I can’t believe how quickly the summer soared by and before I knew it we were racing around to get the kids prepared for school. I am behind on my blogging and hope to catch up now that the kids are in school.
We spent our last week of summer vacation checking out Chinatown. I decided on Chinatown because it had been many years since I was there. We decided to take the Metra to Olgilvie station on Madison and pick up the Chicago Water Taxi. I had heard from friends it was a nice way to take a cheap scenic Chicago River boat ride and one of the stops is Chinatown. An all day pass is $8 which is the best value if you want to check out multiple sites. We had intermittent rain but it helped control the typical August heat.
The Chicago River is surrounded by stunning skyscrapers and bridges but I also love capturing the imperfect and industrial elements that make it unique.
I have to admit that I am not very adventurous when it comes to Chinese food. I had a negative experience with Chinatown in LA and prefer to stick with more Americanized Chinese food. I still chuckle when I see the ducks hanging from the restaurant windows because it reminds me of the “Chinese turkey” scene from Christmas Story. I love the line from the dad in the movie when he says to the restaurant owner, “it’s a beautiful duck, but it’s smiling at me!” We enjoyed checking out the many different restaurants but did not stop for lunch. I had fed the kids at the train station while we were waiting out the rain, and I knew my little guy would not entertain the thought of anything the didn’t resemble Kraft mac and cheese. We walked through a few of the gift stores filled with cheap tchotchkes and ethnic wares but my kids start to breakdown if I drag them around shopping for more than an hour.
By the time we decided to head back to the boat the skies cleared up and we were able to get a clear view of the majestic buildings that make up our beautiful skyline. I drive in or through the city at least once a week but the beauty of our skyline and lake shore never gets old.
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