Taking the Metra to Chicago - Part 2

So if you joined me yesterday you got a quick tour of some more Chicago buildings and history.  If you missed it, please go back and check it out.  We ended up back at Ogilvie Transportation Center where we were catching the Metra back home.

Inside it's well lit and clean, and there are lots of restaurants and shops.

They even have a Garrett's Popcorn stand there.  They have the best popcorn and I always buy a bag to take home with me.  However, since I'm on my self-imposed "No Spend February," I took a picture, sniffed the air, and walked away   dragged my feet.  But I saved $ 6.00 to add to my monthly tally.  Snap!

Here are the tracks with the trains lined up side by side....

The Metra trains are double deckers.  During rush hour, like it was this morning when we went into the city, it's standing room only.

You purchase your tickets at the ticket counter and then when you board the train, you place your ticket under the hooks of the seat in front of you.  Then the conductor walks down the aisles and stamps them.  You leave them there so he can keep track of who has already paid or not.  The Metra makes frequent stops and there's a steady flow of people on and off.  Believe me, those conductors know exactly who's paid and who hasn't.  You can also pay for your ticket on the train, but it's more expensive that way.

Here we are pulling out of the station.

This is an apartment building right next to the tracks.  Can you imagine living that close to the tracks?  It's like that all the way down the line.

That's the Morton Salt company over there.

And now we're back home.  That has to be one of the quickest trips I've ever made to and from Chicago.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Chicago and the train systems.  And remember, if you have to go into the city, try to take the Metra instead of driving.  You'll be so glad you did.

Taking the Metra to Chicago - Part 1

I swear I have spent more time in downtown Chicago in the past 6 months than I have in the past 10 years.  It seems like we've been running down there every week for something.  Chablis had to go there again yesterday for a quick meeting, and fortunately this time, she could take the Metra.  Since it was going to be a nice day, I told her I'd take the ride with her.

Chablis had to be downtown at 9:00 am, so we jumped on the Metra at 7:40 and we arrived in Chicago at 8:15. That was a lot better than the hour and 35 minute nightmare of a drive the other morning!   We still had to walk about 7 blocks so we joined the throng of people headed east.  It was pretty crowded walking across the bridge and down Madison Avenue...

This is a shot of the El downtown.  Here it's elevated up in the air and goes over the streets.  If you've ever seen a movie filmed in Chicago and seen the Elevated trains, this is what you're seeing....

We cut down State Street, which was surprisingly empty.  If you look thru the Subway sign, you can see the world famous Marshall Fields Green Clock that is mounted on the side of the building.

While Chablis went to her meeting, I walked down to Michigan Ave. and saw a cow.  How many times can you say that?

After that I walked back down to Marshall Fields, oh excuse me, Macy's....  FYI - Marshall Fields had been a Chicago institution for over 150 years, until Macy's bought them out in 2005 and now it's known as Macy's.  When I was a kid, my grandma used to take me downtown to Marshall Fields every year for my birthday.  We'd take the El downtown and she knew where everything was at downtown.  We would stroll up and down State Street and look in all the shop windows.  We'd start at the lower level of Marshall Fields and slowly cover every inch of that store, floor by floor.  We would ride up and down the grand escalators and I got to pick out an outfit, a book and a toy of some sort as my birthday gifts.  Then we would eat lunch in the elegant  Walnut Room  dining room.  It was fancy, as in dark wood paneled walls, hushed voices, clinking silverware and crisp white tablecloths and I always wore a dress and white gloves fancy.  It was beautiful and elegant and I usually ordered a hot dog.   But I did sit like a little lady with my ankles crossed and carefully folded my gloves next to my plate while I ate my hot dog.  Spending that day downtown with grandma was the highlight of my year.  I have such fond memories of that huge store.  I'm still having a hard time thinking of it as Macy's, as are a lot of Chicagoan's.  Oh well, time does march on.  Sob.....

Chablis was out of her meeting in 15 minutes, and as we headed back to the Metra Station we passed the Picasso in front of the Daley Center.

Across the street is the Chicago Temple Building, which is the tallest church building in the world.

There is a tiny courtyard there with the most beautiful stained glass windows that depict different historic Chicago events at that location....

Then we went past the Lyric Opera House and crossed over the canal again....

There's the bridge we crossed over earlier in the morning...

And we were soon back at Ogilvie Transportation Center to catch the Metra back home.  If you notice the time stamps on the pictures, you can see how quickly we did all that.

Chicago has 2 different train systems - The Metra and the El.  The 2 train systems are slightly different.  Taken from the Metra homepage: Metra is the commuter rail agency serving Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties in the Chicago area. It is the sister agency to the Chicago Transit Authority, which provides mass transit rail (the L) and bus service to Chicago and some suburbs, and Pace, which provides bus service primarily in the suburbs.   

The El system, according to their page:  is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). It is the second longest rapid transit system in total track mileage in the United States, after the New York City Subway.  

Come back tomorrow for the rest of the post.  This one is getting a little long winded!

Millenium Park & The Art Institute of Chicago

Today Chablis and I had to go to downtown Chicago and visit the Art Institute for a project she is working on for school.  Driving into Chicago during rush hour is a nightmare, so we left at 8 am and hopped onto the Metra train to go downtown. 

We rode the train to the end of the line, which is at Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago.  From there we had to walk just over a mile to the Art Institute.  We crossed over the canal and zig-zagged around, as there was a lot of construction going on.

Since the museum didn't open until 10:30, we decided to stop at Millennium Park first. 

Millennium Park is on the lake front and it's huge and beautiful.  It has fountains....

The Jay Pritzker Pavillion....

                                                              where I incidentially also found a geocache.......

(it's hidden somewhere close to this bench)

And of course, the world famous bean!!!!

The bean is so cool looking and I never get tired of visiting it.  Look at how well you can see the buildings across the street, reflected in the bean.  Isn't that neat?

It's fun to walk around and take pictures of your reflection....

You can even walk underneath it and take a photo up into it....

That's Michigan Ave. behind Chablis.....

The Art Institute is on the next block south of the park, so we just walked over...

I can finally say I caught a Lion by the tail!

There are some beautiful gardens on both sides of the museum and they have fountains and sculptures all over the place.

I even did a little phooning in front of a wall of granite....

Across the street from the Art Institute is a really interesting building called the Metropolitan Tower.  At one time it was one of the tallest buildings in Chicago, with 30 floors.  However, the cool thing about this building is the bee hive shaped tower at the top of it. 

I would love to get inside that bee hive!  I bet the view of Chicago from up there is amazing.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you some pictures from inside the Art Institute.