To Know About Chicago
Tags: Travel Writing, Travel, Chicago, Blogger, Traveling

Travel is something that allows for us all to get out of our comfort zone and enjoy new spaces and places. Visiting different places often creates a sense of excitement to do and see more. For me personally, travel is more than just uploading a social media post for my followers to see where I am. I enjoy traveling to learn, relax, adventure, and eat.

Over the past year, it’s been very interesting to see how the travel industry has been impacted due to COVID-19. With the pandemic putting a halt on most travel, I feel as if many people are trying to safely get out and travel again now that vaccines and restrictions have been put into place. With that being said, I’ll be sharing about my recent trip to Chicago, Illinois.

I’d definitely consider myself to be a city girl and am always down to visit a new major city. One day a friend called me informing me of flights to Chicago being discounted. Within minutes, we had booked flights and an Airbnb for Chicago. The company I work for has a home office in Chicago, so I was able to take some meetings up there! I’ve never been to Chicago, but had developed a love for the pretty city after following Michael Scavo on TikTok who. Michael is a real estate agent who founded ChiPads which posts dreamy apartment videos in the city.

I was very excited to be visiting the “Windy City” during October, so I could wear winter clothes that I wouldn’t normally get the chance to wear in Georgia till the heart of winter. The minute we started walking the streets of Chicago we fully understood why it was called the “Windy City”. The wind instantly made it ten times colder especially when walking along the river. Riding the Chicago “L” was actually very enjoyable and a great way to get a glimpse of different areas. Some parts of the “L” were elevated and ran almost a hand length away from some apartment windows. Walking the river at night was definitely a sight to see. Some nearby buildings had lights turned on to shape hearts. This was nice to see establishments promoting love over hate. While in Chicago, we wanted to take advantage of the exciting food scene. We made sure to try a signature hot dog from Portillo’s. I’ve got to admit I’m not a big fan of hotdogs, but I really enjoyed the hotdog in a poppy seed bun. We also had to experience Chicago style pizza with many layers of sauce and toppings. It’s essential to start each day with a coffee, so we decided to start one morning by going to the world’s largest Starbucks. The Starbucks Reserve Roastery is located on The Magnificent Mile. This Starbucks was truly magnificent. It is a five story location that has all sorts of coffee drinks, alcoholic beverages, and good eats.

After our adventure to Starbucks, we decided to visit Chicago’s Bean statue. There were COVID protocols implemented when it came to visiting the statue including fencing around the statue, so individuals could not go up and touch the Cloud Gate. The gate around the statue allowed for us to get a photo without others in the background. We continued our adventure on to the Navy Pier. Unfortunately, the pier and surrounding shops were closed, but we still enjoyed walking around the area. After exploring some, we continued our journey to visit Northwestern. Walking around the beautiful city campus was very insightful since I’m looking at applying there for grad school. However, it was slightly eerie because most students were away with virtual classes. While exploring the city, we witnessed one of the new Batman films being filmed. This caused many road closures and helicopters to be circling the city line.

Overall, our Chicago trip was a dream! I would love to go back and potentially move there one day. There are so many more restaurants and attractions that I would like to experience, especially biking around Navy Pier.