Paul and I went to Chicago for our second time. Last time was back in March 2005 and it felt indeed like a "Windy City" as it is often called. Chicago is also known as the "Second City". However, it didn't give me any of that bitter pride that we always see in a typical second biggest city (the typical we- think - we're- so- cool- yet- really- everything- is- just- a- notch- down syndrome). Why? Maybe it's got to do with the fact that Chicago has long been knocked down further into the third place by its younger counterpart Los Angeles.
But overall, I'm so impressed with Chicago that in some regards it is even better than NYC. (On a side note, I think I figured out why everybody needs a car in LA. No, it has nothing to do with its spanning geographic region or the lack of public transportation. If you have ever been to LA downtown, you would strongly feel the urge to lock yourself up in an iron cage.)
Chicago, despite its harsh weather, seems to be a much more adorable city.First thing Chicago striked me was how clean it is. It is definitely not as clean as Singapore or even Tokyo, but it is surprisingly clean without any sense of restraint or rigidness. Secondly it is extremely convenient. A $2 fare would take you from either one of its airports to the heart of downtown by subway. I can not think of any other city to beat that. You would think it's the most natural thing to do but somehow they always manage to miss that part just to torture you.
Chicago is most surprising as a friendly city. On our first trip we were stuck at a subway station as we came short 15 cents to take a ride back to our hotel. I put up this apologetic face (I'm your most traditional nice little Asian lady when I need to ask a favor) and walked up to this Uncle Joe working at the station hoping he would nicely break some change for me. (Using my NYC reference point, I was pretty sure I'd get asked to just move to the side.) But this Uncle Joe climed all the way out of his booth, helped us figure out where exactly we were going, and then reached into his own little pocket and handed us the 15 cents and said "here, use this".
Even the homeless were comparatively non-hostile too. This time around, while waiting for the train one late evening, my tired eyes absent mindedly wandered on to this homeless guy. He looked back at me and friendly replied "It's a chilly night, isn't it?!" (OK, for those of you who have never messed with a homeless guy, Paul did the same thing one time in NYC, and this guy almost jumped on to Paul, and kept yelling "What the f*ck are you looking at? What THE F*CK are YOU looking at!!!") So you see why I was a bit surprised by our cheery Chicago friend.
I'd better get down to some of the nice spots of Chicago before I further make it sound like a Mid West farm land city like Columbus, OH...
First and foremost, if you ever get a chance to stop by Chicago, make sure you visit the Field Museum too. It is so far the most impressive museum I can recall. Right at the entrance, there it stood the 65 million years old T-Rex fossil Sue. Not only it was one of the very rare museums to display a real fossil, it was just so casually standing there, and everyone just clicking away the fossil like mad (WITH FLASH!) It truly makes you wonder why all the other museums are so fussy about their no photography/ flash policy.
Right now they're having the King Tut exhibition, which was a returning hit since 1977. (Actually the Egyptian Govt angrily pulled out the Exhibition after some "Careless" German chipped one of its artifacts in 1998.) It tells the story of a Pharaoh Tutankhamun (or King Tut) who shortly ruled the ancient Egypt for ten years before his mysterious death at the young age of 19. There were no mummies in the whole exhibition (or the 10 layers of coffins that wrapped the mummy), but none the less it was totally rewarding experience. And the audio tour was passionately done by Omar Sharif (Dr. Zhivago), who's done a great job making a chill up on my spine by telling a mystery that really was just a lot of lost facts. To complete the tour, right across the hall there is a permanant Acient Egypt Exhibition that has all these mummies lying around in the dark corners--mummy that was properly prepared, mummy that was crushed into too small a coffin, mummy woman that was carelessly shoved into a male coffin, and mummy that fell out of the leaves that casually wrapped it... you name it, they got it!
There's also the Shedd Aquarium right next door to the Field Museum but it's certainly dimmed by its far more interesting neighbor (plus they got way too many screaming kids).
Another gem in the city is its many jazz and blues bars. Last time we hung out at this legendary Buddy Guy Blues Bar and it was defenitely jiving. Although that night's performance didn't turn me into a Blues fan, it was definitely worth recommending. And I guess I'll leave the rest to your imagination or better yet, til you personally get to experience what Chicago has to offer.
(Since I'm not a tower person as previously explained, I didn't do the Sears Tower or the John Hancock Center but this gives you a pretty good skyline of Chicago--photo contributed by Paul)
