Chicago's Millennium Park and Magnificent Mile Make Stellar Impressions

Last time I visited Chicago, it was 1989. Working 90 hour weeks on hundred million dollar litigation involving a sizable chain corporation, I had scant time to see Chicago. Nevertheless, I somehow managed to enhance my naively favorable impression of this City I had up to that time never visited and so was happy to return there for a day trip during our recent excursion to Milwaukee.

My favorable predisposition toward the city of Chicago is attributable to stories my grandmother told me about the year she spent there in about 1920. But the impetus for my own family's Chicago visit was the tantalizing American Girl Place, the subject of a related story soon to be published on Associated Content. American Girl has four store/restaurant/theatre/salon complexes nationwide and my 8 and 9 year old daughters had been begging me to haul them up to New York, 4 hours from home, to experience one. Then, we were invited to a wedding in Milwaukee, and decided instead to include the Chicago American Girl Place in our plans. A special girls-only excursion into the big city.

Our Metra train from Wisconsin arrived in Chicago at the Oglivie Transportation Center, not the most convenient location for sure. By parental fiat, "we" decided to walk to American Girl rather than find another train, however, so we could see more of the city. The architectural variety is amazing. From gilded, ornate turn of that other century skyscrapers created at the behest of wealthy industrialists to shiny, reflective-tiled behemoths, the contrasts peacefully coexist. I could easily have entertained myself for a day just walking around looking at buildings. But there is much more to Chicago than interesting buildings. There is the Magnificent Mile.