A nice weekend in Chicago
Dave and I just returned from a fun weekend in Chicago. We ate at some interesting places, went to some museums, and got to say hi to our cousins and their adorable baby. For the record, we visited five bookstores (my obsession) and five grocery stores (Dave's idea of a good time).
We decided to think different (as Steve Jobs would say) and took Amtrak from Kansas to Chicago. This was my first time taking a train long distance, and it was quite nice. We are not talking "Orient Express" levels of sybaritic luxury, but compared to the rat race of your average plane ride, it was very nice. There's no waiting in line or arriving two hours early to make it through security. You just walk right up and board the train. Once aboard, there is plenty of room for as many carry-on items as you wish, and you have about three feet of legroom. It is equivalent to first class in a jet. The ride itself is leisurely, about 80 miles per hour, so it takes about 7 hours to get to Chicago, but during that time you can really stretch out and relax. You also have the option take to your meals in a dining car, which is a step above airline food, probably about equal to "good" cafeteria fare. They set four people to a table, and since there were two of us, we got to meet other interesting people, including a woman riding back from a national Wizard of Oz convention and a Singaporan ex-pat mother and child back in America for a vacation. In the end, we got to Chicago in less time then it would have taken to drive, and only a couple hours more then the entire air travel experience would have taken.
Once in Chicago, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Field Museum of Natural History, where the picture below was taken. The Field Museum has an amazing collection of stuffed and mounted wild animals, including hundreds of mammals and every bird that is native to North America. As I said to Dave, it is kind of like a zoo on "pause" -- and it was easy to see all the details of the animals, frozen in time by some anonymous taxidemist. I had to supress the urge to yell out "Jumanji," though!
We rented a car, but we were also able to make good use of Chicago's subway system, which has each one of its routes noted by its color on a map. So you have the Red Line, Green Line and so forth. There's even a Brown Line, which sounds to me like some kind of gay underground slang: "Hey, honey, want to ride the Brown Line tonight?" -- a question to which the only correct answer is "Express or local, baby?"
All in all, a fun getaway.
Dave and I just returned from a fun weekend in Chicago. We ate at some interesting places, went to some museums, and got to say hi to our cousins and their adorable baby. For the record, we visited five bookstores (my obsession) and five grocery stores (Dave's idea of a good time).
We decided to think different (as Steve Jobs would say) and took Amtrak from Kansas to Chicago. This was my first time taking a train long distance, and it was quite nice. We are not talking "Orient Express" levels of sybaritic luxury, but compared to the rat race of your average plane ride, it was very nice. There's no waiting in line or arriving two hours early to make it through security. You just walk right up and board the train. Once aboard, there is plenty of room for as many carry-on items as you wish, and you have about three feet of legroom. It is equivalent to first class in a jet. The ride itself is leisurely, about 80 miles per hour, so it takes about 7 hours to get to Chicago, but during that time you can really stretch out and relax. You also have the option take to your meals in a dining car, which is a step above airline food, probably about equal to "good" cafeteria fare. They set four people to a table, and since there were two of us, we got to meet other interesting people, including a woman riding back from a national Wizard of Oz convention and a Singaporan ex-pat mother and child back in America for a vacation. In the end, we got to Chicago in less time then it would have taken to drive, and only a couple hours more then the entire air travel experience would have taken.
Once in Chicago, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Field Museum of Natural History, where the picture below was taken. The Field Museum has an amazing collection of stuffed and mounted wild animals, including hundreds of mammals and every bird that is native to North America. As I said to Dave, it is kind of like a zoo on "pause" -- and it was easy to see all the details of the animals, frozen in time by some anonymous taxidemist. I had to supress the urge to yell out "Jumanji," though!
We rented a car, but we were also able to make good use of Chicago's subway system, which has each one of its routes noted by its color on a map. So you have the Red Line, Green Line and so forth. There's even a Brown Line, which sounds to me like some kind of gay underground slang: "Hey, honey, want to ride the Brown Line tonight?" -- a question to which the only correct answer is "Express or local, baby?"
All in all, a fun getaway.
posted by Mike at
8:36 PM
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