The Chi
cago TowersI was very fortunate to get a stunning view of Chicago and Lake Michigan form the two observatories in Chicago, Sears Tower and Hancock Observatory. The sky has been clear for most the days of my stay in Chicago. But the price for visiting these towers was little on the higher side. But I would say the experience is worth it. You also get to learn a lot about the history of Chicago, on top of these towers. Especially at the HAncock, you get to have a visual aid that talks about, the Chicago fire, The famous Chicago Tribune, deep dish Pizza, the story behind the two towers etc.. It's certainly worth visiting. The only downside is the waiting time esp at the Hancock Tower which can be as high as two hours both for buying the ticket and getting up and down the lift.
Art MuseumThe Art museum has some of the spectacular art works by artists from different parts of the world. Especially the paintings on the life of Jesus and his disciples give a true living experience. The museum also has a display of the art work from the Egyptian civilization, Chinese and Japanese culture. Some of the most exquisite furniture and handicrafts from the medieval british empire is also on display. Most of the paintings are Oil in Canvas type. I would recommend one to spend atleast 3-4 hours in order to visit the complete museum. Unfortunately I had only an hour and a half before the museum closed.
Champaign
After the wonderful time at the conference, I headed towards my friend's place in Champaign on 1st by Greyhound bus. I never expected the bus service to be so bad. In fact the bus station itself was dirty and I felt a bit uncomfortable waiting there. Anyways the bus finally arrived and I managed to find a seat in the bus. There is no seat number and you can pick any seat you want ?! It was a three hours bus travel. But the driver was very cou
rteous. All along the way the scenery looked very dry..this being winter season. It is predominantly farmlands. My friend was waiting for me at the Illinois Terminal Station. I didn't have any plans there but to just spend some leisure time with my friend. Mostly for the two days I stayed there I spent time just eating and sleeping. The twin cities of Champaign and Urbana are primarily farmlands except for the University campus. I took a stroll of the campus. UIUC is known for developing some of the earliest technologies for improving crop cultivation and dairy farming. Morro Plots are oldest of the experimental crop fields to demonstrate that artificial means can improve crop yield by multi-fold. The campus also has a hue cemetery, a large basket ball court and some of the oldest buldings in Champaign. I returned to Chicago on 3rd Jan through Greyhound. This time, it was even worse. I could hardly find a place in the bus and the bus was late by about half hour. That's when I decided that I would rather take a train, Amtrak than the bus.Back to Chicago
Probably this was unnecessary for me to stay an other day in Chicago. But anyways that gave me time to relax before I caught my flight back to CA. I decided to stay back in the HI Chicago. I have started liking this place a lot. Wandered around the downtown before ending up in a noodles restaurant for some Japanese PAN noodles. Spent most of the time blogging and chatting. I didn't have any plans for the next day. But in the morning decided that I should visit the Museum of Science and Industry. I would say it's primarily a place for Kids. So i didn't find anything interesting except for the IMAX movie, "wild ocean". It had exhibits from Genetics, Industry, Space Exploration, U-boats, Chemistry and others. The most attractive part of the museum was the Holiday around the world exhibit..displaying Christmas trees decorated from about 58 countries around the world. The decorations were stunning and beautiful. Then I returned to the downtown and after dinner at Chilis, I headed back to the Hostel. Since my flight was at 6 AM, the next morning, I decided to reach the airport in the night and stay there. Although there was train service available throughout the night, I didn't want to take the risk by traveling alone, as Chicago is known for many notorious thieves. Finally I spent about 6 hours in the airport just blogging and chatting. I would say this trip to Chicago was truly a memorable one. I really enjoyed the beauty of the city, the spiritual growth through the conference, a wonderful friendship with a Japanese, moral support to a close friend of mine and an awesome Christmas and New Year Celebration. I should also thank God that the weather was perfect, so that I could enjoy most of my stay.
Restaurants
MoonPlace - a Chinese restaurant in China Town.
Kamehachi - a Japanese restaurant
India Garden - an Indian Restaurant
Chilis, PF Cheng's and Noodles & company are some of the other restaurants were I dined.
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