Chicago - The Windy City

I spent the Labor Day weekend at Chicago. First things first, Chicago is a Beautiful city. I always wanted to go there, but never got a chance to visit Chicago till now. I took the flight from Manshester,NH to Chicago Midway Airport. It's a small airport compared to O'Hare. The cops at the airport use Segway to get around, which I though was pretty cool. We stayed in Schaumburg, which is a good one hour drive from Chicago downtown.

Day 1: We got up very late and it was almost noon by the time we reached downtown. Chicago's downtown is as big as Newyork's and it is the home to the tallest building in US for now, Sears Tower. Our first stop was Hancock Center, which is the 3rd tallest building there. We had nice lunch at the Signature Lounge which is located at the 95th floor and offers Contemporary American fare with sweeping views of the city. Then we walked couple of miles to the Navy Pier along the Magnificent Mile. Chicago's Magnificent Mile area is one mile strip in the middle of downtown with shopping centers, world-renowned boutiques and locally acclaimed designers. You get to see the Chicago's famous skyline from a birds-eye view. Later we rented bikes for half dayand biked the Lakefront bike path. It is an 18-mile bike ride along the lake and through many famous locations like Aquarium, Planetarium, Field Museum, Soldier Field and so on. It's a very well maintianed bike path with lots of bikers, walkers, inline skaters and joggers. On our way back, we stopped at the Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest in the world. This fountain was designed exquisitely with lots of sculptures. We returned our bikes and spent some time strolling around the Navy Pier till dusk. We took the Fire works cruise in the night. I have seen many fireworks before in Disney Land and Las Vegas, but the Navy Pier fireworks is the best. As we watched from our boat, the sky above the lakefront will fill with a spectacular fireworks display of color and sound.

Day 2: We had to cover lot of things on Day 2 and so we made it a point to start early unlike Day 1. Out first stop was Field Museum. It's a huge museum with lots of exhibits, but we were there just to see Sue, the largest, most complete, and best preserved T-rex fossil yet discovered. We took some time to cover other prized exhibits like Lions of Tsavo, Darwin's Journey and Grainger Hall of Gems. The city of Chicago features prominent buildings in a variety of styles by many important architects. Since most buildings within the downtown area were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Chicago buildings are noted for their originality rather than their antiquity. Born of the Great Fire, skyscrapers were invented here and the Architectural Cruise is the best way to know and see the architecture. It is an 90 minute guidedtour in the Chicago river and it was very informative and engaging. After that we went to Millennium Park, which is located in the heart of downtown. Millennium Park is fast replacing the Navy Pier as the Chicago's most popular attraction and it is very evident as soon you step in. It has a sophisticated outdoor concert venue, interactive Crown Fountain hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. We ended our day by going to the Blue man group show which was pretty good.

Day 3: The last day was reserved for couple of holy places and a Museum. First, we went to Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. It is the largest traditional Hindu Mandir of stone and marble to be constructed in the United States. It is a very beautiful temple and I really liked the architecture. Next, we went to Baha'i House of Worship for the North American Continent. I visited the Baha'i Lotus temple before at New Delhi and got introduced to the Baha'i Faith: the oneness of God, the oneness of humanity and the oneness of religion. This Chicago Baha'i temple is one of only seven Baha'i temples in the world at present. Like all Baha'i Houses of Worship, this temple also has nine sides and a dome and is surrounded by exquisite gardens and fountains. Next and our last stop was the Museum of Science and Industry. This museum is home to U-505, the only German submarine in US. U-505 had terrorized the Atlantic Ocean as a part of massive U-boat campaign that almost altered the outcome of World war 2. We also saw the Imax film 'Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs' at the beautiful dome in the Omni theater. The film explores the history of ancient Egyptian society as told through the mummies of the past. By the time, we were done with the film, it was almost 6pm and it was time to head back to Airport. But, not before I grabbed another Hot Dog for dinner. I really enjoyed eating hot dogs in Chicago. In Chicago, there are more Hot Dog joints than there are McDonalds, Wendys, and Burger Kings combined and the Chicago-style hot dog is a 'Must-eat'.

Chicago is a large city with a very tall skyline. It definitely has the best architecuture of any American city. There are lots of things to see and do in Chicago. As they say, Chicago is infact 'Mile After Magnificent Mile'.