James & Charlotte's Travel Blog: "Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose the blues in Chicago, Chicago"

Monday 15th May

The previous night, Uncle Stewart had dropped us at the bus station. From there, we caught a Greyhound to Detroit via the Canadian American border, which was a pretty simple process. At Detroit, we caught a second Greyhound, along with some pretty shady characters, which took us through to Chicago. We managed to sleep most of the way, despite it being pretty chilly on board. The bus pulled in slightly early, at around half 5 in the morning, although we had lost an hour whilst on board and we're now back to being 6 hours behind the UK. I'd been to Chicago before and had actually stayed in the same hostel that we were staying in, so vaguely remembered the short walk across the highway flyover that took us to the hostel. Being such an early arrival, we were locked out but were let in by someone heading out for an early morning stroll. As the reception wasn't open, we hunted down the common room and snoozed until the reception opened at 7:30. We headed straight down to stow our luggage and enquire about an upgrade to a private room. When we'd booked the hostel, we'd enquired about a mixed dorm but had been told that they didn't have any and had had to book a bed in a male dorm and a bed in a female dorm. We'd changed our minds when we arrived and had checked online to see if they had some privates available, which they did. When we spoke to the receptionist, she told us we could sort it out in a bit and said we could help ourselves to some breakfast whilst we waited. We'd barely had anything when she was back and trying to clear us out of the breakfast room and check us in to a twin room. The room came at a slightly higher cost but was better than being in separate rooms probably at opposite ends of the hostel. It's always nice to check in early, especially after an overnight bus ride and before we knew it, we were snoozing away. We set an alarm to wake ourselves up but struggled before finally getting out about half 1. Our hostel was a short walk from downtown, so we turned right, onto the start of Route 66 and headed towards Lake Michigan. We were after some food and seeing as we were in Chicago, pizza seemed appropriate (I'm aware that pizza is Italian but you always seem to see “Chicago” and “pizza” in the same sentence). We skipped the place that we had written down as it seemed a more of a sit down place and our faded combat trousers and sweaty t-shirts didn't exactly fit in too well. Instead we opted for a place that sold pizza by the slice that was a few doors down. Luke's was much more relaxed and more like a diner, so we ordered a slice each and sat down at a table looking out on to the street. The slice was a good size and filling but Charlotte didn't enjoy it too much. It was still something to have and afterwards, we continued down on to State Street. We weren't after anything in particular but had a wander and only ended up buying some deodorant and looking at some jeans for Charlotte. Despite the earlier nap, we were still useless and decided to walk back, via a supermarket, and rest up in preparation for a couple of busier days to come. Inevitably, this led to at least one of us having another nap. Despite not being particularly hungry, we headed over to the communal kitchen, which was in a separate building and looked like it was part of an apartment block. Seeing as there was only one small saucepan, we had to wait for the person using it to finish before we could rustle up our rice with broccoli and sweetcorn. It was only simple but it's what we needed after a week of excess in London. After dinner, we returned to our room and settled in for an early night, hoping to feel refreshed in the morning.

Tuesday 16th May

Despite all the naps and the early night, we still didn't wake up until 8 and then didn't get up until gone half past. When we eventually did get up, we filled up on some breakfast before crashing out again. It seemed the week of excess and the single hour time change had knocked us for 6. Another reason for our lack of enthusiasm was that we were fed up with heading out early, doing everything we wanted to do and then arriving back at the hostel by 2 with nothing to do for 5 hours until dinner. So we lazed until 10 and then headed out, taking the same route to downtown we'd taken the day before. Rather than stop when we got to State Street though, we continued all the way through until we hit the shores of Lake Michigan. Just before we hit the shores, we got slightly distracted by a rather large fountain in a park but quickly got back on track. As with the other Great Lakes, Michigan is just as big and just as impressive and whereas when we were on Lake Ontario and we could see the Toronto skyline on the opposite side, here we could see nothing but water. The only problem with the lakes, is that they don't have the same salty, briny smell of the sea, which, when you live by the sea, you learn to love and then kiss when you are away. Conveniently, there was a pedestrianised pathway that ran along the shore of the lake and took us right up to a place called Navy Pier. After what was a fresh week weather wise in London, we were swearing in very warm temperatures, aided with a warm wind blowing from the south. This made the walk long the lake pretty sweaty, but we were cooled by the breeze every so often. When we got to Navy Pier, we walk right round the outside of all the buildings that lines its centre before making our way back to the beginning and entering in the front doors, something which we maybe should have done to start with, although we did get to see a large anchor that once belonged to the USS Chicago. Unfortunately, inside the pier we didn't find 2p machines, claw games and horse racing arcade machine like you would at home. Instead it was packed full of gift shops, restaurants and had hundreds of screaming kids running round it in every direction (maybe that part is slightly inaccurate). We didn't spend too long inside though, just enough time to pick up a pin badge. On our way out however, we decided to splash out on some lunch and visited a place we'd had lined up the day before. Giordano’s is a Chicago institution that specialises in decadent stuffed deep dish pizzas. We hadn't visited the branch near our hostel the day before, as we felt scruffy and underdressed but today, in our shorts and t-shirts, it was a different story. We were sat down immediately and got round to ordering a small deep dish Chicago special, which contained pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms and onion. Seeing as we were told the pizza would be made fresh and that that would take 45 minutes, we ordered a side of chips to pass the time. They were gone within 5 minutes of arriving, so we still had a long wait. The time went quickly though as we still found plenty of things to talk about after so much time together. When the pizza arrived, the only thing small about it was the circumference. It was deep and packed full of topping. It was more like a pie and out of the 6 slices we received, we had to leave 2 to takeaway with us. Despite being full on bread and cheese, we decided to try our luck at a speciality ice cream place we'd passed earlier on the pier but had been close. It was called Dippin’ Dots and had been highly recommended to us by Charlotte's brothers fiancé. Rather than serving up conventional ice cream, they serve up tiny balls of ice cream flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. Fortunately, our opportunism paid off and after a short wait for a “back in 10” sign, we picked up a small bowl each. They were an interesting concoction and very tasty, if a bit expensive. After our large lunch, we continued walking along the shore of the lake and passed a couple of beaches that were packed with locals making the most of the sunny weather. When we got to the second beach, we veered off and headed down Miichigan Avenue, which we'd been told was the high end shopping area of Chicago. As with the previous day, we weren't after anything but we're just using it for something to do. By chance though, we did pass a Pandora jewellery shop and decided it was time Charlotte picked up a charm for America. Their selection wasn't great but she did get one with the Statue of Liberty dangling from it. We continued down Michigan and after passing the Wrigley Building, which was once home to the famous chewing gum brand, we followed some steps down on to the Chicago river and followed the pathway along its side that was the river walk. It was similar to the one from San Antonio but had, to us, a nicer feel to it. Despite being smack dab in the centre of a concrete jungle like Chicago, we could enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of the big city from the comfort of a pedestrianised walkway running along the river. One of the best sounds are the overground metro trains rumbling across the dark steel bridges that emerge from the narrows of two buildings and span the river, before disappearing between some more skyscrapers. By this time, we'd safely navigated past the dreaded 2 o'clock mark and were hurtling towards 5, so we decided to make our way back to the hostel and cool down in our room. After some rest and relaxation, we paid a visit to the nearby supermarket and then cooked up some dinner. Due to the awful kitchen, we made it even simpler than the night before, going for some veg with a leftover slice of pizza each.

Wednesday 17th May

Chicago isn't as chocked full of things to do and see like New York or Beijing, so we decided to head out for the day and visit a nearby city instead. We were up for breakfast when it opened at 7:30 and wolfed down as much as we could in the short time we had. Our bus to Milwaukee was departing at 8:40 and we had a 10 minute walk to the bus station beforehand. The station was easy enough to locate but the queue to get on the bus was impossible to find. There was just an unorganised crowd standing in the pavement all looking like they wanted to get on the bus that was going to Atlanta but not sure if they wanted to commit to it. We weren't after the bus for Atlanta but it wasn't long before our bus, ultimately destined for Minneapolis, pulled in to the pavement. We weren't the first people to get on the bus but the majority of people in front of us in the “queue” either got sent to the Atlanta bus or had to wait longer for one that was actually going to Cincinnati. I appreciate that not everyone has incredible geography knowledge and probably doesn't know that Cincinnati isn't on the way to Minneapolis or even in the same direction but most of the people around us seemed completely incapable of reading the destination plastered on the front of the bus. Anyway, we got on and it was pretty quiet, which made for a pleasant 2 and a half hour drive up the shores of Lake Michigan to the city of Milwaukee in the state of Wisconsin. Milwaukee is famous for one thing and it's not for being the setting of the sitcom Happy Days. It's a brewing town and has been home to numerous famous breweries over the years. The towns baseball team are even called the Milwaukee Brewers. The most famous of the beers brewed in Milwaukee is probably Miller, of which we consumed many at Uncle Stewart's over the previous week. Therefore, we were only visiting Milwaukee for one reason and it wasn't to meet The Fonz. We stepped off the bus and immediately made our way to the Milwaukee visitor centre, where we enquired about public transport to the Miller brewery. It was clear to see by the lack of action in the visitor centre that downtown Milwaukee doesn't exactly haul in the tourists. With our info Arian, we found the bus stop, caught the bus and arrived at the brewery just in time to catch the 11:30 tour. We just scraped in and we weren't helped by 2 security guys having absolutely no idea where we go. The good thing about the tour of the Miller brewery was it was completely free and we would receive free “ice cold” samples at the end. I'm not sure why they kept using the term ice cold as we wouldn't expect it to be served any other way. First of all we were shown a video that outlined the history of Miller and told about Mr.Miller arriving in the United States with his secret yeast. You wouldn't be able to do that these days, as it would get confiscated at the border. After the film, we were shown round various parts of the brewery such as the bottling line, the shipping process as well as being shown the incredibly hot room where the fermentation process occurs. It was all very interesting and probably one of the best brewery tours we had been on. It was extensive, informative, although the guide lacked a bit of enthusiasm. After the tour, we were taken down in to the Miller caves, which was an extensive network of natural caves where Mr.Miller used to store his brew to keep it cool, particularly during the hot summer days, which we could vouch for being rather warm. Finally, after the caves, came the free beer, which was served to us at the onsite bar. We were each given 3 beers a Miller Lite, which wasn't particularly good, a darker one which we missed the name of which was exceptional and a shandy, which was closer to just lemonade than a shandy. We soaked up some of the alcohol with a free tiny bag of pretzels, before venturing back to the gift shop where I picked up the inevitable beer glasses. It had only lasted a couple of hours but it had probably been worth the trip up from Chicago. We still had a couple of hours left, of which we lost almost one waiting for a bus back in to town. When we eventually got back to Milwaukee, we walked through the centre to the river walk, which didn't quite reach the heady heights the ones in Chicago and San Antonio had. We'd planned on spending a little time there but walked about 2 blocks before deciding it wasn't worth it and headed back to the central bus station. We had another lengthy wait for a bus back to Chicago but when it arrived, we managed to get seats together and even drifted off on the drive back. It had been a pretty simple day and had meant we'd been out until gone 7, which was good going for us. We swung by the supermarket in the way back to pick up some things and then rustled up some veggies and spaghetti for our dinner.