Cold Chicago, Warm Planes – To Chicago with AA and BA
A Walk Around Millennium Park
- Let’s Play “Stacking Discounts!” (The Introduction)
- We’re going where the air is free (NX210 to LHR), BA Galleries Lounge AA Flagship Lounge
- AA87 London Heathrow T3 to Chicago O’Hare T5
- Crowne Plaza O’Hare
- Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- One Time Exception – Millennium Park
- Back to O’Hare T3, American Airlines Flagship Lounge
- AA4253 Chicago O’Hare T3 to Toronto Pearson T3
- Toronto, Oh Toronto…
- The British Airways Galleries Lounge, Toronto
- BA098 Toronto Pearson T1 to London Heathrow T5
- Arrivals Lounge, Homeward Bound
- Warming up slowly…
One my friends who I met in Chicago has never actually been to Millennium Park, so we thought this be a fun morning thing to do before we headed off on our separate directions with them heading back to Minneapolis and me heading across the pond.
As we were both still in the O’Hare area, we cheated and caught a shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport.
Once back at the terminal, it was a case of dropping down to the CTA departure level and paying $5 to go from O’Hare to Downtown.
If you going to O’Hare directly to Millennium Park, you will need to be getting on at Washington station. From there it’s just a few blocks west towards Millennium Park… It’s easy to spot because you’ll see the concert stadium there.
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Ice Rink
The hidden Bean
Millennium Park’s history isn’t what we call a simple one – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Park – a story of delays corporate sponsorship and some stunning architecture.
Our little walk took us towards the Cloud Gate which is also known as the Bean. And we did all the usual tourist things go one of the being go around the Bean take lots of pictures of it before taking pictures of the other end Millennium Park.
There’s more to the park than just the bean, so we headed past the Boeing galleries and over to Crown Fountain.
As it was out of season, and the weather was what still not what I call particularly warm, the fountains were off so the faces that were being showed on were spurting water after you.
The Cloud gate with a lot of visitors
Wrigley Gate
What’s there was still signs of snow in are, the walkways were clear, with no slippery ice to worry about. On the day I was there, the sun was shining, and people were enjoying the experience of the park and space… and the snow was receding.
Of course it was still quite cold, so we kept on walking – heading up towards North Michigan Avenue and over the Chicago River – again a bit blustery but still pleasant walk.
My impression of Kai W of DigitalRev TV‘s people pushing boxes around on trolleys…
Crossing the Chicago River
Crossing the river – The Tribune building infront.
Wrigley Building (home of the British Consulate in Chicago for those who need to know)
Receding snow.
http://pb-i4.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/6247-1401332089-21.jpg
Back across the river, the Trump building on the right.
Title card!
Marina View
Towards Lake and Clarke.
With a stop at Walgreens for final souvenirs for both of us, it was time to head back to Hyatt to pick our stuff up. Rather than run the risk with shuttles, we took the L to Rosemont station, and walked the two blocks or so back to the hotel.
Overall: Yes you can do Millennium Park in less than three hours – although you won’t get the best of it. Those of you with 5 hour or more layovers at O’Hare should consider getting out of the airport and enjoying a little of what this great city has to offer.
Next: Back to O’Hare
