Over the summer we went to the music festival Lollapalooza. We decided to take a road trip through Indiana on our way to Chicago. The trip was a horrible failure of a vacation. We decided to end the trip a day early and spend the day in Chicago. I am so glad we did because I loved Chicago. It definitely made up for our horrible Indiana road trip.
You can read about our nightmare road trip here:
http://wpexpertasia.com/dev/our-horrible-road-trip-through-indiana/
We had planned to do Chicago as part of an Illinois road trip in the future but we took this opportunity to explore a little bit. I came up with a loose itinerary for the day.
We woke up early and left Indiana around 7am. Our first stop was seeing the Obama Kissing Rock.
After that cuteness we went in search of The Secret Mermaid. I had no idea the scenery was going to be so beautiful! We had a great view of the city and we had perfect weather.
On our walk looking for the mermaid we saw a truck driving through the sand to pick up garbage. I thought that was pretty cool! All beaches should have that! But I guess it’s a trade off between garbage and air pollution.
The Secret Mermaid was so pretty. What a beautiful statue.
And she wasn’t too hard to find either!
Once we were done enjoying the area we drove a bit out of the way to the Botanical Gardens. We paid $25 to park in advance. I think if you buy it once you are there it’s more expensive.
The Chicago Botanical Gardens is one of the most beautiful Botanic Gardens I’ve ever been to! And I have been to a lot. I try to go to a botanic gardens in every state or city I visit. The only one I can think of off the top of my head that compares is The Phipps in Philly.
We allotted two hours to be here because we wanted to see more of Chicago. Well we did not even scratch the surface! We could have literally been there all day and in fact, I think the next time I’m in Chicago I might just spend a day here! It’s as if you are walking through a painting. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.
These trees were just heaven on earth. I have about a hundred pictures of them on my laptop. I just couldn’t get enough.
Something I liked about the botanic gardens was all the sculptures and fountains around as well.
One of the most amazing parts was all of the lily pads. Each section had a lily pad full of flowers more beautiful than the last!
We actually saw a woman in the ponds taking care of the lily pads. She was explaining that she has been a volunteer for years. That you can actually sign up to volunteer to take care of the flowers.
The room of bonsai trees was super cool! I find Bonsai trees to be fascinating.
We then entered a desert room. It was full of cacti. It was pretty warm in there. Make sure you bring a water bottle!
The rose garden was beautiful. There was almost every color rose you could think of.
We then took a walk over a bridge to a little island. There honestly wasn’t much on the island but it was a pretty walk.
I highly recommend anyone go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. It was an amazing 2 hours! I can’t wait to go back.
We took a drive over to see the The Home Alone House. We couldn’t go inside but it was cool to see it from the outside. It was actually smaller than we thought it was.
We took a little trip to the Woolly Mammoth Store. It’s a store full of oddities. We were only here for a few minutes. It was strange. I wonder how real things were?
One thing I loved that we did was Oz Park. It’s a park that has statues of Wizard of Oz characters. We didn’t know exactly where the statues were in the park so we walked around looking for them. Luckily the park isn’t too big. They didn’t have the witches.
By this time Mark was pooped. He stayed in the car while I explored Wooden Alley. It’s the only street in the US made of wood. It was really pretty and unique. It reminded me of Elfreth’s Alley in Philly.
Something pretty funny to see is Shit Fountain. Not much to say about that. It’s a fountain of poo. It was funny.
Right next to it is an angel in a cage. I don’t know anything about it or why it’s there but she was beautiful.
Something I loved about Chicago was all of the murals and street art. We were constantly pulling over to take pictures and explore the street art.
I loved this beautiful mural.
We headed to Millennium Park to find The Bean aka Cloud Gate. Millennium park was so beautiful. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend a lot of time here because we booked tickets to a sunset cruise. Next time I definitely want to explore the park more and pack a picnic!
We found Cloud Gate! It was so pretty. Mark finally got a decent picture of me in front of it.
But don’t be fooled by all of those edited pics you see on Instagram. Here was our real experience and pics before we got the above one:
We parked the car in a parking garage under the park and didn’t want to have to move it so we thought about taking an Uber to the pier but Mark found a free trolley that takes you to the pier. We waited about 15 or 20 minutes for it to come and it was a close call but we made it to the pier. We were nervous we were going to miss the cruise so we made a run for it.
There are many options for cruises from the pier but we booked with Spirit Cruises and are so glad we did! The night was perfect. The cruise was kinda pricey but I was so miserable in Indiana that we decided to splurge a little and booked it.
While we waited online to board the boat I was a little nervous because there were so many teenagers. It appeared to be some summer camp or church group trip or something. Well, we were so pleasantly surprised because the teens were so sweet and well behaved. I was shocked. They were so nice. Two of them even offered to take pics of Mark and I with Chicago skyline in the background. So sweet.
The boat was cool. It had games to play. We did not partake but it was cool they had the option.
The weather was perfect and the clouds were dramatic over the city.
The teens took over the dance floor. They were so funny. They kept cheering for their camp leaders to join them. They even took an older solo traveler under their wing and taught her some dance moves. They also chanted for an elderly lady to join them on the dance floor. They definitely enhanced our cruise. They made it so fun for everyone. Their fun and laughter was contagious.
I thought the cruise was beautiful before and then the sun started to set. Wow!
The skyline at night was so beautiful. I couldn’t stop taking pictures and videos!
Something very cool about this sunset cruise is that it also includes a firework show!
I was smiling ear to ear when I got back to the pier. I will definitely be doing that cruise again when I visit. When we got back to the pier it was too late to go on the Ferris wheel. It was closed. Adding that to my list for next time too!
At the pier there was this strange room with a bunch of trees that lead to a mall. We didn’t know why it was there or what the room was for but it was pretty.
Mark and I stayed at an airbnb in China Town for two nights. The day after our magical day in Chicago we enjoyed our time at Lollapalooza. After the festival we went for some Rolled Ice Cream. Yum!
In the morning I was pretty disturbed by the pig truck. Just moments before this a fish truck almost spilled live fish on me. I was literally screaming in the street from shock.
We successfully navigated the trains to and from the festival as well as the bus and it was shockingly easy! The train was convenient and clean too.
We LOVED Chicago and can’t wait to go back. Here is a vid of some of the highlights of our trip.
Let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations for our next trip.