Posts Tagged With: Chicago

2023 Trip 3: Quickie to Chicago: March 19-23

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

Our alternate Amtrak transportation on Sunday March 19

March 24, 2023

We made this trip to Chicago to use up our timeshare points since we waited too long to book South Beach and because a trip to Chicago on the Amtrak would refresh my memory of the route prior to beginning this summer’s Trails And Rails program. The plan was to take Amtrak down on Sunday, spend four nights at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club location in the Doubletree hotel, and then return on Amtrak Thursday, March 23.

I try not to dump on Amtrak too much. After all, air travel is full of hassles also. However, Amtrak‘s on-time record for the Empire Builder going east from Seattle to Saint Paul to Chicago is poor. The train is normally late, sometimes dramatically so. The Amtrak app gives an overly optimistic view of the time the train will arrive in Minneapolis St. Paul. I use another program that tracks the Empire Builder’s journey once it leaves Seattle. For this trip, while the train left Seattle on time Friday early evening, east of Spokane it encountered a delay and was running 3 1/2 hours late. It never made up the time as it traveled further east.

Saturday afternoon around 4 PM we received an email from Amtrak that while the train was running late, they had made alternate arrangements for us. Turns out they had arranged for a nice coach bus to take us directly to Chicago. We should still show up at our usual departure time Sunday morning at Saint Paul’s Union Depot. This left some questions for us, but we were willing to go with the flow. Sunday morning we arrived at Union Depot and after talking to the Amtrak agent we learned we could either take the bus or wait for the train. At this point the train was scheduled to be about 3 1/2 hours late. (It ended up being 5 1/2 hours late.) We talked to some people in the waiting area and discovered that 35 students and chaperones from Richfield Senior High were going down to Chicago for two nights on a class trip. We ended up taking the bus with them. Our belief is that the bus was only arranged because there were so many people going directly to Chicago. A second bus was arranged for people going to intermediate stops, including Milwaukee. But our bus would go directly to Chicago.

The bus left around 9 AM, made a one hour lunch stop in Wisconsin Dells, and arrived in Chicago’s Union Station about a half hour sooner than the train would have. That is, sooner than the train would have arrived if it were on time. Since the train was actually over five hours late, we got to Chicago six hours earlier than if we had waited for the train. We took a taxi to the hotel, checked in, and had dinner at an Irish sports bar (O’Toole’s) across the street. Chris had their shepherd’s pie while I had their meat loaf. Both were very tasty. While we were on the 23rd floor, the view was only of downtown office buildings, so not as dramatic as the view in San Francisco.

Monday morning we walked to a local breakfast place called Yolks. Great breakfast menu and it offered a carafe of 32 ounces of milk for $10. What a deal. We ordered it of course. We had only one scheduled activity for the day which was the Adler planetarium. There was a taxi outside the hotel, and we took it down to the Adler, part of the museum complex in Chicago.

At the Adler

The Adler planetarium was the first planetarium to open in the United States and did so in 1930. It has several floors of exhibits and theaters. We paid for one planetarium show called planet nine about Pluto and other planetary like bodies in the Kuiper belt area of the solar system. We found the exhibits well done covering some topics we knew such as moon exploration, but numerous topics that we had no concept of prior to our visit. One such new item was “retes”, which are pierced plates on an astrolabe. Hopefully we walked away remembering some of that information. Monday afternoon was probably the nicest day, weatherwise, and we walked 3 miles back from the museum complex to our hotel.

Walking back from the Adler

Pop Up book of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Tuesday we changed our plan a bit and took a tour of the Newberry library. The Newberry is a private research library devoted to the humanities, renowned in its field and in genealogy. We had a tour of the library which dates back to 1887. We viewed the original building but not the archival section which is off-limits. They had an exhibition of book arts, the process of creating fold up and pop up books. We are used to these nowadays as more of a children’s book with pop-up pictures. However, the history of these goes back hundreds of years and it was interesting to see the origins and variety that have been created as publishing skills have expanded. Another special exhibit presented the perspective of black and indigenous artists and how their art has shown resilience and resistance in the face of oppression.

The tour of the Newberry had a particularly curious twist. Mr. Newberry, another one of those millionaires with too much money to spend, left his money for a library. As Chris would say, long story short, he died on a boat trip to Europe to meet his free spending wife and two daughters. A superstition of the time was to have a dead body on board a ship. Given his wealth, people accompanying the trip convinced the captain to stuff his body into a barrel that had been emptied of it’s cargo of rum. The barrel was then lashed to the side of the boat. He and his barrel were transported to England, where his body greeted his wife and daughters. The docent did not describe how the body got back to Chicago for eventual burial.

Chicago dining, from upper left, Palmer House, Giordano’s, Billy Goat Tavern, at Yolk, at O’Toole’s

For lunch, we walked a few blocks down Rush Street to Giordano‘s pizza, a Chicago institution since 1974. Once there we discovered they have expanded so much there is a location only a few miles from us in Richfield MN. Since their deep dish pizza is famous but would take an hour to create, we had the thin crust pizza with a salad, and were quite pleased.

Chris liked this from the Museum of Contemporary Art

After that, we walked over to the Museum of Contemporary Art. This was kind of a snoozer, I would’ve been happy to have skipped it. A lot of space, but not much art that spoke to me. In fact, not much art at all given the size of the building.

Sue

Wednesday morning started with our having the breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant which gave us a chance to have fruit, vegetables, protein, etc. to fortify ourselves for a busy day. After breakfast, we took another taxi to the museum complex, this time to visit the Field Museum of Natural History. The Field dates back to 1894. It is one of the largest natural history museums in the world. Here we purchased the special exhibit about China, and also had an hour tour focusing on dinosaurs. Their main dinosaur, called Sue, is a Tyrannosaurus rex found in South Dakota, and named after the female archaeologist, Sue Henderson, who was the first to spot the bones of the dinosaur. The docent gave a very knowledgeable talk about the mass extinctions that led to, and killed off, the dinosaur, as well as the various types of dinosaurs that existed during the time frame they inhabited the earth.

Other exhibits were equally well done and extensive. We spent five hours here and by the time we got back to the hotel, I was pretty well wiped out. Not too wiped out, though, as we explored a dive type hamburger place located on a dingy lower level street. For some reason I thought at the Billy Goat Tavern, I could get a great burger and tater tots. But no, the burger was good, but it was only chips as your optional accompaniment. I made up for it by stopping at a little deli next to our hotel, and picking up some chocolate chip cookies and milk.

At the American Writers Museum

Thursday was our last day in town. We slept in, and then spent an hour at the American Writers Museum. This museum opened in 2017, and has a series of static and interactive displays of a wide range of American writers. They even had a section of manual typewriters where younger people visiting had a chance to find out how to properly insert a piece of paper in the typewriter so you type on the page with the logo at the top front. They also had difficulty understanding that you had to hit the keys smartly in order to make an impression. It was a bit of humor to watch among the multitude of displays about individual writers.

We had lunch at the Palmer house, another Chicago institution before heading to Union Station to catch our Amtrak home. The homebound train was only about 10 minutes late leaving the station. It was kind of a madhouse in the waiting room, but everything got sorted out smoothly as people were directed to the proper car for the journey west. We spent over half the time in the observation car enjoying the scenery. Only major hiccup was a male rider who appear to have some mental health issues. The train was stopped in Tomah, Wisconsin to escort him off the train for violating the no smoking rule, among other things.

We arrived back in Saint Paul about 11:15 p.m. There were no taxis wedding, so we dialed up an Uber and got home a little bit after midnight. Next trip, Arizona and Nevada for Great Basin National Park, and visiting family.

Walking back from the Adler to our hotel in downtown Chicago

Ed and Chris, Saint Paul, March 25

Categories: travel | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2017 Trip Four: Chicago July 25-28

Posted on July 31, 2017 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

St. Paul, MN July 31, 2017

For this short trip to Chicago we traveled light; no iPad so no blog while traveling. This is our fourth trip to Chicago in the last ten years or so and for the second time in a row, we rode the Amtrak Empire Builder from St. Paul’s Union Depot. Overnight parking ranges from $49 to $64 per night and our plans for the visit did not require a car. The Amtrak round trip fare for two was $234; it seemed like an easy decision to train it. Amtrak seats are roomy and comfortable, you can walk around, there is scenery to observe, and plenty of people-watching and listening. Amtrak is always an adventure though; you can not plan on it being fully on time. I have a habit of checking to see how the Empire Builder is doing, time-wise. Often it is 15-30 minutes early (it waits in St. Paul to depart on time if it arrives early). It can also be late. When it is late, it can be hours late. Of course, our train was one of those. The engine for our train broke down in the mountains out west and the train had to wait for a BNSF freight engine to arrive and pull it the rest of the journey to Chicago. We knew it was going to be late, so we had breakfast at the Buttered Tin in downtown St Paul while we waited.

Crossing the Mississippi River on Amtrak going from Minnesota into Wisconsin

The Empire Builder arrived in St. Paul three hours late. The freight engine goes slower than the Amtrak engine and we arrived in Chicago four hours late, 8 PM instead of 4 PM. The Empire Builder usually stops on the northern side of the depot, ours went further into the southern portion of the station, providing a shorter walk for passengers trying to connect with other trains. The ride was smooth, the views scenic. Many moons ago Mark Twain described the view along the Mississippi River in grandiose words. His words may have been a little over the top but the view does make for a relaxing and enjoyable trip. Chris and I split our time between our coach seat and riding in the observation car.

Readers of this blog may recall that I have been a volunteer docent on the Amtrak Empire Builder as part of the Trails and Rails program jointly sponsored by Amtrak and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), a unit of the National Park Service. Unfortunately, this year the program is in on hold. MNRRA lost two rangers, one was the supervisor for this program, and with the federal freeze on hiring they did not have enough staff to oversee our program. Hopefully it will return in 2018. I felt a little weird riding the train, particularly when in the observation car where we did our presentations, and not speaking or being able to listen to any speaker. Most passengers did not know the difference. On this train, I did not recognize any of the conductors or car attendants. On our return trip on Friday I recognized a conductor and he did indicate some people had asked why the Trails and Rails program was not being presented.

Mural dating back to the days of the Chicago Motor Association in our Hampton Inn Chicago

In Chicago, we stayed at a Hampton Inn at Wacker and Michigan, one half block from the Chicago River. It was a very convenient location. The hotel building originally was the home for the Chicago Motor Association (AAA) but had been vacant for many years. The renovation retained the Art Deco feel of the original building. Like many hotels in large cities, the rooms were small. Of our four stays in Chicago, three have been Hamptons and all have been a good choice. We walked the mile to the hotel from Union Station, once again enjoying the architecture of the buildings along the way. Dinner was across the street at a Jamaican bar/restaurant.

The “Bean”

Wednesday, our major activity was a bus tour of Chicago Historical Neighborhoods run by the Architectural Association of Chicago. This group organizes numerous architectural tours; we have been on three others before this one. All are well done and reasonably priced. The tour did not begin until 11 so we wandered around Millennium Park beforehand. Millennium Park was a project of the second Mayor Daley to take the northern section of Grant Park, cover over numerous unused railroad yards and make it into a spectacular park to celebrate the year 2000. Well, typical of many projects it came in over budget, past its scheduled completion date but wildly successful. It is full of notable scenes; the “Bean”, a cascading waterfall, a new garden, a kids play area which is spectacular, and another outdoor amphitheater.

The Crown Fountain in daytime, at night the towers change colors

We have been to Millennium Park before but Lurie Garden and the Maggie Daley kids play area were new to us. Millennium Park cost almost 500 million dollars and was a combination of city and private funds. It is always a pleasure to stroll around, particularly in pleasant summer weather. People gather at the Bean (technically titled Cloud’s Gate), a shiny structure shaped like a bean, that reflects the views of the spectators as well as the background of the Chicago skyscrapers. Others splash in the reflecting pool of the Crown Fountain, situated between two fifty foot towers with changing faces of people on them. Periodically the mouth of the person opens up and directs a spray of water onto the people, usually children, waiting underneath.

Grant Park as a whole is over 300 acres, over 1.5 miles long, provides scenes of the lakefront, is home to several museums, fountains, sculptures, etc. It is the site of large gatherings, such as an outdoor Mass by Pope John Paul II, Barack Obama’s 2008 Election Day victory speech, the celebration for the Bulls and Cubs national championships, and a riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

But back to the tour. We were on a double-decker bus, with probably about 20 others. Many of the “Hop-on, Hop-off’ double decker buses that circulate around the downtown area were full. Our tour guide was a volunteer for the Architectural Association who was quite knowledgeable. We drove through Greektown, Little Italy, Pilsen, Chinatown, and Bronzeville. Most of these neighborhoods have changed from their original ethnic roots, although the architectural style may still survive. The 1960s and 1970s were particularly destructive as freeways were constructed and universities and hospitals expanded. This “modernization” destroyed neighborhood cohesiveness and scattered residents to new neighborhoods or suburbs as large, new buildings were erected. For instance, Bronzeville was once home to a major African-American community, located here as informal segregation limited where they could live. When the Illinois Institute of Technology came in with its brutalist, concrete style of buildings, many residents had to move and much of the original housing stock destroyed. We were able to view remnants of the homes from that era.

One of the murals in Pilsen neighborhood

Pilsen was originally a Czech neighborhood. Now it is central to Chicago’s Mexican-American heritage, with numerous wall murals decorating the community. Chinatown is actually expanding, unlike many other “Chinatowns” around the country. Chicago’s Chinatown originally developed when the Chinese who immigrated to the U.S. faced discrimination and violence on the West Coast. Several neighborhoods had homes where the first floor was below street level. Evidently much of Chicago was built on swamp land which has settled. Unlike downtown Chicago where fill was added and building were physically raised, these residences settled without any city intervention. When we visited the Pullman National Monument in Chicago last year, we learned that George Pullman was one of the contractors hired to raise downtown buildings.

We were only able to view these buildings due to the skill of our bus driver. The downtown “Hop-on, Hop-off” buses drive down wide streets with few trees. Our bus traversed narrow streets with tree branches and wires frequently threatening the people on the upper deck of the bus-us. He did a fantastic job; I escaped without any scrapes or bruises and we did not hit any pedestrians or cars. On the tour we saw the outside of the National Mexican-American Art Museum and the National Hellenic Museum; we will have to put them on our list for the next trip.

At the Grant Park Orchestra performance

Wednesday evening we went back to Millennium Park. This time my cousin Sue picked us up with picnic food. We met two friends of hers at the Jay Pritzker amphitheater. The Grant Park orchestra was playing to a crowd of several thousand. Actually, I have no idea of the number of people. The crowd was not announced but it is a large area and people were spread out everywhere. It was a pleasant evening, the music was enjoyable, and we had several hours to chat. Honestly, our talking very quietly during the orchestra did not interrupt or bother other people. It is a setting where you can talk quietly and still enjoy the music as a standard part of the audience participation.

Thursday was projected to be a rainy day but the rain prediction disappeared and we changed our plans. We took a bus north to Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park is 1200 acres and includes the Zoo, Conservatory, History Museum, beaches, playing fields, numerous statues, and nature museum. In the morning, we visited the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum including its butterfly house, the Conservatory, and the lily ponds. At the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, we joined a throng of summer campers as the Nature Museum is free to residents of the state of Illinois on Thursday. Despite the kids, we were able to enjoy the exhibits and displays. Climate change is still alive there; displays showcased climate change, solar panels, green homes, purification of drinking water and the cleaning of waste water.

In Lincoln Park

Walking south, we encountered the conservatory with its glass domes and floral displays. The conservatory was not huge, probably no larger than the Como Park Conservatory here in St. Paul. We continued walking through the park, watching the maintenance crew repair the fountain, then we could observe the dogs and children play in the fountain. The flowers along the fountain area south of the conservatory were brilliant and well done. We even sat for a while and just enjoyed the view. Lunch was at a restaurant just 1/2 block west of the park.

In the Chicago History Museum

Our journey continued for several more blocks as we reached the Chicago History Museum. This was an excellently done. We spent several hours here until our bodies were tired of standing and reading and observing. One of their main exhibits is titled “Crossroads of America”. The displays highlight the role of Chicago in the development of the United States, touching on such topics as the stockyards, railroads, breweries, lumbering, medical advancements, etc. We spent probably two hours going through this one exhibit. The other exhibits we treated as more of a walk through for us since our energy was dwindling.

Walking down State Street

We decided to walk back to our hotel, choosing the quieter side street of State Street and Rush street. The first half of the walk was on quiet, tree-lined, flower-filled streets with probably expensive walk up residences intermingled among high-rise buildings. The final, more downtown section was still comparatively quiet as compared to Michigan Avenue just to our east. We congratulated the fact that we walked over 11 miles on Thursday with a stop at Ghiradelli Chocolate for some ice cream and sorbet refreshment.

Maggie Daley Park

Thursday evening we spent some more time at Maggie Daley park at Millennium Park. We were amazed at the variety, complexity, and beauty of the children’s play structures. There was even a climbing rock area, surrounded by a track where parents and children could rollerblade and ride on scooters. Even at 8 PM, there were a sizable crowd of parents and children utilizing the grounds and facilities.

As we returned towards the Pritzker amphitheater, we encountered the crowd for the live recording of the public radio show called “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”. The crowd was even bigger than the group present Wednesday night for the Grant Park Orchestra. We managed to wend our way through the park before the crowd left the performance.

Driehaus Mansion Chicago

On Friday, our train was not scheduled to depart until 2:15 PM. We took a docent led tour of the Driehaus Mansion, a suggestion made to us by the friends of my cousin Sue who were with us at the Pritzker Wednesday evening. The mansion is one of the few remaining examples of the palatial homes erected by the wealthy of America’s Gilded Age. At its time, it was the largest private residence in Chicago. In the early 2000’s, it was purchased by a very wealthy investment manager (Richard Driehaus) in Chicago, renovated, and made available for tours. “The lavish interiors are complemented by stunning examples of furniture, decorative arts, stained glass, and period pieces selected from the Driehaus Collection.”

After the tour, it was time to walk over to Union Station to catch the Empire Builder home. The train left on time, but arrived ten minutes late due to slower speeds in areas of track construction work. We had an excellent dinner on the train. Our dinner companions were a couple spending several weeks touring the country, using the train to go from point to point. During our discussions we discovered we had been to many of the same places around the country, including lodging at the Duff Green B & B in Vicksburg. All in all, a pleasant journey.

Returning home along the Mississippi River Friday night

Ed and Chris, Saint Paul Minnesota July 31

Categories: road trip, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2016, Trip One, Chicago, Day One

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

April 10, 2016 Chicago IL

The first trip of 2016 is a short one. We have been on hiatus for a while, enjoying one of Minnesota’s milder winters by staying home. We made one or two short, local MN trips during the winter along with numerous MN activities, and, we have replaced our 2001 Saturn (226,000 miles) with a new Subaru Legacy. However, the Legacy will have to wait a while for a road trip.

Ed and Amtrak observation car at Union Depot in St. Paul

Ed and Amtrak observation car at Union Depot in St. Paul

This first trip was planned for us to ride Amtrak as paying passengers, something we have not done for probably 15 years. As readers of this blog know, Ed is a volunteer with the Trails and Rails program jointly offered by the National Park Service and Amtrak. His journey only goes 2/3 of the way to Chicago and Chris does not participate. So, we put our money down and headed out early this morning.

The Empire Builder arrived in St. Paul an hour early (6:43 AM), a real departure from its 2015 on time (not) performance. We had arrived around 7 AM by bus and were able to board the train by 7:10 to get our seats. Seating is on your own, not assigned seats. We grabbed two coach seats, left our jackets at the seats and snagged a table in the observation car on the river side for most of the trip and with Chris seated looking forward (an important priority). The Empire Builder left Union Depot in St. Paul at its scheduled departure time of 8 AM for the 8 hour trip to Chicago. We had three main goals; a successful train ride, a journey to the new Pullman National Historic Site in Chicago, and a visit with my cousin Sue.

Red Wing MN and the Mississippi River

Red Wing MN and the Mississippi River-not including the eagles

Goal one has been accomplished. Both of us enjoyed the ride. The MN portion (obviously) is more scenic than the WI portion as it parallels the Mississippi River most of the way. Trees are just beginning to leaf out although Chicago is a bit ahead of us on that score. Birds were everywhere, boaters were out on the river. In Red Wing there must have been 20 eagles roosting in trees in a small area near the local Marina. (Well maybe a few were turkey vultures but most were Eagles.)

I did not give my Trails and Rails “spiel” to Chris but instead noted the topics I present in various areas along the route. Most of the topics she is familiar with, having heard me discuss them, or going to some of the same lectures I attended, or read the same books.

Ed and Chris in the observation car

Ed and Chris in the observation car

The observation car was our home for 2/3 of the ride, with its expansive windows which are great for viewing up and down. The coach seats are comfy with plenty of leg room. The train was not crowded today and empty seats were frequent. The observation car, unlike in the summer, was never full.

A tow along the Mississippi River

A tow along the Mississippi River

We spent more time observing than socializing. We did manage some conversation with a number of Canadians, from Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. Our lunch companions (you are seated to fill up tables and thus you automatically meet others) were from just north of Seattle. The two women are fans of National Parks. Their week-long journey will stop at numerous NPS units and will start off tomorrow at Pullman National Historic site. We may see them again. We swapped stories of parks we have seen and have yet to see. While the lunch menu is brief, our burgers were quite tasty.

Chicago River on our walk to the hotel

Chicago River on our walk to the hotel

Union Station in Chicago (the name is quite similar to Union Depot in St. Paul)is large with many Chicago commuter trains as well as Amtrak trains that head out all over the country. We decided to walk to our hotel, about 1.5 miles away. It was sunny and 48 degrees F-although Chicago is always windy with the numerous skyscrapers. We are staying at a Hampton Inn in the River North district.

Dinner was at Andy’s Jazz Club, with Dana Hall group playing.

Ed and Chris April 11, 9 pm
Chicago

Categories: road trip, travel | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.