This past summer was one of the best I’ve had in years. Last year, as a freshmen, I joined a program known as Upward Bound, also known as G.E.C.A.C. Trio. This program is offered to low income students who want to pursue college. The program has two parts to it: The Academic Year and the Summer Program. The Academic Year takes place over the school year, while the summer program runs for six weeks, where students stay on a summer campus for five weeks, then on the sixth week, the students go on a trip somewhere. This past summer, my first time, we visited the Windy City, Chicago.
The drive was about ten hours, including stops and traffic – leaving around 5 a.m. and arriving around 3 p.m.
After arriving we met our tour guide Marlin, then we walked to Navy Pier. Once we got towards the end of the pier, we all got in line for the Centennial Wheel, a Ferris wheel. We were a little behind schedule, but had a lot planned for our visit. We decided to stop at the magnificent Cloud Gate, more formally known as “The Bean”.
We traveled to our hotel – Springhill Suites Chicago O’Hare – It was finally time for rest before our first official day in Chicago.
On our ‘first’ day we traveled to the Shedd Aquarium, where we got to see over 6,000 aquatic animals and sea life within.
Within the Aquarium, we also got to experience a 4D film on sharks – where the sounds are everywhere and your seat shakes and also smoke is blown in your face – it was an incredible experience for me.
Afterwards, we visited the Field of Natural History – one of the world’s greatest museums ever (not my opinion) – we got to see dinosaur skeletons (the most famous is a Tyrannosaurus named Sue), meteors, gems and ores, a whole exhibit on birthstones, and many other cool things within the museum.
After a few hours of exploring the museum, we rode over to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and the John Hancock building for Chicago 360 – a 100 floor tall skyscraper where you can witness the entire city of Chicago, on clear days you can see up to 80 miles and 4 other American states from the skyscraper.
The second day came fast, as we visited Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, a landmark museum full of hands-on exhibits such as the 007 (James Bond) Exhibit. The museum tour also included a once-in-a-lifetime IMAX film – our’s being “D-Day: Normandy 1944″ – the film lasted about 45 minutes, teaching us about World War II. Another once-in-a-lifetime experience we had was a 90 minute sightseeing cruise. We got to go through the architecture of Chicago, such as Trump Tower and the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse (The only standing lighthouse in Chicago and only one of two in Illinois).
We ended our second day with ‘A feast fit for a king’ at Medieval Times. The building was shaped just as a castle, and the entire atmosphere was amazing! Sadly we all had to say goodbye to our tour guide, he was one of my favorite people I’ve met in a while and was enjoyable to have as a tour guide.
The following morning we headed back to Pennsylvania, cherishing our memories to hold onto for years to come.
If you ever want to go on a fun vacation, I would 10/10 recommend Chicago as a place for you to visit
Some things I hadn’t said about activities I did in Chicago (As they were not apart of the official schedule, our tour guide wanted to show us them) include:
- Visited the Chicago Fire Academy Building (Property where the Chicago Fire Started)
- While visiting Gino’s Pizza, they allowed us to use chalk on the walls/seats.
- Gone underneath Chicago
- Literally slid down a Picasso sculpture
- Seen a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
- See these cool water towers, nicknamed ‘Squirting Faces’
- Visiting the Chicago Theatre
- Visiting the theater where the Iroquois Theater Fire happened
- Things I tried for the first time (Chick-Fil-A, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Chipotle) Chicago Skyline
