USA trip - part 1 - Chicago

It was a painless travelling day from Hilton to Heathrow and on to Chicago.
We parked successfully at the purple Parking depot and transferred by minibus to Heathrow terminal 5. We had checked in online but the queues to put in our baggage seemed as long as usual but we were in no hurry. While in Prague we had been warned about the likely cold weather in Chicago so we had taken advantage of our early booking of the holiday to use a luggage allowance of two bags of 23Kg each, in fact we had three bags between us to accommodate clothing for three climates, Chicago – COLD, Oklahoma – COOL, Texas – WARM.
Security came next and we passed through smoothly.
We have recently only travelled by budget airlines so the experience of flying with British Airways was refreshing, the cabin crew were attentive and the drinks and meals were free. My highlight, anyone who knows me will recognise it, was on my leg-stretch to the rear of the plane when the senior stewardess said that she had just brewed and did we want a tea. It tasted great.
The clock was in our favour in that we set off at 15.20 and arrived in Chicago at 18.05, our bodies however were aware that eight real hours had elapsed. We reclaimed our baggage smoothly and found the minibus stop for the airport to hotel transfer which I had in advance. We were the last people off the bus in central Chicago and we booked smoothly into the Westin on Michigan Avenue. The holiday was a mixture of pre-booking by me or our agent, DialAFlight, and some playing by ear. The Westin was booked by DialAFlight and clearly they get better rates than the general public. We were even slightly upgraded from a basic double to a room with two queen beds overlooking Michigan Avenue. We had a beer in the bar and retired for the night.
The following morning we had breakfast in the hotel which was excellent but reflected the Four Star nature of the hotel in the price. This is going to be a recurring theme, the better hotels are great but they catch you for extras in several ways, they charge for parking, they charge for internet access, they charge for breakfast and everyone expects to be tipped. We had paid $12 per day for WiFi in our room but it was worth it to keep in touch by email.
The view from our room on the 12th floor was spectacular and featured the John Handcock building immediately opposite the hotel. We went up the tower to the observation platform on the 94th floor, the audio guide provided in the price was excellent and we really felt it to be good value and it gave us our bearings. From there we walked to the Navy Pier which was in its November, almost hibernation, mode so we had it almost to ourselves. It is usually heaving in the summer but probably not our main reason to go back to the windy city.
On a personal recommendation we went to the Cheesecake Factory Restaurant, which was at the base of the John Handcock building. We decided on a snack lunch and went for a slice of cheesecake each and a hot chocolate. The portions were huge and we ended up taking enough cheesecake for our supper back to the hotel in a box.
Talking about the weather, although we wore overcoats for the only time on the USA trip, Chicago was far from as cold as we had expected and it was bright all the while we were there.
In the evening we had tickets for our first ever NBA match, the Chicago Bulls v Milwaukee Bucks at the United Centre. We took advice from the hotel and caught two buses to the game; we claimed our booked tickets from the “Will Call” window and found our way to our high-altitude seats. The game was untidy with little structure but plenty of one-on-one play for the first two quarters during this time the Bucks had a lead and looked quite comfortable. After the half-time break the Bulls slowly got back into the match and ended by winning by two points despite missing free throws down the stretch which would have made their victory more comfortable. Luol Deng, a GB player, was the most impressive Bull finishing with 26 points and 20 rebounds. The whole presentation was impressive and very memorable.
We reversed our journey to return to the hotel and ate the cheesecake mentioned earlier.
Breakfast the next day was at the deli that we had spotted across the road from the hotel which provided us with a good start to the day at a fraction of the costy of the hotel breakfast. Then we followed our previously successful method of seeing cities by booking a “Hop On, Hop Off” tram ride. We travelled the agree route and got off at the Art Institute of Chicago, which is guarded by two huge stone lions and is opposite the very beginning of the famous Route 66. As art galleries go it was good and it is fair to say that 50% of our party enjoyed the entire decade we spent in the gallery. We, as Crimewatch viewers, are particularly alert to the possibility of crime, however it was shocking to observe several cases of blatant forgery where the criminals had simply set up in front of their target picture and started to copy it – you have to ask what use is the security in the place – my companion refused me permission to make a citizen’s arrest.
We saw several displays but our focus was basically French Impressionists and amongst them we found works by Joseph Wright, native of Derby, neither French nor an impressionist.
On our escape from the art experience we walked across Millennium Park where we encountered the Bean, a massive reflecting structure which gave endless photo opportunities which we exploited quite fully. Then it was back onto the tram back to the hotel where in due course we had dinner in front of the World Series Baseball during which New York Yankees clinched the title. It appears that the Yankees are loved by their fans but hated by all other baseball fans – this was clear from the lack of enthusiasm which greeted their triumph.
The following day we ate breakfast at the same deli as before and returned to the hotel to pack before moving on to Oklahoma. We took a taxi to Chicago O’Hare airport and everything went to plan, we were concerned that we might be charged for having more hold baggage than allowed on internal flights but on production of our full itinerary we were not charged.