January 2023


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previous train rides, our tickets included breakfast, lunch and dinner. What we also got was some great chats with Jackie Hosford, a dining car attendant with Belfast connections who made a beeline for our accent. One of the best things about train travel is sparking up conversations with fellow travellers… it really is as much about the journey as the destination.


Quick stops at legendary placenames


such as Albuquerque and Dodge City conjured up the real America as the 40- hour rail journey


brought home


the vastness of this nation. Mammoth farmsteads reinforced


the


breadbasket moniker of the Great Plains while cityscapes jolted us from the rural to the urban on a quite


LA LA LAND | 35


house thousands of sea creatures, among them otters, penguins, sharks and beluga whales. The Aquarium is part of the Museum Campus which is also home to the Planetarium and Field Museum – all of which are part of the Chicago CITY PASS discounted attraction ticket. For


us, though, time was of the


essence and after spending several hours wallowing in this underwater wonderland it was time to dive into some aquatic fun of our own. Back at the hotel, we got changed and sauntered to sandy Ohio Street Beach for a quite unique swimming experience. Floating around in freshwater Lake Michigan was already a delight but gazing up at all those skyscrapers is a sight that really stops you in your stroke. Chicago at its brilliant best – what a vista!


That evening we treated ourselves to truly bonkers theatrical experience The Blue Man Group. This comedy-rock mash-up features three mute men clad in blue and miming all manner of weird and wonderful scenarios.


Audience


participation is key, making no two shows the same. And rainproof capes for the first few rows ensure spectators don’t get soaked with all that splashing coloured water. Brilliant fun and a crazy, quirky concept that has been entertaining Chicago’s citizens and visitors since 1997 and counting. Our final full day had arrived… we’d criss- crossed two thirds of the USA and barely stopped for breath. Which made our City Cruises


Signature


Lunch Cruise on Lake Michigan a well-timed treat. And having the boat


conveniently


mesmerising scale. Eventually the ‘Chief’ wended its way through the outskirts of Chicago whose vast skyscrapers loomed ever large as we approached the cathedral-like Union Station where our epic journey began a mere 18 days ago. It’s good to be back, not least because our final accommodation is a cracker.


Sable


at Navy Pier is a shiny new hotel that stretches along Chicago’s waterfront destination, providing easy access to a plethora


added to the relaxed vibe.


moored right outside our hotel definitely A delicious


buffet lunch served with a side of DJ tunes and those epic skyline sights made for yet another fantastic oh-so Chicago


experience.


of attractions and restaurants, not to mention delivering amazing views of both Lake Michigan and those majestic skyscrapers. Its clean, contemporary lines and floor to ceiling windows make you feel as though you’re on a cruise liner. And, with the USA’s largest rooftop terrace, those unrivalled lakeshore scenes just keep on coming. We started our holiday in Chicago – as featured


in NI Travel News’ Sept/Oct


issue – but know there’s still so much to experience in America’s third largest city. Another trip on the hop-on, hop-off Big Bus leads us to the gargantuan Shedd Aquarium whose 19 million litres of water


Did I mention I pack a lot into a holiday? I suppose the scale of this three- part feature is a bit of a giveaway. No surprises then that waking up on the day of our flight home, there was one final thing left to do. We’d started our trip with dizzying city views from the 94th floor Observation Deck of the John Hancock Centre. Beating it by 9 floors, though, the Skydeck Experience at Willis Tower – once the world’s tallest building - was the perfect ending to our big American odyssey. Together we stepped delicately onto The Ledge, a glass box extending out 4.3 ft for vertigo-inducing views straight down to the street and rail tracks below. A fitting final view before our flight home to Dublin, exhausted but filled with thousands of miles of magical memories. “Where do you want to go next?” I asked the kids. “Mum…leave it – we’re done!”. I’ll give them a month…


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