Howdy my dearest Hive friends! After such nerve wracking end of school year, finally I’m back! ☺️ Can’t wait to share with you more awesome adventures here in the land of free🇺🇸.
Summer is one of the most dreadful time in Arizona. Excruciating heat is a daily thing. 🥵Thus, visiting America’s Windy city is such a relief from the dreadful desert valley. The very reason why I wanted to share this mind blowing experience of mine.
Chicago, Illinois is not just an amazing windy city but it gave me a lot of my “first times”.
It is our very first time to fly domestic flight within the US. All the time, we had interstate roadtrips. The beginning of our flight from Phoenix went well yet we had bad turbulence as we were about to land in Chicago. It may not be a perfect trip but it wasn’t bad at all. Our flight was at 7:30 am and we arrived at Chicago around 1:00 o’clock. We booked an Airbnb that gave us many advantages for our 4-day stay.
It was pretty cloudy when we were minutes away from landing as you can see from our window view, hence the cause of turbulence.
But we arrived safe and sound at the airport. Though it’s the summer season it wasn’t that packed in the Chicago midway airport.
We took an hour rest and headed out to the city. It was just 15 minutes uber drive from our Airbnb. Upon arriving at the grand park, I saw a magnificent city view. Yes, I was able to visit Seattle but this skyline is more exquisitely designed. A combination of both old and new architectural styles.
Chicago is also one of the most walkable cities in the US. I definitely can attest to it. It was my very first time to walk more than 4 hours in the city specifically in Chicago loop . Our starting point of the day’s city excursion was the Grant park. It is famous for several landmarks. We spent 3 hours exploring the well known Michigan Avenue which is also known as the best shopping street in the city. Aside from countless shopping stores, boutiques and food shops, it is also near to lake Michigan shore that it even more picturesque and worth visiting for, In fact, I earned 16,000 steps as recorded in my wellness app. But I never felt exhausted. Thanks to my most comfortable Nike Vomero shoes and definitely one will never get tired of enjoying the skyscrapers that offer unique architectural designs.
All of these scenic spots are around the vicinity of the Grant park. A peak through the very famous Michigan Avenue(upper left photo). Unfortunately, the well known The Bean is temporarily closed to the public as they were repairing it for upgrade purposes (upper right photo). The view within the Michigan Avenue as we were strolling and feeding our eyes with the unfamiliar view of very high skyscrapers (lower left photo). Millenium park is where the grandest festivities are held in the city (lower right photo)
It is also our very first time to finally shop at Uniqlo. You may find it shallow but hear me out. I and my hubby are both petite. Hence, American clothing lines are way bigger than our size. Uniqlo being a Japanese and Asian brand, it is well designed for Asians physical attributes. My credit card cried a bucket of tears.😅
This is my hubby’s most awaited time as he loves Uniqlo garments.
After all the shopping done, of course we had our dinner at one of the Ramen houses within the city, it is known as the Ramensan.
Of course, we are Filipinos. We love to take photos before we eat.🤭
Before the night ended, we walked our way to the famous Navy pier. It is a historical place. It used to be a soldier barracks during the WW1 and became full naval base during the WWII. Then, as a way of honoring the veterans, it was named Navy pier in 1927. Now, it is one of the most coveted place in the city as it has a lot of fun rides which we did not get to try as they started closing it. We were lucky to experience the Navy pier fireworks which officially started that day. Kid you not, the wind is freezing! Keeping up with the city’s nickname.
Going to the Navy pier there are several bridges that we walked past on.
This is the 200 ft Navy pier’s Centennial wheel.Fun fact, I’ve ride on several ferries wheels in various fairs, yet ferries wheels here in the US do not go as fast as ours in the Philippines. So,personally I find it less interesting to ride on. 😂
While waiting for the fireworks, we had enough time to appreciate the Chicago’s city lights at night.
Here it is, a snap of I guess 5-minute long fireworks. It was definitely worth the wait and the cold wind we had to endure.☺️
