Life Outside the Inbox

Is it possible to fit the beauty of Chicago all in one day? The answer is no (sorry to disappoint). But we did try and felt we made the most of it.

As always, I like to explain how I found my hotel deal – this one was easy though. Carl’s boss is a frequent traveler to Chicago so we asked him for advice. The best deals he’s found is on Hotwire which has never disappointed him. This time we weren’t bidding on a hotel, but we got a chance to select the lowest price for hotels in a certain range and area. After typing in your search, you’ll find a tab that says, “Lowest Price”. Find the price and the star rating you’d prefer and enter your credit card info. So instead of guessing if your bid will go through AND which hotel you’d get, you at least know its the firm price. Anyway, in this case we got the W Chicago City Center hotel which was decent.

We got to Chicago around 7:30pm and checked into our hotel. The front desk clerk kept referring to our room as a very “cozy” room – that’s marketing gimmick for you. For being assigned the “cozy” room, you can either get: 1) free wifi, 2) 2 drink tickets or 3) 500 bonus rewards. We of course chose the free wifi. And then when we went up to the room, we realized that their wifi service was down and that there was “nothing they could do”. Besides that disappointment though, the room was great – nice and clean just the way I like it.

At 8:30pm we took out our trusty TripAdvisor app for Chicago (I always download the app before hand so I don’t get roaming charges – this app will have all the info you need). We found Shaw’s Crab House – and of course never learning our lesson, we didn’t make a reservation. We were lucky enough though to have found a first-come-first-serve table by the bar area to avoid the 2 hour wait. I wasn’t amazed by the seafood in general, but the tiny crab legs I did eat was fresh.

After dinner we strolled the streets and went to Millennium Park and Carl was really looking forward to see Could Gate, or what others call “The Bean” (or are they two separate things?). While it was already 10pm, there were still a lot of people there and we still felt safe. It was really an interesting sculpture, but I’m no artist. We took some pictures, walked through the park and made our way back to the hotel.

The next morning we woke up at 10am and made our way out at 11am. The weather was a bit chilly and it seemed like it was going to rain so we debated out plans. Since Willis Tower was only a 5 minute walk, we chose that over the John Haddock Center (thinking the line would be shorter anyway). We arrived to a 3 hour line up, not surprising though – it was a Saturday after all. We had previously looked into buying a CityPass for Boston but never considered it for Chicago. Upon seeing the line up, we got it right away and realized it was good up to a year so that works out! We skipped such a long line up to a point where I felt guilty! I sound so hard to impress but the Willis Tower was like any other tower around the world. It tells its story and shows a beautiful view of the city – the emerald colours of the lake together with the city was gorgeous. They also feature a glass enclosure that extents a few feet outside of the building – this was a cool feature and though we had to line up for our chance to take pictures, everyone was respectful of each others time.

By the time we were done, it was around 1pm so we took the #29 bus down ($2.50 fare/person) to Navy Pier.  I think this was my highlight of Chicago! Navy Pier was so beautiful and I couldn’t wait to get on the Ferris Wheel. It was only $6 for the ticket but it’ll only take you on one circle. Note that you can buy the ride ticket at any booth, so don’t be fooled into lining up at the one next to the ferris wheel.

From there, we took the water taxi ($8 fare/person) to Shedd Aquarium. It was 20 minute ride and if you are prone to seasickness, this is definitely not recommended! Once we got to Shedd we realized that they were closing early for a special event at 4pm so that left us with 1 hour. We asked one of the staff members if we can finish in 1 hour and they said that if we don’t we can always tell guest services and they can help us out – which is what we did. I have never seen so many people at an aquarium before, it was packed and they told us the only time it’s not so busy is when its winter and a Tuesday. I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed the aquarium more if we actually got a chance to poke our heads into everything but we didn’t. The aquarium is huge and incorporating the shows, it should take around 3 hours.

Up next we went to the planetarium which closes at 6pm so we figured we had 2 hours. My favourite exhibit was the one on the astronauts….but that was it. With the CityPass, it came with a show. We chose “Space Junk 3-D” and it was, well, pretty junky…I love documentaries but this one made Carl and I fall asleep.

We took a long bus ride back to our hotel to pick up the car as we had another 4.5 hours to go to Wisconsin. But TripAdvisor stopped us when I found out that Smoque BBQ was featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, I really wanted to try it out. Since it was on the way, we decided to “stop by”. Stopping by we did. We stopped for a 1.5 hour line up but the line kept moving so it didn’t feel so bad. We got the rib combo and added all the extras (pulled pork, sausage and brisket). Again, while it was good, I think I could’ve gotten the same food at any other place. We drenched the pulled pork and brisket in the bbq sauce as it wasn’t very flavourful.

And I guess here’s the part you’re looking for!

Spending:

Hotel – $117
Parking – $40 (I KNOW, RIGHT??)
Shaw’s Crab House – $120
CityPass – $178 (for 2) – covers Shedd Aquarium and Planetarium
Bus fare – $10 (2 people and roundtrip)
Ferris Wheel – $12 (for 2)
Water taxi – $16 (for 2)
Smoques BBQ – $36

Total: $529

We weren’t on a budget this time since Carl will be gone for 5 months so we decided to make the best of it. Though come to think about it, ~$260 per person isn’t too bad.