Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Alright, I am definitely responsible for a little lack of blog updates. I guess the moment I turned this into a true blue photography blog, I seem to realise that I have that amount to blog about but then again, I am the number procrastinator when it comes to processing photos and getting up on the blog let alone sending them to the printers to get them printed.

Here is a continuation from my previous post, talking about when I was visiting Chicago City which is still a fond memory in my head. We started the day with an Architecture tour in mind, the tour mainly revolved around us going up and down the river whilst listening to some lady talking about how old some buildings were and what design the architect had in mind. To be honest, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be an architect. Mainly because I wanted to design the next “Death Star” or something cooler.

Every day had to always begin with a great breakfast and where else to have breakfast at the local bakery in the village.

I was quite happy as I could finally try out bagels and cream cheese.

But to be perfectly honest, it was nothing to shout about. Kinda regretted not ordering the large breakfast set which came with toast, scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. After going about on the river cruise, we decided to walk along Michigan Avenue which was crowded with shoppers.

After spending a lot of time walking (my feet was already aching!), we decided to look for a place for lunch and since I am a fan of 1901 HotDog’s and my favourite hotdog is Chicago Beef, why not try the actual Chicago Beef Hotdogs in Chicago itself. High and low searching and using our iPhones to search for nearby restaurants, we ended up at Portillo’s.

Where I ordered a huge chilli dog with curly fries. (Pity there wasn’t any rootbeer available)

Next stop for us was the Aquarium which was located all the way down south of where we were. After taking the metro line (subway), we were still quite far off from the aquarium and walking there seemed the best alternative (also the cheapest). At the same time, it gave me some opportunities to shoot a little bit of the Chicago scenery. Apparently they worship feet over there since they have plenty of monuments dedicated to it.

Note the guy in the orange shirt above? Yes, he is on a Segway! He is part of a Segway tour group, how cool is that?  Its basically a tour where you get to ride your own individual Segway around the city with a bunch of other people guided by a tour guide. Do that in Malaysia and you get run down by cars and “mat rempits“.

I am amazed that they even have signs to state “dog friendly” areas as well.

More random stuff which I took whilst making our way to the aquarium.

After a long walk, we finally arrived at our destination.

Only to be welcomed by a huge crowd and the fact that we only had 2 hours before they closed. I am so not used to seeing everything closed by 5pm!

The main attraction of the aquarium, other than seeing loads of sea creatures, is their collection of beluga whales.

After the place closed up, I took even more random shots of the surrounding areas.

I still can’t believe how large Lake Michigan is!

Yes it is a lake! Possibly larger than the entire land mass of Peninsula Malaysia.

By the way, the myth about cops and donuts ain’t true. I caught a couple of them eating hot dogs.

They (the police, duh!) seem to be riding everything possible now, bicycles, horses, and motorcycles. Soon they will be riding one of these as well!

Only thing is that they probably needed to put power sockets around the city to charge up their Segways.

Funky looking bench with interesting art on it.

Last but not least, a shot of my colleague whilst we took the metro train back to our hotel.

Chicago, definitely a city I would love to visit again. I think I will spend a little more time there the next time I am in Chicago for training.