Joan, my views: August 2023

Chicago has been given such a bad rap by the media that I was pleasantly surprised to see how absolutely beautiful it really is!

Also, I learned far more than I expected to during a four-day trip there, including that it was founded by a Haitian immigrant named Jean-Paul LeSable in 1779.

Above is his bust displayed in the middle of the city and there are a significant number of roads and bridges named after him.

The most important thing I learned though, is that Chicago is nothing like how it is portrayed to be in the news, for the normal reports I have seen about this beautiful city are only of shootings, murder, and violence.

I know you can’t judge a place after one four-day visit, but the Chicago I saw was nothing like that.

Anyway, as a Jamaican, I can sympathize with the portrayal in the press versus reality.

Sure, every major city has dangerous areas and with a population of some three million, Chicago does too, but there is so much more to this city than those minor glitches!

On my recent visit, I found a clean, beautiful city with helpful and friendly people everywhere we went!

And it’s not as if we took organized tours into so-called ‘good’ areas! No sir, we wandered around on foot, and public transportation to the places we wanted and never once did we feel unsafe or saw any act of violence.

(it's at the airshow that we realized cel phone cameras are no good really, as you will see below.😡)

The happy wanderers

In fact, the day after we arrived, we walked almost fifteen blocks to Lake Michigan to watch the final day of an air show.

When we craved Chinese food, we set off to find their China Town to eat as well as to see if it is anything like the wonderful one we frequented in San Francisco a few days before.

That’s when we started to meet the really nice and helpful people of Chicago, for the transit information system which issues the Ventra cards is a mess.

We went to a major hub called Union Station from which the Amtrak Trains, local L trains and buses leave, but would you believe we couldn’t find an information desk there to get directions?

So, we took a chance and walked to where t

he buses parked outside and it was there we experienced our first act of extreme kindness.

For not only did the first lady we asked for information, tell us which buses to take, but she took the time to help us manipulate an awfully difficult machine to get Ventra single tickets.

When we finally got the tickets, she took us on to her bus and told the driver where to drop us to catch the connecting bus.

As we finally reached to the connection bus's stop and started to look for the times and routes, a lady waiting there enquired where we were going.When we told her, she went on her phone to the local travel app and immediately told us what time that bus would arrive at our stop, without us even asking her for assistance!

There is no comparison between the Chicago Chinatown and the one in San Francisco though which is said to be the largest in the world outside of China iself.

And seeing women in Chicago sitting on the pavement while selling vegetables was a bit of a shock!

But we found a good restaurant with delicious food and the help we got from everyone we asked for directions just made our day.

For the return journey, we again approached strangers to ask about connections and would you believe the driver of the first bus we took, actually parked his bus (empty except for us) and walked us to the stop on the next street!

Women lay out thier vegetables on the street corner

The next day when we were heading out, we tried to buy our tickets on line, but the local transit web page was so convoluted and frustrating that we had to just use google. And guess what, that’s when we learned that we could actually pay on the bus if we had the actual amount quoted and better yet, as seniors we only pay half price!

Anyway, when we set out, we again got nothing but friendly assistance from everyone we asked.

So, we happily embarked on our exploits, found an informative bus driver as usual, went to the aquarium, spent the day and had no problem at all returning home.

Beautiful buildings on both sides of the Chicago River.

We also frequented the water taxis which traverse the Chicago River that runs through the center of the city. They also run in sections of Lake Michigan, down to Navy Pier.

Traversing the Chicago River is a treat in itself as it takes you past some of the most amazing architecture you will see anywhere.

In fact, many tour operators in the area offer ‘architecture tours’ up and down the river daily.

I found Navy Pier exceptionally beautiful, relaxing and healthy.

Healthy as the entire compound is a grand jogging trail which you can utilize or just walk leisurely around, as there is so much more to do.

There is something there for everyone, young people, old people and everyone in between.

Navy Pier

I fell in love with the exhibition there called ‘the state of sound’ which explored the role of ‘Chicago born’ artists to every genre of music.

I learned so much, including the fact that so many of the artists that I had adored over the years, were born in Illinois.

They include numerous Gospel artists, blues, jazz, hip hop, R&B. artists.

What made it even more wonderful was the fact that you could download and listen to mini-documentaries about these artists, including them performing some of their greatest.

That was a rewardinf experience as was just about everything we did in that much-maligned city, in just a few days.