My kind of town, Chicago is

Hello dedicated readers!

I am currently writing to you on my last night in Chicago. My bags are all packed and at 12 noon tomorrow I shall be embarking on my 19 hour bus ride from here to Washington DC before flying home on Tuesday evening. I've been staying with my Auntie Cathy and Uncle John in Chicago (Naperville to be precise) for 2 and a half weeks now. Lately I've been on a pretty low budget so for much of my time here I've just spent my days around the house not doing particularly much. However, I have still done quite a bit so I shall tell you about the more exciting stuff I've been doing.

I arrived on late on Wednesday 27th August then the next day I went into the centre of Chicago to meet up with Tom, a good friend of mine from camp. We had a great day together seeing some sights like Millennium Park and the Magnificent mile as well as tasting my first bit of Chicago cuisine-an Italian beef sub. We went to the beach on Oak Street to do a bit of sunbathing by the clear blue water of Lake Michigan and after a while we decided to go for a swim in the lake. This is when our day turned sour. When we left the water and returned to where we were sitting, Tom instantly noticed his bag was missing! We searched the beach but couldn't find it anywhere. Suspected someone had stolen it, we had to go to the nearest police station to file a police report. Luckily, we managed to cancel all Tom's credit cards but he was still annoyed to lose his bag, most of his clothes, camera and his phone. Tom's friend Kat arrived to pick us up and we all went out together for dinner. Tom and Kat are big foodies so we ended going to a Senegalese restaurant (another new experience for me) just north of the city where we had a rather delicious meal. On the way back into the city, we stopped by the Baha'i temple. The Baha'i religion isn't very big but the temple was very large and exquisite. Truly a great sight to see, especially as it was all lit up. That concluded a rather action packed first day in Chicago.

Dat skyline, wow

Italian Beef sub

Cloud Gate selfie

Tom and I with the Cloud Gate in the background

On Oak Street Beach

Senegalese food

Yassa Guinar, so tasty

Baha'i Temple

Tom and I met up once more in the city the following day to take an architecture tour around some of Chicago's many iconic buildings. Although I'm still not quite convinced it was worth the $25 I paid for it, the tour was still interesting and allowed us to spend more time together. Tom was on his way to England the next morning so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. That evening, I joined Uncle John for a meal in the city before we headed to US Cellular Field to watch my first Major League Baseball match- the Chicago White Sox vs the Detroit Tigers. The Sox lost heavily (7-1) but I still had an enjoyable time soaking up the atmosphere of the ball game and it was quite amusing cos it was Star Wars evening meaning there were lots of people dressed up including a guy in a Chewbacca suit who threw the ceremonial first pitch.

getting my kicks on route 66

Architecture tour

Off to the ball game

Chewbacca's pitch

Final score

Fast forward to the next Tuesday which was my next day of sightseeing in the city centre. I had a long day of walking around the city from the Oak Street Beach right down to Soldier Field (home of the Chicago's NFL team the Chicago Bears). A real highlight of the day was when I went to the top floor of the John Hancock building for a 360 view of Chicago from 1000 feat up. It was quite a clear day so you could see for miles on end and really appreciate how large a city Chicago is. I also went to Navy Pier which I found a bit too commercial for my liking but it was still good to walk along while boats sailed past.

view from the top of the John Hancock building

view from the bottom of the building

Navy Pier

Can-struction competition in the Merchandise Mart building

The next evening, we had a meal with some of Uncle John and Auntie Cathy's friends in the city so in the late afternoon I went into the city with Michael and Daniya (who'd followed me over from California as they were in town to go to a wedding and to see family and friends). While Daniya did some work and we waited for the others to arrive for the meal, Michael and I went for a walk around the nearby zoo in Lincoln Park. There wasn't a great deal to see as it was the end of the day but we still managed to see a few animals including Lions, Tigers, Seals, Monkeys and several species of birds. Not bad for a free zoo! The meal that night was in a place called The Red Lion. An English-style pub with the same name as a pub in the village where my Mum and Uncle grew up. The food was surprisingly good and it was great to have some home comforts such as Shepherds Pie and Fish & Chips that I had been deprived of for most of my time in America.

Moving onto last Saturday. The three of us took a day trip out to Starved Rock National Park on the Illinois River to do a bit of walking. It was a very nice day for it and you could get great views of the river from high up in the trees. In the evening, we returned back to Naperville for a meal at another restuarant to mark Michael and Daniya's last night with us.

Auntie Cathy, me and Uncle John

HOW! found this on the way back in the town of Ottawa (Illinois, not Canada)

Much of my final week here has been dedicated to sleeping, exercise and driving Uncle John and Auntie Cathy's little car around Naperville-my first driving experience in America and my first experience driving an automatic car. However, on Thursday I went into Chicago for one final day of sightseeing. This included a trip to the Chicago History Museum, which I found very interesting, as well as sampling a Chicago style hot dog at Portillo's for lunch and a trip to the Chicago Sports Museum-a bit gimmicky but still entertaining nonetheless.

Sears Tower

stumbled upon some Nascars by the NBC studios

Chicago History Museum

Abraham Lincoln's death bed

Chicago is

Chicago Style Hot dog

In the Chicago Sports museum, this is the size of Michael Jordan's hand compared to mine, crazy!

the original hoverboard and almanac used in Back To The Future 2. In the film they travel to 21st October (my birthday next year) and there's shot showing that Chicago Cubs win the World Series. Not long now till we found out if they're right!

bust of Harry Caray (famous baseball broadcaster)

Last night, I had the ultimate Chicago culinary experience when we went out for a meal to Lou Minalti's to try a real Chicago Deep Dish Pizza-arguably Chicago's most famous food. It was super delicious, incredibly filling and definitely very different in taste and texture to a regular pizza.

Chicago Deep-dish Pizza in Lou Minalti's

And that brings us up to now! Although I've had a few rather uneventful days here, I have really enjoyed my time here with my Uncle and Aunt having finally visited after the years of invitations to do so. They have been incredibly hospitable and I'm really grateful to them. As a city, I like Chicago quite a bit. It's got a lot of history and is quite a happening place in terms of arts and culture. I'd say out of all the places I've been to in the US, it's probably not as good as New York, San Francisco or DC but it's certainly up there.

Ok, not long until my mammoth coach journey begins. The next time you here from me on here I will probably be in DC or back home but I'm sure it won't be too long.

As great as this summer has been, I'm excited to be back home in the UK soon. 3 days to go!

FP

#FraserOnTour