Chicago Fever (Part II)

If you missed part one, check it out here.

The second trip we made to Chicago was in fact in the same year but spread out by about five months, and believe it or not there were a lot of dramatic changes! This time my entire family travelled together. We went by road again since Chicago is only five hours drive from Windsor.

We celebrated our holiday Eid in Chicago with our relatives. Our family is earlier risers when it comes to Eid prayer. We tend to almost always go to the first prayer. And my siblings and I always compare Eid celebrated elsewhere to Eid celebrated in Windsor. Windsor is a smaller city and I’ve felt that it has a greater sense of community than that of the bigger cities like Toronto and Chicago. And not just a Pakistani community. The Muslim community in Windsor is greater than that which is limited by culture or ethnicities. This year for Eid the whole family will all be meeting up in our hometown, Windsor! I will write on our Eid adventures and festivities soon after!

After Eid prayer we came home and ate some delicious homemade Pakistani food. We ate so much that most of us took a nice afternoon nap before getting ready for the breezy hike. As I mentioned before, our relatives live about a forty-five minute drive from the downtown core of Chicago. They live in the city of Ottawa, Illinois. (What’s up Ottawa!) Since we went for a couple of days this time, instead of a day trip like last time, we explored Ottawa as well. Our relatives took us around for a drive and we also drove to the Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle, Illinois. We hiked up to reach a beautiful viewpoint and ran down wooden stairs in chilly October weather.

On the second day, we went to the Millennium Park again because almost half of us had not been there yet. To my surprise, the park had changed quite a bit since the last time we were here. There were new attractions and pieces of art scattered everywhere in the park. It made for a picturesque stroll. Our parents left us at one point, to take a break from all the walking and us siblings continued to walk around and explore the park and nearby area. We even managed to keep quiet at the Chicago Public Library which was filled with beautiful and intricate designs inside and out. Eventually we made our way back to our parents and decided to check out the Chicago SkyDeck before heading back to Windsor. Unfortunately for us, this was not the trip for the SkyDeck. The wait time to get inside was around two hours. We decided we would come another time to see this attraction and headed back to Windsor.

Stay tuned for the picturesque views from the SkyDeck on part three of Chicago Fever! What’s your favourite part of downtown Chicago?