Day 21: Chicago - Ann Arbor, MI - Chicago, IL

Summary:
We left the Ishida family's place for the windy city Chicago after having breakfast with the family. Chicago is the 3rd biggest US city after NY and LA so the traffic was the worst during this trip! We wanted to avoid the heavy traffic again in the morning so we chose a hotel located outside of downtown. We arrived the hotel around 1:30p.m. and shortly after we took a subway to downtown. We arrived at the downtown around 2:30 p.m. and stayed there for about 4 hours. However, we enjoyed the town a lot. We took a 2 hour double-decker bus tour a that drove around all the major tourist attractions in town. Although our first option was not that (our first option was the first lady cruise tour - http://www.cruisechicago.com/), we enjoyed it a lot. We wished we have had more time there so that we could have done "hop-on and hop-off" as many as we wanted. We will save it for the next time we visit Chicago!

• When: October 17th (Sun)
• Where: Ann Arbor, MI - Chicago, MI
  
• Accommodation: Holiday Inn Elmhurst - http://www.hielmhurst.com/index.php
• Total km - 418.3km
• Grand Total km - 8,026.5km

Highlight:
1. Hop-on and Hop-off Bus - http://www.coachusa.com/chicagotrolley/
We simply did not have time in Chicago! So we needed to do a sightseeing as efficient as possible. Here are the 2 options we had - 1. First Lady Cruise tour, 2. Hop-on Hop-off Bus tour. Although we went to the ticket booth of the First Lady Cruise, the tickets were sold-out so we chose to do the bus tour. As mentioned, the tour was a "hop-on and hop-off" style, meaning we could have hopped on and off as many times as we wanted. But again, we did not have time! We just kept on riding the bus for 2 hours. We really wished that we could have been in the city earlier so that we could have seen more of the city. But can't complain! This tour really gave us an opportunity to see and understand the city and gave us a feeling that we should come back there again to see more! Highly recommended!

2．Arts in downtown
Chicago is quite artistic. There are quite a few arts in the city that anyone can see anytime.





3．Skyscrapers
It's a windy city. There are many many high story buildings there. Even just fun to see them.
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今日のまとめ：
石田家で朝食を頂いて摩天楼の街、シカゴへ向けて出発！シカゴはNY、LAに次ぐ大都市だけあって、車の交通量と運転の荒さもこの旅１番。次の日の交通渋滞を避けるため、シカゴ郊外のホテルにチェックイン後、地下鉄に乗って、ダウンタウンへ出発。シカゴは一泊の予定で滞在時間は４時間弱しかなたったけど、シカゴのタウンタウンの雰囲気を満喫しました。まだまだ見たいところは沢山あったので、次の機会があればまた戻ってきたいです。

• 日程：2010年10月17日（日）
• 旅程：ミシガン州のアナーバーからイリノイ州のシカゴまで
• 宿泊：Holiday Inn Elmhurst - http://www.hielmhurst.com/index.php
• 今日のドライブ - 418.3km
• 今までのドライブ - 8,026.5km

ハイライト：
1．ダブルデッカーバス
とにかく今日は時間が無く、大きな都市を徒歩で移動も大変なので、ファーストレイディという、ダウンタウンの中心を流れるシカゴ川のクルーズか、デッカーバスで市内観光のどちらかだけをする事にしました。結局クルーズ乗り場まで行くと、本日のチケットは既に売り切れなことが分かり、ダブルデッカーバスでダウンタウンを１周する事にしました。ホップオン、ホップオフのバスなので、乗り降り自由でしたが、乗車を続けても２時間かかるので、私達はホップオフをせず１周乗り続けました。この手のツアリスト向けのバスを乗るのは初めてでしたが、バスには観光案内してくれる人がいて、ダウンタウンの建物や歴史などの説明もあり、時間の無い私達にはぴったりでした。欲を言えば、色々な場所で下車して、ジョン・ハンコック・タワーの夜景も見たかったけど、（慣れない道なので、日が暮れる前にホテルに戻りたかったので無理でしたが）ダウンタウンのユニークなビルや彫刻を満喫しました。

2．野外彫刻
シカゴのダウンタウンには沢山の有名な芸術家の野外彫刻が見られます。
ピカソ「無題」、カルダー「フラミンゴ」フラミンゴの彫刻の隣にある黒い連邦政府のビルにオバマ大統領の元オフィスがあったとか。

3．超高層ビル
シカゴにはユニークな形のビルが沢山あって、建築物を見ているだけでも楽しい気分になりました。