A day in Chicago...

We found out that a train leaves from the nearest station Downer’s Groove Main Street to Chicago at 8.45am.Many people told us different station names as nearest. There was Villa Park, Forest park and Downer’s Groove. Catching a train on time is an art we Mumbaikars are perfect in. So we set out on one fine Saturday morning, dressed up complete with a coat, gloves, boots and cap and a map of Chicago in hand. Like in a bus at Mumbai, you could buy the tickets on the train. The train was a double Decker. It had one column of seats on both sides on upper deck and two each on either side on lower. We asked the conductor for a weekend pass and asked him which station to get down at for downtown. That’s what they call Chicago. Like our town side for Fort area. He mumbled something and like excited kids we waited for our station name to be announced...”Now approaching Quarter 2…..”We waited and waited, taking in the nice view outside. The train was slow and halting every 5 mins.Finally the last station arrived and we could see the superb Chicago skyline approaching, with the Sears tower as a jewel in the crown. Baffled and irritated at the conductor we got out and walked in the direction everyone was going.
The next question was which exit to take. There was a Jackson street exit, a Madison street exit (which was discovered later and would become a savior), an Adam street exit and a Canal street exit.
We stepped out of Jackson Street and craned our necks to look at the towering skyscrapers. It was a vertical city. Being used to getting around Mumbai without knowing an area too well, I thought it would be the same here. But that was not to be…
We were looking for a free trolley service that comes with the Go Chicago card and also a place to buy the card first. We asked 2-3 people on the road about the free trolley and they were bewildered. One person asked us to spell out TROLLEY. We spent about half an hour walking up and down and finally saw a CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) bus going to Navy Pier. It sounded familiar, so we hopped on.
You have to pay the fare right after getting in, there’s a machine to put your money into. We asked the lady driver about how much to the last stop. She said 4.5$ for two. I took out a 5$ bill (not note...) and handed it to her. She said no change and pointed us to a board saying in bold letters,” Driver has no change”. She said you either give a 5 or get off. Left with no choice, we sacrificed the 50 cents and sat inside. The bus is similar to our Star bus in Mumbai, except that you can pull the string to stop it anywhere and also get it to stop anywhere by waving a hand from the road.
Navy Pier is the hottest tourist attraction in Chicago. The mystic blue Michigan Lake in full view on one side and the amazing Chicago skyline on the other…it enthralls you. There is a famous ferris wheel there, a big giant wheel sort of. After much hunting we got the Go Chicago card and our first free ride on that was the ferris wheel. We were asked to sit in one of its buckets coming down. I hoped in and was looking at the guide book that came along with the Go Chicago card, busy planning where can we go next. My colleague warned me that I am missing out on a great view and I should put down that book. I laughed at him and said I will check out the view when the wheel is faster, right now they are just loading people onto it. So we completed a full circle and our bucket reached the ground again. The person there opened the door and told me to get off. I looked at my colleague baffled and stepped out. My idea of a giant wheel had horribly gone wrong. My colleague could not help laughing at me and I too had a good laugh at my stupidity. So much so for a giant wheel…
There were also some architectural cruises around Lake Michigan. We did not go for it due to lack of time. Next stop was the Children’s museum at Navy Pier. We went in and flashed our card with a smile. But you need a photo id Ma’m if you are not with kids, said the security officer. I was annoyed by the idea as my colleague was not carrying his passport. We asked her if it’s ok to keep my passport, but she denied that too. So we Bid Adieu and moved on….
We went to a nearby bus stop and I was still busy deciding from the guide book, where do we head next. A map on the stop showed the bus went to Michigan Avenue, the John Hancock observatory was near it.
We got onto the bus and asked the driver if this went to Michigan Avenue just to be sure. He mumbled something and we were on our way. We got off at Michigan Avenue thankfully as few other people also wanted to go there. Relying on the driver would have been bad. Walking there for a few blocks we finally located the John Hancock observation desk. There were no signs on the road indicating it hidden behind all those skyscrapers. The view from top was amazing; also saw what I missed on the wheel.
We came out of that building and finally located our much hunted trolley. It was a double Decker bus with an open top. It had red seats and was cool and spacious. We started on our tour of the city of Chicago. Our next stop was Sears tower.