Chicago with love

Chicago - we love you. What an awesome city, my 2nd favourite in the USA.

I loved it within 10 minutes of getting off the airport train.  It has large streets, is really clean and the architecture is amazing.

 I walked around as much as I could in my 3 days there and am happy to say that all the necessary shops were present and more.. But... you pay more tax in Chicago than NYC on general goods so shopping was not high on my list.

I did a 4 hour tour that took in both the north and south of the city of Chicago, great idea as I got to cover a lot of ground with an informative (tho a little rehearsed) narration.  The tour even went by the Obama's Chicago residence but all you can see is thick trees so no photo - just think of some tall green trees and you are picturing what I can say is the Obama residence.

 Millennium park is a central park in Chicago, it has a huge outside auditorium much like the Myer music bowl in Melbourne and a theatre, art institute, parkland, plaza complete with a year long ice skating rink and many famous sculptures - Chicago is very art and sculpture savvy.

 This sculpture is a focal point in the park and tourists flock to it.  It is a sculpture by Anish Kapoor (Indian/British sculptor) called Silver cloud - the locals call it the bean.  It picks up all reflections and is actually super cool.

Can you tell I loved it.....

And of course that ice skating rink to tempt (taunt) me once again .......

 Architecturally Chicago ticks all the boxes for me - I think I love cities because of the diverse buildings. I marvel that most of the buildings are 100's of years old and think how did the people way back then without the mod cons of today build these amazing, still standing and functioning buildings..... It fascinates and impresses me.

 Chicago is also very sports orientated and there are 2 major sporting fields there - the Chicago cubs baseball ground and the other is Wrigley field.

 We also went to the Chicago Zoo on the tour - it was a great zoo and is free to the public - great for families.

Enough from me, I am not a travel writer and I know it gets boring  looking at other peoples travel photos.  I really like Chicago and would go again, I had three days there which was enough to look over the city but I am sure there is more to do out of the city centre - Milwaukee is only a few hours away which I believe is also worth a look.  I also think Chicago reminded me of Melbourne a little so maybe there lies the attraction plus it is not as noisy and crazy busy as NYC - a nice change.

Thanks Chicago and thanks to the Westin.... I love your amazing beds!