Angi's Adventures: From Sea to Shining Sea: Chicago

Chicago is one of my favorite places. It's a place with which I've become fairly familiar.

My first trip to Chicago was during my senior year (2000). Myself and 3 others skipped school one day (our parents called us in sick) and took a day trip up. I don't remember much of what we did... pretty sure that is because we didn't do too much. I do recall eating at the Rainforest Cafe and also wandering around a strange shop that sold various "scary" things.

I returned to the Windy City that summer, but again not for long. A group of us took our friend to the airport and then went into the city where we ate at Ed DeBevic's. Ed DeBevic's is a fabulous 50s style restaurant where the waitstaff is rude to the customers - and you get to be rude right back! I've been there many times and it is always fun.

Once in college, making day or weekend trips to Chicago become somewhat common. There's a train from South Bend (about 45 minutes from Goshen) to Chicago, which made it easy to go for a day or two. Also many friends from college ended up there after they graduated, which gave us another excuse to escape Goshen for a day or two.

A few of my friends and I headed to Chicago for a few days during our spring break from college in 2002. We ate at Ed DeBevic's, the Hard Rock Cafe, the Rainforest Cafe - all the classic "tourist" restaurants. We did a lot of walking, spent some time at Navy Pier, went to the Art Museum, went to the Sears Tower, and ate a few times at the Corner Bakery.

Right before I headed to Spain (August of 2002) my mom and I spent a couple days in Chicago. It was her first real visit, so I took her around to some of the main areas/streets of Chicago. I also introduced her to the Cheesecake Factory, which is one of my all-time favorite restaurants. She loved it, too, and we now go there whenever we hit up Chicago.

The first photos that I have to document my times in Chicago are from a visit in the summer of 2003. My friend Laura and I went to Chicago over the 4th of July weekend and stayed with a high school friend of mine. We enjoyed the Taste of Chicago, fireworks from my friend's apartment's rooftop, and Navy Pier. I know we wandered around and saw more (like the Art museum), but, seriously, all of my visits run together and I can only remember a few things that we specifically did! Here are some photos from our trip:

The following summer (2004) I returned to Chicago for the 4th of July weekend, staying with the same friend in his new apartment, but I went with 2 different friends, Micah and Chellie. We also went to the Taste of Chicago but we mostly wandered around Grant Park taking in the city sites versus tasting the food.

Along State Street there were many Mickey Mouse statues; we all chose some that represented us and took some photos:

It was a fun weekend. We did a lot of walking, saw some cool stuff, and enjoyed a nice escape from our lives in Goshen.

In the fall of 2005 I found myself going to Chicago for another weekend. My friend Jamie and I took the train, met up with a college friend of ours, crashed at her place, then attended a carnival at the Chicago Mennonite Learning School (where our friend was currently working); Jamie's family also came up. We had fun at the carnival then headed downtown in the afternoon/evening to check out Millenium Park. We also ate at a pizzeria that huge pizza slices!

That winter (or it could have been the previous... seriously, my memory is not good!) I went to Chicago for a day to visit my friend Julie. There was a lot of snow that day - we're talking whiteout! But we still had fun. We spent the afternoon at the Field Museum and then enjoyed dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

There were other trips to Chicago, during which times I saw many of the same things, and also the China Town a couple times (not really a big fan of that place; I've seen much better China Towns), but the next one from which I actually have photos was my last trip there, almost a year ago (the end of February, 2008). My mom and I spent a couple days there before I returned here to Korea. Our first stop was the Rainforest Cafe, which was located close to our hotel.