Welcome to the second day of Chicago exploration.
After exploring Skydeck, The Bean, and Little India yesterday, it was time to tick off some of the other items on our bucket list.
The day started quite lazily. We got up a little bit late and just laid in bed for some time before realizing it was getting late. After hurrying through the checkout process from our Airbnb, we dumped our bags in the car and started welcoming the day with open arms.
The first thing we wanted to do was have a good Indian breakfast and there was/is no better place than Little India for this. We found a small and cozy (not so clean, though!) place just around the block and went in there. As it was still a morning time, we were the only customers there and after looking at the menu and the prices, we knew that our tummies would be happy at the end of the breakfast. We tried tasting everything that we could and gulped more than one cups of Indian Masala team. It was tasty, amazing, and soul quenching.
The next order of business was 360 Chicago. When we were planning for this trip, 360 Chicago was the must-visit place for me. I still remember when I was back in India and was Facebooking, I watched a video of 360 Chicago and how funny and scary it looked at the same time. I promised myself at that moment that one day I would treat myself with this awesome architectural figure and experience the same thrill and adrenaline.
Fortunately, the CityPass included the access to the 360 Chicago but the thing that I really wanted to experience was Tilt 360, which was not part of the pass. It was just a $7 extra and I didn’t want to go away just because of this extra fee, so we went ahead and experienced it.
To be honest, I think I had made a big deal of it in my mind. I have set so high expectations of this place over the last few years that this place didn’t live up to those expectations. I must admit it was fun and something that I hadn’t experienced before, but, it was just not that thrilling – like those rides at Stratosphere, Las Vegas. Anyway, I was glad that I could experience this and ticked off one of the items we had on the list for the day.
The second place we headed to was the Adler Planetarium. I wasn’t a big fan of checking out indoor attractions when the weather was so beautiful and the city had many outdoor places to offer, but my friend wanted to check it out and I complied.
Though I wasn’t thrilled at first, the place turned out to be an amazing experience. I learnt so many cool things that I hadn’t learnt in my school.
The most amazing thing that I found out was the reason why the American flag still waves high on the surface of the moon, even though there is no atmosphere. And I know, I should have been smarter than this. The simple reason was that they had a metal rod going through the flag so that it doesn’t drop and wave high. It was such a simple thing, yet, my mind couldn’t register it.
Anyway, apart from this fact, there were many other things to check out here and we ended up having a blast at this place. After the Adler Planetarium, we saw the Chicago skyline and didn’t want to miss the nice weather and the wonderful backdrop for the pictures.
After the pictures, the last stop on the list was trying Chicago’s world famous Giordano’s Deep Dish Pizza. Having explored many food scenes at Little India, it was time to taste some authentic Chicago dish and what was better than the famous deep dish pizza. We knew the craze around this dish, but didn’t know that it would take us almost 20 minutes to find a place which didn’t have a long wait line and could allow us to sit so that we can rest while our pizza was in the oven.
We finally found the place and it took us 20 minutes to get there and additional 5 to find the parking spot. Damn, we were hungry and the parallel parking in Chicago didn’t help much. But, at last, we were sitting in the restaurant and sipping our Coronas and waiting for the pizza to arrive. When it did, I didn’t fathom the quantity. Man, it was big. By the look of it, I knew both of us wouldn’t be able to finish it and we were right. We barely finished a slice each and took rest of it with us.
The day was filled with many moments and memories. At the end of it, all the fun and experiences brought a smile to my face!
Next stop – my hometown – Patansaongi, Maharastra, India.
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