broken and the toilet inside the bus was not as clean as you find it in malls/offices. You can not expect so much luxury in just $22. Still, the bus journey is tolerable for 3 hours. Do not worry. It is safe and reliable, event safer than car as statistically there were lesser mishaps of bus than car. The bus dropped us at Chicago's Greyhound bus station at West
Harrison Street and we took Uber to reach to our hotel "Chicago's Essex Inn". As per my research, this is the cheapest hotel on Michigan Avenue near Millennium Park area. The hotel is soon going to be converted into Apartments. The hotel was good. The rooms were small which usually are in any metro city. It was on the 12th floor and we were getting a nice view of the lake as well as Buckingham Fountain. (Uday had told us to visit this fountain, and we were surprised to see that its so close from the hotel.)
We had already eaten the Paratha in bus which Juilee took for us. We ate the leftovers in the room along with hot cup of masala tea (We used coffee maker to get the hot water and prepared the tea using Grinar Tea Premix).
We came out of the room at around 5:30 PM and then started walking towards the Buckingham Fountain. It was a 10 minutes walk. The weather was cloudy and cool. After enjoying the views of fountain, we sat for a while on Lake Michigan. I went to Chicago 3 times till now, but this was the first time I sat on the lake. It is a huge lake, where you can not see the boundaries. There are cruse and boating options available depending on weather conditions, which typically are open in Summer after May 1. We walked from the lake side and reached to Maggie Daley Park. Radhika played for some time in there. The rain came for a little time which allowed Radhika to use her rain poncho for
the first time. We were little tired, so we sat for a while and ate "Tikhtamithachya Purya" in the park. Then we started walking towards Millennium Park. Your trip to Chicago can not be complete if you do not take photo at the Bean (and my past all trips were incomplete because of this). We finally arrived at the Bean and spent almost an hour there. The park has security checks at every entrance. There was a music symphony show going on which we missed as we sat near the Bean. As we went closer to the show by following the directions from where the symphonies were coming from, the show ended by producing that typical ending note (from Mozart, I guess). Pow Pow Pow Powwwww.... like that. We were disappointed. As we were hungry and tired, we walked out of the park to search for a cab to go to some near by Itallian Village named restaurant, but we found a Subway just in front of us, so we went to Subway and had Veggie Patty Sub. This is a good life saver for vegetarian people while wandering in USA. Subway has more vegetarian options than McD.
We came back to hotel and were too tired to do anything else. We went to deep sleep in no time.
23/6/2018:
In the morning, we got ready by 9:30 AM and went to the Art Institute which is again like 5 minutes
by walk from this hotel. But we wanted to preserve our energy so we took Uber. We waited for some 30 minutes at the gate as it was yet to open. We saw some street music performances. As the gates opened, we went to buy tickets and the security guard asked us to take all the food and drinks out of the sack (he gave us a plastic bag to keep all those and take inside the museum) and keep the sack in lockers. As I took all the foods and drinks outside, he stopped us because we had "Tikhtamithachya Purya" with us. Coke, Water, protein bars are allowed inside the
museum in a plastic bag, but this unpacked food was not allwoed. He told us to either finish it outside or throw it away. We were in dilemma, so we went outside and sat for some time thinking what to do. I got an notorious idea - I re-packed the "purya" deep inside the sack and then gave that sack to the guard. He thought that we ate the "purya" and accepted the sack to be kept in locker. Funny! isn't it? The other protein bars and Gatorade bottles were allowed inside the museum in a plastic bag.
As we entered, we first went to the place which is called as Fullerton Hall.
The 1893 World's Parliament of Religions—held in conjunction with the Colombian Exposition in Chicago—took place at the Permanent Memorial Art Palace, now known as the Art Institute of Chicago. The original U-shaped structure framed an open court that had been converted to two assembly halls for the occasion. (The museum's Fullerton Hall and Woman's Board Grand Staircase now occupy the site.). The Parliament opened on September 11, 1893, with international representatives of the world's religions present. An Indian delegate, Swami Vivekananda, riveted the audience with his call for
religious tolerance and an end to fanaticism. Over the next several weeks, thousands of attendees came to hear Swami Vivekananda and other leaders speak, making the Parliament a watershed moment in interfaith dialogue.
To mark the anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's landmark address and in remembrance of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 108 years later on that very date, September 11, Indian artist Jitish Kallat created Public Notice 3, a site-specific installation on the Art Institute's Woman's Board Grand Staircase.
On January 28, 2012, the Art Institute of Chicago, in conjunction with the Republic of India, reinstalled a plaque commemorating Vivekananda's landmark speech outside Fullerton Hall.
The hall is not visited by many visitors as they do not understand its significance. Mostly Indian people visit this hall. So it is usually very calm and quiet inside.
We also visited the picture galleries on 2nd and 3rd level. There is a good sectionof miniature homes which can be enjoyed by kids. There are around 50 small models of homes from different time period and from different culture. Radhika liked this a lot.There is a Red Indian exhibition as well (It is named as just "Indian" so we got excited but when we found that it is about "Red Indian", then we got disappointed.). There is a big exhibition of paper weights near the restrooms which is quite interesting. Me and Juilee were indulged in a small personal clash when we were wandering in "Red Indian" exhibit and Radhika also got bored and annoyed with all that museum stuff, so we finally came out and decided to go to Navy Pier which is quite kid-friendly and live!
At Navy Pier we enjoyed Mediterranean lunch having Falafal and bean rice. Then we went to the
Centennial Wheel. There Radhika saw her favorite ride "carousal", so we bought the combo ticket of the wheel and carousel. The queue for the wheel was long because of the holiday so we had to wait almost for an hour or so until we got in. The wheel experience was good, you can see skyline in the background of the lake.
After the wheel ride and carousel ride are done, we got freshened up and called Uber to go to Kelley's home. This was the moment Radhika was waiting for since long. She was not interested in Navy Pier, neither in Millennium Park. All she wanted to do was to meet Kelley and Tara and play with Tara for all day long. We reached to Kelley's home at around 5:00 PM. She came to receive us at the reception of her apartments. As we entered her home, Tara came forward to welcome us by wagging her tell. Radhika's eyes were all pounding with happiness as she was meeting her after a long long time. Radhika and Tara played for an hour or so. Me, Juilee and Kelley were chatting about many different things. I was so happy that Tara was remembering us. (But I am still afraid of dogs. Hahahaha.). After some time we all said bye to Tara as
Kelley took us for a nice Loop ride (railway in Chicago). The ride was good. We went to eat a Chicago style deep dish pizza. Meanwhile as we ordered our pizza, we also went to see a funny fountain where the water comes out from mouth of different faces projected on big LCD screens. The pizza was delicious. We all were too tired and feeling too sleepy, we exchanged good byes with Kelley and then went to our room and went straight to bed (after discussing for few minutes about the next day's plan).
24/6/2018:
We woke up little late and ate the Kappa Pohe and Kappa Upama for breakfast. This "Kappa" thing is another lifesaver breakfast, if you have hot water available with you.
We were debating on which thing will be suitable for Radhika - Field Museum or any other thing? And finally decided to go to Lincoln Park Zoo. We took an Uber. Taxis can drop you till the entrance because there are zero fees if they get out of the parking lot within 30 minutes. So they drop you inside the parking lot just at the zoo entrance. The entry to the zoo is free, but then the food and drinks are somewhat expensive. You can take your own food and drinks inside.
It was a sunny day but not much hot. The zoo displayed good variety of animals and birds. There were seals, zebras, camels, flamingos, gorillas, etc. The gorilla was looking exactly like KingKong. We spent around 3 hours there and then headed for lunch. There are 3 different cafes in the zoo. One of the cafe is like a fine dinning restaurant. One cafe is "bring your own food" kind of thing. And the other cafe is relatively light on the pocket. We chose the third one and had pizza, Rice+Beans and Chips. We were really in short of time so we literally ran towards the Exit gate after the lunch and booked an Uber. This Uber person did not know the rule of 30 minutes free parking and hence we had to run from zoo entrance till the parking entrance. It
took us 10 minutes to find the cab and start the trip towards the hotel (we kept our luggage at the hotel reception). There was lot of traffic on roads and we were really worried about the time. Somehow our driver managed to drop us at the Greyhound station 5 minutes before bus's departure. We were the last ones to check-in and we got 3 different seats in the bus (still closer to each other). The bus from Chicago to Davenport takes little more than 3 hours and 30 minutes as it stops at Naperville for 20 minutes. There Juilee got down to get some coffee. There was no coffee at the station, so went into a Bar/Pub kind of shop. She got coffee from the Pub. I think this was the first time someone took coffee from a Pub . Hahahaha. She got it for free as the cashier lady did not have coffee in her computer system. Weird?
We reached Davenport at around 7:15 PM and Uday drove us back to Springs.
It was an awesome trip. Highlight for Radhika was "playing with Tara". We do not allow her to play with dogs in India. She gets to play with dogs in USA more often.
Now-a-days, Me and Juilee have to plan our trips by considering which things are suitable for Radhika's agegroup (6 years). For example Radhika was not interested to see Art Institute. She found more fun in Carousel. Let us see how we will do our future trip!
Expenses:
Bus = $120 (for 2 Adults and 1 Kid)
Chicago's Essex Inn = $420 for 2 nights 2 Adults
The Centennial Wheel and Carousal Combo = $60 (for 2 Adults and 1 Kid)
Lincoln Park Zoo stroller rental = $9
Taxi = Approx. $100
Food = Apprx. $150
Details:
Greyhound Bus: https://www.greyhound.com/en/
Chicago's Essex Inn: http://www.essexinn.com/
The Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.artic.edu/
Navy Pier and The Centennial Wheel: https://navypier.org/visit/buy-tickets/?keyword=navy%20pier%20park%20packages
Pizano's Pizza & Pasta: Mallers Building, 61 E Madison St, Chicago, Phone (312) 236-1777.
Lincoln Park Zoo: https://www.lpzoo.org/
Date: 22/6/2018 to 24/6/2018
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika
For last many weekends we are trying to plan a trip to Chicago but due to higher prices of bus, we could not make it. Finally Radhika started crying "I want to meet Kelley Mavshi and Tara" and she got very angry on us that we were always cancelling the Chicago trip. So finally we found a good weekend and booked the Greyhound bus.
22/6/2018:
On Friday Uday dropped us at Davenport bus station. It is actually a Trailways bus station which is Greyhound partner. The bus started at 12:15 PM. It was full of people. Usually business people do
not travel by bus, here. There were many people who did not appropriate to be friend of. These people were not looking like the ones I see if office. So it reminded me exactly of the state transport buses from India. In mid-west USA, one of my friend told me that, the bus is used by those people who do not have driving license; And then the people who do not have driving license are either drug addicts or criminals. Hahahaha. scary? Though, I felt safe in the bus, but I would not recommend the bus journey if you are looking for a classy and comfortable ride. The seats are not much reclining, the wifi was broken and the toilet inside the bus was not as clean as you find it in malls/offices. You can not expect so much luxury in just $22. Still, the bus journey is tolerable for 3 hours. Do not worry. It is safe and reliable, event safer than car as statistically there were lesser mishaps of bus than car. The bus dropped us at Chicago's Greyhound bus station at West 
Harrison Street and we took Uber to reach to our hotel "Chicago's Essex Inn". As per my research, this is the cheapest hotel on Michigan Avenue near Millennium Park area. The hotel is soon going to be converted into Apartments. The hotel was good. The rooms were small which usually are in any metro city. It was on the 12th floor and we were getting a nice view of the lake as well as Buckingham Fountain. (Uday had told us to visit this fountain, and we were surprised to see that its so close from the hotel.)
We had already eaten the Paratha in bus which Juilee took for us. We ate the leftovers in the room along with hot cup of masala tea (We used coffee maker to get the hot water and prepared the tea using Grinar Tea Premix).We came out of the room at around 5:30 PM and then started walking towards the Buckingham Fountain. It was a 10 minutes walk. The weather was cloudy and cool. After enjoying the views of fountain, we sat for a while on Lake Michigan. I went to Chicago 3 times till now, but this was the first time I sat on the lake. It is a huge lake, where you can not see the boundaries. There are cruse and boating options available depending on weather conditions, which typically are open in Summer after May 1. We walked from the lake side and reached to Maggie Daley Park. Radhika played for some time in there. The rain came for a little time which allowed Radhika to use her rain poncho for
We came back to hotel and were too tired to do anything else. We went to deep sleep in no time.
23/6/2018:
In the morning, we got ready by 9:30 AM and went to the Art Institute which is again like 5 minutes
As we entered, we first went to the place which is called as Fullerton Hall.
The 1893 World's Parliament of Religions—held in conjunction with the Colombian Exposition in Chicago—took place at the Permanent Memorial Art Palace, now known as the Art Institute of Chicago. The original U-shaped structure framed an open court that had been converted to two assembly halls for the occasion. (The museum's Fullerton Hall and Woman's Board Grand Staircase now occupy the site.). The Parliament opened on September 11, 1893, with international representatives of the world's religions present. An Indian delegate, Swami Vivekananda, riveted the audience with his call for
On January 28, 2012, the Art Institute of Chicago, in conjunction with the Republic of India, reinstalled a plaque commemorating Vivekananda's landmark speech outside Fullerton Hall.
The hall is not visited by many visitors as they do not understand its significance. Mostly Indian people visit this hall. So it is usually very calm and quiet inside.
We also visited the picture galleries on 2nd and 3rd level. There is a good sectionof miniature homes which can be enjoyed by kids. There are around 50 small models of homes from different time period and from different culture. Radhika liked this a lot.There is a Red Indian exhibition as well (It is named as just "Indian" so we got excited but when we found that it is about "Red Indian", then we got disappointed.). There is a big exhibition of paper weights near the restrooms which is quite interesting. Me and Juilee were indulged in a small personal clash when we were wandering in "Red Indian" exhibit and Radhika also got bored and annoyed with all that museum stuff, so we finally came out and decided to go to Navy Pier which is quite kid-friendly and live!
At Navy Pier we enjoyed Mediterranean lunch having Falafal and bean rice. Then we went to the
After the wheel ride and carousel ride are done, we got freshened up and called Uber to go to Kelley's home. This was the moment Radhika was waiting for since long. She was not interested in Navy Pier, neither in Millennium Park. All she wanted to do was to meet Kelley and Tara and play with Tara for all day long. We reached to Kelley's home at around 5:00 PM. She came to receive us at the reception of her apartments. As we entered her home, Tara came forward to welcome us by wagging her tell. Radhika's eyes were all pounding with happiness as she was meeting her after a long long time. Radhika and Tara played for an hour or so. Me, Juilee and Kelley were chatting about many different things. I was so happy that Tara was remembering us. (But I am still afraid of dogs. Hahahaha.). After some time we all said bye to Tara as
24/6/2018:
We woke up little late and ate the Kappa Pohe and Kappa Upama for breakfast. This "Kappa" thing is another lifesaver breakfast, if you have hot water available with you.
We reached Davenport at around 7:15 PM and Uday drove us back to Springs.
Now-a-days, Me and Juilee have to plan our trips by considering which things are suitable for Radhika's agegroup (6 years). For example Radhika was not interested to see Art Institute. She found more fun in Carousel. Let us see how we will do our future trip!
Expenses:
Bus = $120 (for 2 Adults and 1 Kid)
Chicago's Essex Inn = $420 for 2 nights 2 Adults
The Centennial Wheel and Carousal Combo = $60 (for 2 Adults and 1 Kid)
Lincoln Park Zoo stroller rental = $9
Taxi = Approx. $100
Food = Apprx. $150
Details:
Greyhound Bus: https://www.greyhound.com/en/
Chicago's Essex Inn: http://www.essexinn.com/
The Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.artic.edu/
Navy Pier and The Centennial Wheel: https://navypier.org/visit/buy-tickets/?keyword=navy%20pier%20park%20packages
Pizano's Pizza & Pasta: Mallers Building, 61 E Madison St, Chicago, Phone (312) 236-1777.
Lincoln Park Zoo: https://www.lpzoo.org/
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