Chicago ... The Windy City

Chicago (Carly): 12 January 2007

Hi Nan and Alan!

We're having a great time in Chicago! we were sick of roughing it so we booked into a Best Western. We're across the road from a park and can see Lake Michigan the other side of it through our window! The hotel has a fitness room too so we're trying to get off a bit of the USA weight! LOL!!! Not that Adam has any he still looks exactly the same as the day we left!

We've been up Sears Tower, the 3rd tallest building in the world, it was tallest for 16yrs then one in Malaysia topped it but the roof height was slightly lower - it must have had a big pole on the roof or something. Anyways now all the argument about that is over as there is a bigger one in Taiwan. But it is the tallest building I've ever been in and as no trips to Malaysia or Taiwan are planned probably the tallest one I'll be in for a while! Today we went to a Science and Industry Museum. It was lots of fun because its all geared up to kids out here, we saw some interesting stuff on genetics - cloning and GM foods but the best part of that was seeing tiny chicks that had just hatched!

Hope all is well at home!

Lots of love Carly and Adam xxxx

The Windy City (Carly): 14 January 2007

Hi guys!

And so we found ourselves in another great American city. Chicago is renowned for its mafia, pizza and of course the wind! We soon discovered that it is aptly called the Windy City. In fact there were pretty much non-stop gales the whole time we were there! American city design doesn't help either, because all of the roads are wide and straight the wind howls through the streets and at times we actually had trouble staying upright! The wind meant that we were freezing all of the time but it made getting indoors such a treat and gave us that invigorating feeling when we were walking around the city.

Chicago has a relaxed atmosphere and doesn't feel too crowded. Also I noticed that it was one of the few places in the world where my hair behaves itself. This was probably a significant factor in my decision that if I had to work outside of London (and this is by no means saying that I want to) I would chose Chicago or maybe Seattle (hair was ok there too!). We stayed in a Best Western next to Grant Park and on the first street next to Lake Michigan. The Lake is absolutely huge, we could not see an end to it in any direction. Its no wonder that the American Indians thought that it was the sea. I think the vast lake adds to the tranquility of the city, its hard to be stressed when you are that close to such an incredible bit of nature!

There's lots to do in Chicago too..

Of course we went up Sears tower, surprisingly considering it is so big it was quite difficult to find, as we got close we keep losing it behind other buildings! It is another classic example of American "everything we do has to be the biggest and the best", there were lots of statistics about when and for how long it was the tallest building in the world. Seriously though Sears tower was a lot of fun, all the way around the inside there is an impressive display covering the history of Chicago (right back to the first swampy settlement), famous Chicagoans, art, culture, politics, sports and even a display at child height with facts about children through the ages in Chicago. It was a lot of fun and we stayed up there for hours! We were even treated to a beautiful sunset. As Chicago is in the middle of a flat expanse of land we could see for miles and miles in all directions (and still no sign of any edges to Lake Michigan!!). On our way back we stopped off at Garrett's Popcorn Shop where I went for the Chicago mix cheese and caramel. I thought they would come separately but to my surprise they were mixed in together oddly delicious!

Feeling a little cultural we spent a day in the Museum of Science and Industry, it was not exactly what we were expecting the whole place was like the kids section in our own Science Museum. We went to the robot display first where we were amazed to find hundreds of toy robots from the 60 's and 70 's. There was a cool cinema where films were played on the dome shaped roof. We laid back and watched Volcanoes under the Sea ' with tons of kids on school trips! The film was much better than we had expected it was very scientific and interesting! On our way back we walked through the University of Chicago and Washington Park. It didn't look far on the map but took over an hour we were beginning to realise why Americans don't walk anywhere. In Chicago everything is so far apart and the city stretches out for miles and miles away from Lake Michigan!

There was of course lots of shopping to do on the Mag Mile - well I was with Mr Shopaholic himself! As well as shops the Mag Mile also has a cute firehouse and water tower and the home of the Chicago Tribune (newspaper place)

On penultimate day we decided to do our own walking tour of the Top 10 Film Locations in Chicago. Ah yes many classics have been filmed in that great city including my personal favourite "While you were Sleeping", and of course "Blues Brothers". My all-time favourite film was also set in Chicago "Never been kissed", sadly we did not make it to the offices of the Chicago Sun Times, though we did see a few other familiar sites from the film. I was also shocked that the film was not in the Top 10. Later we took a trip out to the exhibition place where we enjoyed a gallery of stained glass art and the fun fair atmosphere. The free trolley bus to and from the Mag Mile was also a highlight!

No trip to Chicago is complete with a trip to the Field Museum, it also fitted in with our film theme as it was used in 'The Relic'. We learnt lots of new things about Eskimos and Inuits for example how to make a box by folding one piece of wood. There is a huge taxidermy section where we saw the lions of Tsavo the two man-eaters behind the film 'The Ghost and the Darkness'. The actual lions were not that impressive as their skins had been used to make smaller models two many bullet holes for a life-size version! Without a doubt though the highlight was Inside Egypt where we got to admire amazing artefacts in a reconstructed tomb and the information was great we learnt that the Egyptians used to mummify cats and that when mummies were first discovered they were in such plentiful supply that they were shipped to England to be recycled into food seasoning sick or what?!

But the best find of the trip has to be a large silver mirrored thing in Millenium Park which looked just like the spaceship in 'Flight of the Navigator '! It was so cool that we both decided it was a must-have ornament for our gardens one day when we are rich!

Love Carly xxx