Our 4th USA vacation and the first time to the Windy City. At first, while planning this I thought we would struggle to fill 2 weeks here but as time went on while looking at places it sort of turned out to be the right amount of time for us, neither of us move that quick anymore. Chicago can have strange weather at any time of the year and this was one of them, although notorious for it's cold for a few weeks of the summer it can bake. At 9 am the temperature was around 26 centigrade but by late afternoon this had gone up to 36 with a real feel in the city of around 40. If you couple this with humidity of 86% some days could be a bit of a nightmare. It would be the longest time I'd never had to wear a coat in consecutive days although I did take it with me for the only day of rain it was still too warm and humid to wear it. Chicago can be a violent city with gun crime accounting for over 700 deaths this year mostly due to gang violence and retaliation murders. On a more positive note it's a very clean city but they have some very strange tax laws so it seems like you are being ripped off but if you look at the receipt this itemized all the different types of tax you pay on each purchase as well as the standard city tax that pay at the end which makes you think they are out to fleece you. More worryingly is things like souvenirs are the same price wherever you go so that looks like state-sponsored price rigging.
Public transport works well here and is one of the cheapest fares we have seen with the most modern smart card systems that covers different forms of transport by different companies with either fixed prices or distance pricing all seamlessly into one card.
Public transport works well here and is one of the cheapest fares we have seen with the most modern smart card systems that covers different forms of transport by different companies with either fixed prices or distance pricing all seamlessly into one card.
So this is our journal of 2 fantastic weeks in Chicago.
