I had been living in Germany for 3 years by the time this trip rolled around. Other than a short weekend in the USA in conjunction with a business trip, I hadn’t been home for a few years, and it was time to visit.
A friend of mine and I flew out in October, and our first destination was Chicago, where we visited an old friend of mine. Together, we checked out some sites to show my German friend around a bit.
Looking out to Millennium Park from the pavilion
While I was in my semester abroad in Germany, I of course talked to Germans while I was there. We would invariably end up discussing the places we had been to in each other’s countries. I had traveled quite a bit in Germany, and I had been to many German cities that quite a few other Germans had not been to. On the other hand, a lot of Germans had been to a lot of cities from the United stated that I had yet to go to. That was largely due to the fact that I had never been to the East Coast.
After I finished University, without any other plans, I had decided to move to Germany. But first, I wanted to travel within the United States a bit more. As such, I decided to spend a few months on the East Coast.
I was living in Wyoming, and I first drove to Chicago to see some friends there. One thing we did was set up a free hugs stand downtown, which was a lot of fun.
I didn’t feel like driving any further because I was afraid of my car breaking down. Additionally, I was looking to save some money, so I started hitchhiking. I went to the south side of Chicago, went to an onramp for the interstate and stuck out my thumb. Continue reading
After living in Chicago for a few years, there were some specific attractions that stuck out as the most interesting for my friends me. If you are going to be visiting Chicago for a few days—or even live there—these were some of the cooler things we checked out that might interest others. Continue reading
Again, in line with my previous posts, these are just a couple of the more significant activities I did while I was living in Chicago.
One of the places my friends and I liked to go to if we had the opportunity was Xtreme trampolines, which was an indoor trampoline park. I am 90% sure that was the name of the location, but I can’t seem to find it anymore. Perhaps they went out of business or changed locations? Continue reading
Following up my previous posts about things I did while I lived in Chicago, this post will be about The Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Auto Show.
One winter night, a chilling rain fell upon the Chicago area which then froze overnight. It’s pretty unrelated to this post, but there happens to be a picture I took around the same time and I wanted to show it.
Another evening, I went to the Art Institute to check out the exhibits. The Art Institute of Chicago is conveniently located downtown at the edge of the Millenium Park so it was easy to get to after getting downtown. Continue reading
While my brother, Carson, was visiting me in Chicago, we went to some more things together.
The first thing I will talk about that we went to is Medieval Times. I remember watching The Cable Guy with Jim Carrey in it a long time ago. At one point in that movie, they go to that restaurant and it looked pretty fun. Lo and behold, it’s an actual thing and one of their locations is in the Chicago area.
So while my brother was visiting me, I surprised him with a visit there.
The “King”
This week I will go over some more locations I visited while living in Chicago.
At 100 stories tall, the Hancock Building is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city—the 4th tallest to be precise. At the top is an observatory which one can visit to get a nice view of the city. Some people claim that it’s the better of the 2 observatories (the other being the Sears Tower) to visit since you are a little more removed from downtown and can therefore see downtown a bit easier. I think both are fine and have their own appeal.Chicago: Hancock Building, Sears Tower & Alder Planetarium
Downtown Chicago
While living in Chicago, I went on many small outings with my friends—I will sum up 3 of them in this article.
One of the first big things I did after moving back to Chicago was to visit Chinatown, which is just to the south of downtown.
I went there with 3 friends, and after reaching Chinatown, we walked around for a bit, mostly just checking out the architecture. We quickly found a square that had all the Zodiac signs, and in the effort to not bore you with showing you all of them, I’ll just show the best one (because it’s my Zodiac sign). Continue reading
After living in Chicago for a year, I had moved back to Wyoming after quitting Fry’s and running out of money. While Living in Wyoming for about 9 months, I didn’t do too much other than work a lot and get back on my feet. I did visit my friend in Portland by chance, which was cool, but not much else.
I was missing my friends in Chicago, so the spring after I had moved away, I moved back to Chicago. I got a job and actually had some money to do things in Chicago, unlike the last time when I was a poor college student and didn’t really do much but study, party, and play Magic: The Gathering.
While moving into my friend’s place for a while, I ended up befriending Aaron, and shortly thereafter, we decided to go downtown for his birthday.
Without much of a plan, we started walking around Millennium park and saw a bunch of temporary sculptures. Continue reading
I moved from Wyoming to Chicago in 2008 to go to University.
My dad drove with me all the way from Wyoming and helped me move in and get my bearings before he flew back home. Before he left, though, we checked out Chicago together. I remember the first thing we did was drive downtown and park in a parking garage. What a mistake that was! I think we had to pay about $10 an hour, which racked up quite a bill for just one downtown evening. That was the first and last time I ever drove downtown, instead opting to take the Metra from then on, which is a considerably cheaper option. What we did see downtown was pretty cool, though. Continue reading