After working tirelessly in a children’s summer camp in Ohio
for two months, we set off for a three-week trip around some of the biggest
cities that America has to offer.
We caught our first MegaBus from Cleveland and sat on it for
a whopping 8 hours until we reached Chicago, Illinois.
I dare anyone visiting Chicago not to fall in love with it.
As someone who loves cities but was raised in a town, it was just perfect. It
doesn’t have the same atmosphere as New York City where there are currently
stony faced business people pushing past hapless tourists. Instead, Chicago
feels surprisingly welcoming for a city of such size.
It sits on the edge of Lake Michigan, which is so incredibly
huge that it might as well be the sea. The freshwater means there are beaches,
and the beautiful Navy Pier.
While we were visiting the Tall Ships were racing in the
calm waters, but at any time of year the pier is a hub of activity. Its iconic
ferris wheel stands high above the lake, and the dome of the ballroom sits at
the end of the pier, oddly reminiscent of sea-side piers back home. Fireworks
are set off twice weekly throughout summer from the pier once the sun has set.
They even have an IMAX theatre and stage shows above the water, as well as a
huge choice of restaurants and bars to sit at and watch the boats go by. The
skyscrapers stay back from the water front, so looking back at the city centre
from the pier is breath-taking.
Back on land is Millennium Park. It’s a beautiful green area
for people to congregate with the skyscrapers towering right over the heads of
visitors. The iconic Cloud Gate sculpture (which we nicknamed ‘the bean’) is in
the park, and it is oddly mesmerising. It’s just a reflective bean-shaped
sculpture, yet it’s easy to spend an hour there taking pictures and just
walking around. A focal point of the park is the Jay Pritzker pavilion, which
is an open air stage with amazing metallic sheets jutting out around the edges.
When we absently walked towards it we heard a choir and orchestra that sounded
so perfect that it seemed to be a recording, but it turned out to be live. Over
a fifty performers were on stage rehearsing for a free concert that was set for
when we would have left the city. Sitting on the Great Lawn that spreads away
from the stage and listening to the music was magical.
Unlike many American cities, Chicago actually has really
great shops on the street, rather than tucked away in malls. There’s even a big
Top Shop for those missing UK fashion.
While Chicago may not be one of the absolute must-see
destinations when visiting the US, there is really something special about the
atmosphere and the people that make it more than worth stopping there.
