Story: 72 Hours in Chicago

When I got the save the date card for a family wedding in Chicago, I was eager to find a way to make the most of my 2000 mile journey, on a weekend where I had to be back in California by midday Sunday.

It wouldn’t be my first time in the Windy City, but I was a kid then and only had kid interests. As a baseball lover, I saw that the Cubs were playing all weekend long, so a trip to Wrigley was a must on my schedule. Since I had to leave early Sunday morning, I gave myself an extra day and left on Thursday to make sure I could do all I wanted to do.

I am not a huge museum lover nor am I someone that can afford to shop on famed Michigan Avenue, but I was still able to get a taste of the city. One of the best ways I found to do that was as easy as hopping aboard public transportation. In Chicago, that means you take the El, the elevated trains that are on tracks above street level. I discovered how much of a bargain they offer visitors upon my arrival at Midway Airport when I approached the transit machine. A helpful transit worker asked me how long I was going to be here, and when I told him, he recommended the 3 Day Visitor Pass for a mere $12. This transit card would allow unlimited rides on both the El trains and the city buses around town and expired 72 hours from the time and date printed on the card.

Thursday afternoon I was off on the train from Midway to the Loop area to the University Club, where the wedding was taking place, which also serves as a hotel. It was at the corner of Monroe St and Michigan Ave with views of the Lake and across from Millennium Park and the Field Museum.

Not being one who likes to waste any time in a new place, I headed down to the heart of Michigan Avenue, “The Magnificent Mile” to pick up a wedding gift at Crate and Barrel, knowing I could at least say I walked down the famed Michigan Avenue, even if I didn’t drop a pretty penny at one of the many high end stores.

The next day I got up early so I could step across the street to explore Millennium Park, a 24.5 acre park combining architecture, monumental sculpture and landscape design. I only stayed on the south end where I was able to watch the hustle and bustle of Michigan Avenue and the children playing in the water spurts. The rest of the day was devoted almost entirely to the sojourn to Wrigley Field. Instead of taking the underground subway for the entire route, I elected to take the El and make one transfer, so I could view the city along the way. If you’re not a baseball fan, Wrigley might not be the first place you would think to visit in the Windy City, however, I found that it was not only a baseball lover’s paradise, but also a great place to get to know the locals. While most typical baseball cities have the rare weekday midday game, Chicago and Wrigley are not one of them. The stadium was packed, including the bleachers on top of the buildings that surround the stadium. It’s pretty common for a Chicagoan to leave work to catch a game during the week. Everything about Wrigley is classic including the man inside the scoreboard who manually changes the scores for all of the games in the league. You can also sample the famous Chicago pizza and Chicago hot dogs inside. And there was a bonus that day—it happened to be the same weekend as the Annual Air and Water Show over the Lake and while the show hadn’t opened yet, the planes were practicing their maneuvers and routinely buzzed the stadium, so much so that the game was halted a few times because of the distraction. So for the non-baseball fan or for the kids with short attention spans, if you happen upon that weekend as well, Wrigley Field is a great place to see the practice show.

On Saturday, it was the last full day in the city with the evening wedding later that night. The weather had been cooperative so far, but rain was looming on this day. First I walked over to the Sears Tower and rode up to the top to check out the views. Then we hopped a bus over to the Lincoln Park Zoo, the nation’s oldest zoo in the heart of Lincoln Park. On the bus ride over, you could see the crowds gathered on North Beach, the shore of Lake Michigan which is filled with sand as they watched the air show. The zoo houses over 1200 animals, and while I live in the city of the World Famous San Diego Zoo, I was uniquely surprised by the loveliness of this small and intimate zoo. The skies again were complete with the planes of the airshow and spent time dodging the intermittent rain showers. The Zoo is free, so it fits on any budget. Of course, though, the best budget purchase of the entire weekend was the Visitor’s Transit card, which you can get in any day dimension that you need, and you can get virtually anywhere you need to go!

The rest of my whirlwind weekend was spent at the wedding, getting a few hours sleep before heading out of town on Midway Airport. Even at the fast paced and the jet lag, being able to intermingle family activities with sightseeing couldn’t be beat.