72 hours in Chicago

According to the weather, this day was supposed to be a rainy one so we planned all our indoor excursions for this day, mainly museums. We weren't well informed about the bus system so we walked from the metro stop to the Field Museum, which is some sort of museum district where a park lay between the museum and the rest of the city. On a sunny day, it would have been a wonderful scenic stroll but it was kind of torture in the rain. We got there right when the museum opened.

The museum is huge! We only allotted about three hours for the whole place but you could conceivably spend the entire day there if you truly wanted to see every single exhibit. They do have a lot of extra ticketed exhibits but all the ones included with the general admission are plenty already. This is a really great place to take any kids because there are a lot of interactive things. I clearly had a lot of fun. My main reason of wanting to visit this museum was to get a glance at the Terracotta warriors that they were able to obtain for a limited amount of time.

The next museum we went to was the Museum of Science and Industry. My cousin and travel buddy is an engineering major so it made sense for us to go. They had all sorts of facets of science and it was really cool and also kid friendly so it made science fun. I also did their ticketed Lego exhibit. My brother would have loved that. The Numbers in Nature exhibit had this really cool and very fairytale feeling mirror maze. I really loved just going through the maze. This is another place where you could spend the whole day in as well.

Afterwards, we went back downtown just to take a glance at the beautiful glass decorated domes inside the cultural center. They also had a very eccentric exhibit on the top floor at the time. Afterwards, we simply had to stop by Ghirardelli one last time.

It was sad having to leave Chicago. There were still so many parts of the city we wanted to explore. I'd definitely love to come back, but maybe not during a cold season. I'm not sure I could survive the Chicago winter.

48 hours in Chicago

Finally after getting a decent amount of sleep, I was ready to tackle the day. We started with going to the Willis Tower to check out the Skydeck and get on that ledge. It was still early so it was great that there was no line and not too many people there yet. The view the city was gorgeous but the best part is the ledge, which is included in the ticket price. Actually standing on the ledge isn't as scary as I thought it would be.

Afterwards, we walked along the Magnificent Mile and ate dinner around the area, My cousin wanted to check out a certain sports museum inside this mall but unfortunately it was closed for the day. Other things we did was see the Chicago Theater since my cousin is super into jazz. We went into Macy's where the visitor help center is and they were so helpful with planning out how to use the bus system in the city.

We then took a boat tour than showcased the various types of architecture on the buildings in the city as well as the history behind them. I definitely recommend this boat tour because all the amazing buildings can be seen from the river. It is also the quickest way to see all the different buildings because walking would take too long.

We then had dinner at Billy Goat Tavern and dessert at the Ghirardelli place, which I am so sad we don't have one here because everything they had was delicious. Then drinks at the bar at Cindy's Rooftop to watch the sun set and see the city really light up.