Daily Archives: August 13, 2009

Chicago: The Road

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I do not know if it is ever going to get boring or ordinary for me to see a big city skyline during this life, but I asked Will about it, because he has lived in Chicago for a year now, and he said “I’ll never get used to seeing that”. Honestly I do not even know if I will ever live next to a big city. I do not consider the city I live next to big at all. I sort of feel the same way as Will about the whole thing and I wanted my last post about my Chicago trip to be what I saw from my car, some miscellaneous pictures that did not really fit anywhere else and just a little recap of the trip there and the trip back home.

I got really excited about seeing Chicago from my car when we got close. Tom Tom took us through the city to get to where Will is, so I got to take in a lot of sites. I was really excited and giddy and had to start taking pictures of the sites, because there was so much around me. I actually had Jo take the pictures, because I was driving and it was sort of rush hour the entire trip in. I think it took us almost an hour to drive the last 20 miles.

I saw huge buildings, I saw beaches with palm trees, which I am still not entirely sure why they have palm trees on the beaches in Chicago, but anyway, I saw trails especially set up for bikes and running. Here they have miles and miles of nothing and they can not manage to have more than one crappy bike trail that goes past a sewage plant, and in Chicago they have miles of trails that go around the city and past beautiful sites like the beach and the docks. I am a little bitter about having to come back home after seeing all that Chicago has to offer. It makes me wonder where else I could live and what they would have waiting for me there.

There is something so marvelous about being in the shadow of all these enormous structures of steel and cement. Something so awesome about what man is able to create. Looking back at a lot of the pictures now it seems hard to believe that it is Chicago, because all you see is water and trees. It really is that marvelous to behold in some spots. I have become a bit infatuated with Chicago.

I took some pictures of Will’s dog Scooter, because he has a dog now. The dog is a mix between something and something else. I wish I could remember, but I have never really owned a dog and so I know that people who do know what “type” of dog they have, but I honestly can not keep it straight. It is an awesome dog though, so it was definitely worth taking a picture of.

This is the hat that I bought myself as a souvenir. I feel like it is a really awesome hat. I really like the Cubs logo. I might even be a Cubs fan now. I certainly have not routed for the Indians in forever. I bought Patty a blue shirt that says “I Love Chicago” and Eddy a Cubs shirt. I did not want to get them shirts from any specific attraction that I went to, because that is something they will have to do sometime. I bought my Grandma a bag of saltwater taffy from Navy Pier. I personally cannot eat the stuff, but she loves it.

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Chicago: Train

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I know that this topic is going to be awful mundane for a great many people, but I have personally never really taken public transportation. I know that many people have, and many people live in big cities, or have visited big cities, so for them this is almost ridiculous and sort of funny that I find this topic so interesting that I would actually take the time to discuss it.

I spent time on both trains, which you do not refer to as a subway in Chicago, and a few buses. It’s the train, and they also call it the “L”, because it is an “elevated” train. One of the things that I learned was that you can use the ticket you purchase for the trains on the buses. Jo and Will were actually shocked that I was not aware of this fact. I tend to find that people assume too much. Honestly, I paraphrased the line from a Family Guy episode when they looked at me shocked that I wasn’t aware, I said “we traded in our plane tickets for train tickets”.

I did not take any pictures while I was on the bus but I did manage to take some pictures on the train, even though I was asked not to by an employee of the CTA. I did anyway, because I like taking pictures. Will gave me a lecture about how I should do what they say, and how there are armed security who will be called on me, and how I will be in jail. I am aware that the whole security for public transportation has been ramped up because of terrorists or something, but I do not really care. I was on vacation and I wanted pictures of something that I found absolutely intriguing.

I took a picture of Jason and Will. I took a picture of Jo. I took a picture of Grand Station, because this is one of the stations that is actually sort of finished. Most of the stations have plywood and a really unfinished look about them. It is as though all the stations are a work in progress. I imagine that is something that they would take care of quite quickly if they were nominated to be the home to the Olympics.

The train was our main mode of transportation for the four days we were there. We mainly took the Red line everywhere, but I also think we took the Brown and Pink line. The Red line is basically the best way to get every where from where Will and Jason live and get into downtown. There are many other lines that we had no reason for getting on, because they would not have taken us anywhere we wanted to go.

I can tell you that trains are probably the best way to travel, because you do not have to do anything. They are also loud, boring, and I know now why many people had books and other things to distract themselves. If I were actually taking this form of transportation to work or classes at a University it would be great, because I would have this time to sort of decompress from my day and get some personal things done. I remember when I went to Kent State University and I had to take the bus around it was great, and this experience was sort of like that.

I really enjoyed my time with the public transportation system. We bought three day passes, which Jo promptly lost on the 2nd day. I guess he had the ticket tucked into his holder for his cellphone and he was using his cellphone. I originally put the ticket in my wallet, and put my wallet in my bag, but that was entirely way to slow when we needed to put our ticket into the machine and go through the turnstile. I ended up putting it in my pocket and I am glad that I did not lose it, because I do have a habit of losing things. I guess if I actually lived there I would get a more permanent plastic card.

One thing that Jo lucked out on was that our tickets stopped working on that 2nd day. No reason, they just came back “invalid” on buses and gave errors at the turnstiles to the train. I still got to ride, because the date that the ticket is good through is printed on the back, but I had to get an employee to let me through sometimes for that last day. Jo had to pay more to buy another ticket, but he did not have to deal with that inconvinience the last day. I was told that there is typically a problem with the tickets on the buses and the trains occasionally. Not the normal tickets that people who live there buy, but the 1 and 3 day pass tickets.

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