We stayed about an hour outside of Chicago, in Zion at the Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park. There were plenty of nice campsites here, but most were too short for us. The area that was intended for big rigs was basically just a parking lot with electrical hookups. The lake was just a short walk away and looking out at the water was nice, but the beach itself was rocky sand. (Better than than JUST rocks that many of the MI shorelines had, though!) The weather was a bit too chilly to want to spend much time on the beach anyways, so we went bike riding here instead; along with visiting Chicago one day. The night before going to Chicago, Randy insisted I watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which I had never seen. Not really my type of movie, but it wasn’t as dumb as I thought it’d be. And it helped to have context as Randy searched for a few of the landmarks from the movie.
I had picked this area because it was between Milwaukee and Chicago. I thought we might drive back to Milwaukee to tour a WI cheese factory or the original Cheesehead Factory, Foamation, Inc; but evidently, the cheesehead factory is closed (no phone or website anymore) and the nearby cheese factory that used to have guided tours was no longer doing them due to staff shortages. Bummer. With trying to predict traffic, Google Maps said the campground was 1 hr 15 mins to 2 hrs away. Fortunately, with leaving after rush hour, our drive was just over an hour.
The first objective for visiting Chicago was finding a place to park the big truck! Instead of trying our luck morning of, I looked online and found a garage that had 8′ clearance (the truck is 6’9″). So, we reserved the space from 10am-10pm for $19 — not bad. We got there around 11am to try to find a spot. Unfortunately, the website didn’t mention that there were only a limited number of sites with that high clearance. Each level we went up got shorter and shorter. But fortunately, as we turned the curve to see the sign that said 6’10” clearance (which I don’t think we would have chanced), Randy found a spot he could back into. Whew!
I saw Ed Debevic’s diner mentioned as a “thing to do” in Chicago and thought it’d be interesting. They were supposed to be purposely rude to customers, all in good fun. After the waitress had taken our order and checked on us, I mentioned to her that the place wasn’t what I expected after looking at their website and reading reviews. And she said they got complaints about the “rudeness” and had to stop doing that. I laughed and said, “Well, I’m complaining about the false advertisement and lack of funny rudeness — that’s why we came!” They give plenty of warning to customers when you walk in, including a sign that says “If you’re easily offended, leave now!” Oh well, at least the BBQ burger and sweet potato fries that Randy and I split, knowing we were eating pizza for dinner, was good.
Since we were passing a Whole Foods then the garage on our way to the Navy Pier, we stopped to pick up a few groceries. At the pier, we got on the boat for the Chicago Architecture River Cruise, which was a beautiful way to see the city. Our guide was super knowledgeable and told lots of interesting details and stories of the buildings. He is from Chicago and loves the city, so his enthusiasm came through. As the 3rd largest city in the country, with over 2 million people, it’s large enough for the crime area to be far from the tourist / downtown area. Randy had said he didn’t care to visit Chicago at all, but I did. In the end, he admitted it was not what he expected. I noticed the lack of marijuana and urine odors and homeless encampments that many large cities have. The guide mentioned how the cities’ buildings were more spaced out than other cities, too, giving it a calmer feel. I’m not sure I would have put my finger on it, but I agree the city had a nice vibe while walking around. And the skyscrapers were pretty spectacular — very interesting variety in designs.
We also made sure to see The Bean (Cloud Gate) and the Willis (Sears) Tower. The Bean was actually more impressive than I had imagined it would be. The reflections were super cool. Randy’s phone’s GPS didn’t work very well in the midst of all the tall buildings, so we had to ask directions for the tower, and got different answers, but eventually found it. I had not researched the tower at all, so when I saw the Sky Deck ticket cost $40, I didn’t think it was worth it to me. All the signage just talked about going up to the top and looking out from the “ledge”. I had been up in tall buildings and looked out over cities before, so while I knew it’d be cool, I didn’t think I’d get $40 of enjoyment out of it. 🙂 I sent Randy up with his camera while I found a comfy spot to wait, relax, and eat the cookie I had bought at Whole Foods. Turns out there were actually other exhibits to look at, so Randy spent about an hour up there and thought it WAS worth the money. (I was still ok with just relaxing, so it still worked out fine!) Part of the time was waiting in lines to get a turn on the ledge, which was then limited to one minute before having to get back in line if you wanted more time to look around.
There happened to be a Pedicab sitting outside the tower as we left around 5:30pm, and we had over a two mile walk to get back to the Navy Pier for dinner, so we grabbed a ride. The driver took us around to a few popular spots and told us more about the city as we rode, so that was fun. He dropped us off near Giordano’s Pizza, where we ordered Chicago style pizza, of course! They warned us that it would take 45 minutes to cook it, but we felt it was worth the wait to try it. Turns out, we both liked the Detroit style pizza more, but it was good enough. And now we know what we’re not missing, haha!
Oh, and a lesson learned this trip: Don’t forget to charge the extra battery charger for the phones! With all the pictures and navigating that Randy does on his phone, it won’t last an entire day, and my phone battery is pretty flaky and unreliable at all. So I’m in the habit of carrying around an extra battery charger thingie. But, it doesn’t do much good to carry it around if it’s not charged. 🙁 Thankfully, it had enough juice for Randy to use for the Sears Tower photos, or that would’ve been super disappointing. I ended up cutting mine off during the Pedicab ride, to make sure we could navigate back to the truck, if needed. I cut it back on temporarily for the pizza pic, though! And we ended up being about to find the truck, no problem.
There were quite a few bike trails around our campground, so it seemed worth the effort to get the bikes down from the RV. In hindsight, we probably would’ve enjoyed trails in other parks more, and should’ve driven the bikes someplace else; but it was a nice day and still enjoyable. We rode on a trail along the shore, then hit sand going one direction, so turned around and rode a few miles before hitting sand again. So, we headed back towards the campground and checked out the main parking lot/beach area. It was a huge lot and mostly empty, so we put our bikes at top speed and had fun zipping around, getting up to 21 mi/hr!
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