One day in Chicago!

After my last work trip to the US over a year ago, I was absolutely floored by the jetlag when I arrived, and basically went straight to work the next day. It was horrible and I was really dreading it this time. Because of this, I made an executive decision to arrive a day earlier to give myself an extra night to (try to) get some sleep before I had to work. It also gave me a day to actually explore Chicago, where my trip began. 

For some reason (I'm thinking multiple big sports games), there was basically no hotel rooms available in the city for the Saturday night I arrived under $600USD, so I stayed out near the airport for the first night and headed in to the city the next day for the night. 

Ever since I was 14 years old and started watching ER when it first aired, I have wanted to go to Chicago. Maybe it was the idea of running to Julianna Margulies or George Clooney on the street, I don't know. Anyway, i've always wanted to visit and I was so happy to finally have the chance!

When I finally got into the city, I dropped my bags at my hotel and headed straight out to explore. I was staying right on Michigan Avenue near the Art Institute of Chicago, so the location was excellent. I walked to Millennium Park, and took an awkward photo with Cloud Gate, affectionately called the Bean, enjoyed checking out the autumn leaves changing colour. I kept wandering all the way up to the street to the DuSable Bridge, because I wanted to see all the gorgeous buildings on the river. It really is a beautiful city full of lovely architecture.

The second half of the day I headed out to Lincoln Park, because I wanted to check out the suburbs, to see another side of the city. Because this post already has a lot of photos, i'll be separating it into a few posts :)

Foggy day in Chicago

Fall leaves :)

Cheesy tourist photo

Cloud Gate - better known as the Bean

Gorgeous, except for the gross word on the building on the right

CHICAGO!

My hotel, the Congress. It was old, but it did the job :)