Travel Tuesdays: Downtown Chicago

Sharee and I departed Union Station and walked toward the tallest building in front of us: Willis Tower, formerly named (and still commonly referred to) the Sears Tower.  

Photo Credit:  www.skyscrapercenter.com

 

Personal Photo: The front of the Willis Tower

Later ventures took us into Millennium Park and the streets of downtown Chicago through Jewelry Row and Michigan Avenue (aka the Magnificent Mile).

Boats on the Lake

Sharee & Rhonda

A veggie bowl at Chipotle
Photo Credit:  www.theathletarian.com

Workers having lunch outside their office

The streets of Chicago

Rhonda taking pic of herself at The Bean

The Cloud Gate (aka The Bean)
in Millennium Park

The Crown Fountain located in
Millennium Park.

Have you been to Chicago? What is your favorite attraction or off the beaten path location in Chicago? Comment below.

Rhonda W. & Sharee W.

Travel Tuesdays: Traveling By Train to Chicago

The train is coming. Woot! Woot!

Sharee and I looked at the train station schedule mapping out how we will travel from Bloomingdale, IL, where we were staying with a host family, to Chicago. We have been to Chicago prior in May 2012 for a conference my sister was attending, but we were already downtown and walked everywhere.

For this trip we came as filmmakers for the St. Matthews Catholic Church SeptemberFest Film Festival. The train ride from the suburb we were staying at to Chicago was going to take 50 min. We first had to decide which station we were going to leave from: Roselle via the Milwaukee District/West Line or Glen Ellyn via the Union Pacific/West Line. They were both equal distance. We decided to depart from Roselle with arrival into Union Station in Chicago.

Inside the train heading to Chicago.

It only cost $10.50 for a round trip ticket. Sharee and I settled into the lower level of the train and we were off. This train was on time and was on a schedule. It was Friday morning with commuters going to work, running errands, or just visiting the city like us. Wi-Fi was accessible to those who had laptops or tablets. The train was clean and very well maintained.

One of more than a dozen stations we stopped at on our way to Chicago.

We have arrived at Union Station.

In another post we will blog about our time in Chicago. After 4 hours we walked back to Union Station. We looked at the train station board to see which gate we needed to wait at. It was Gate 9. After a fifteen minute wait time a sign above Gate 9 flashed: Now Boarding. We boarded, but this time sat in the upper level.

Heading back to the suburbs.

Sharee and I settled once again into the train. Closed our eyes and went to sleep. "Roselle Station is next" the conductor says. We gather our belongings and hop into the minivan of our host who was waiting for us in the parking lot.

Have you stayed in the suburb or outlying area of a major city? Did you take a train into the city? Leave comments of your experience below.

Rhonda W. & Sharee W.

Public Transportation

My sister and I had a blast in NYC over the weekend during our family gathering. Other than hitting up a few eating spots and entertainment in Times Square, most of our time was spent traveling between shopping districts.  We assisted in shuffling thirty something people from place to place via NYC's ever changing public transportation system.  We did it all.  Train, bus, taxi, and ferry.  And for a directionally challenged individual like myself, the fact that I was able to get around via the various train and bus connections, and understand that the Uptown train takes you to "locations above" & the Downtown train takes you to "locations below" (if you live or ever been to Charlotte, NC...it's the complete opposite...Uptown is actually Downtown & Downtown is actually Uptown) is miraculous. Even after more than a dozen years living here, I still can't get around certain areas in Columbia, SC without my "trusty" GPS. Anyways....

chargrillkiller's photostream via Flickr

So in my wondrous thoughts about the ins and outs of getting around the various international cities we'll be visiting, my mind pondered on a few questions.  Here in America, there tends to be a "stigma" if you utilize public transportation services, but in other countries the train, "tube", bus, etc is the way to go. Are there certain cities where public transportation is acceptable, and others where it is not? Must the population be of a certain size to be "cool" to utilize public transportation? And with recent news in NYC about another subway fare hike, is public transportation becoming less accessible to the masses?  Any thoughts or inputs on the topic, greatly appreciated.

Sharee