Chicago

Spring break is almost over, and I haven't updated on our trip to Chicago. Chicago is located almost 300 miles north-west of Cincinnati. According to Google maps, that's almost 5 hours of driving. Naturally, we didn't think that driving for 5 hours straight is a good idea, so we made a few stops for food, coffee and basic i/o functions. The drive up there took us about 7 hours, and after this trip I can add two new states to the list of states in which I have been: Indiana and Illinois. (The others being: California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming). But, that was just the road trip.

Chicago itself is everything we were promised. I was worried that people promised us too much, but the city lived to the expectations I had. We found a hotel in the financial district downtown (aka 'the loop'). The hotel itself was very good and was worth the money we paid for it, but the area itself becomes very dull at nights and during weekends. Next time we'll take the Near-North area, which is right to the north of the loop. The Near North area reminds me of Vancouver, and that's a very high reference in my standards. It is not as beautiful, or full of parks/forests as Vancouver is, but it has all the vibrant life of a city center with people living in it. For those of you who are not accustomed to North America, city centers are usually zoned for finances and business, and become desolate and sometimes scary places at night. Near North, on the other hand, is quite the contrary, with posh residence towers, lots of shops, and great restaurants. The best part is that Chicago's public transportation is efficient and safe, which is excellent for people not wanting to move their car in the city. This, too, is different than most North American cities, where owning a vehicle is a must. In short, this is an excellent city which combines all the good things from NYC (vibrancy, variety, public transportation) with the good things of a smaller city (safety in the areas where we have been).

It's hard to summarize a city into words. D took quite a few photographs of the city and here they are:


This is the Chicago Cloud-Gate. A beautiful metal bean that was recently added to Chicago, and have become a major tourist attraction - and for a good reason. It cannot be described in words, just watch the photo and go visit!


This is the view from the John Hancock Center towards downtown. John Hancock Center is the fourth tallest building in Chicago (the Sears Tower being the first, and you can see it in the right half of the photo, with the two antennae), but the view from it is better than the view from the Sears Tower, because it's not too close to the other sky-scrapers.


This is the old water tower, one of the only remaining buildings from the Chicago great fire. Once, it was the highest building in Chicago, but as you can see from this photo, the John Hancock Center simply dwarfs it now.


From the John Hancock Center, if you look to the north, you can see the shoreline of Chicago and Lake Michigan to the right. The lake (I guess in Hebrew we would call that a sea) is large enough to have actual harbors and ships. Chicago has prevented people the shore from being used by entrepreneurs, making it a beautiful shoreline. The beaches that you see to the left of the lake are not really sand beaches, as they appear from above. Rather, they are concrete shores covered by a small layer of sand. To the left of the beaches the big road is called Lakeshore Drive, and the buildings on it are considered the most expensive real estate in Chicago. Well - something to aspire for.


The John Hancock Center as seen from the beach I described earlier.


The Chicago Cloud-Gate again, this time - if you look really carefully - you can spot D and me!


This photo, taken from Millennium Park, shows you how the city is layered up with towers and sky scrapers. I love this one.

However, Chicago is not just beauty and no brains. When we were there we were amazed at the number of academic institutes in the city. Six universities in or immediately adjoining the city, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, are among the top echelon of doctorate-granting research universities. We saw the University of Chicago as part of our tour of the Hyde Park area and D was impressed by the school of business. In addition, during that tour we saw this building (photo taken from Wikipedia):


This building is right across from the Booth School of Business. It is a beautiful house designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it undergoes major reconstruction. It will be ready towards its 100 anniversary next year. It will be interesting to visit there in a year from now. In general, I think that Chicago is worth a few more visits.