T R A V E L // How to survive 36 hours in Chicago

So this is the story of how I spent 36 hours in Chicago. Definitely one of the most stressful and exciting time of my life. It started with an overnight/red eye flight departing around 11 pm and landed 5-6AM with 5 hours of sleep. Mind you, I spent the earlier part of the day stuffing myself at a Brazilian  steakhouse so I'm over stuffed with meat and made it to the airport with less than 20 min til boarding. Yes, I live my life on the edge (I hope you recognize my sarcasm there ;)) 

Now I don't want you to think, this is a pity party. With the circumstances, this is how it rolled. My time was miserable cause of the minimal sleep. I started my period, throwing my equilibrium off. And the mixture of lack of sleep and over stuffness ruined my appetite for the half the weekend. Meat sounded disgusting, so although I was looking forward to our Korean chicken wings, I probably only ate two.

Although I hail from Los Angeles, Chicago seemed so much bigger and grander than any city I've been too. (Also my first venture eastward, so this is also where my naivety may come in.) The skyscrapers were massive and I felt like a tiny human in this concrete jungle. The only time I felt at ease was when I was by the lake where things felt open. I'm sure Chicago has tons to offer, however, thus far, it is my least favorite place I've been to. -insert scornful remarks here- yeah I get it. I must have missed something and looking back on it is like holy geezus how did we accomplish all those things in such a short time? NO SLEEP AND CONSTANT VIGILANCE! I almost missed my flight back to home because of our poor planning and thank goodness Frontier is notoriously late that I didn't have to stay overnight in Chicago. Two of the major things I've learned from this trip is:

1) No more red eye flights - and if I do take a red eye, I will force myself to sleep or spend and extra day there

• After getting off the plane, we immediately got our rental and took it over to North Beach (which was amazingly beautiful at sunrise), but me with less than 7 hours of sleep is a nightmare to my travel companions.

2) Staying in the city and take a damn Uber/Lyft - several reasons why I'd recommend this

•  I ended up staying closer towards the airport, which of course was ideal since it was cheaper, HOWEVER, trying to find parking in the city took up majority of the time and we could have accomplished even more things if we didn't spend so much time looking for parking
• In addition to looking for parking, the drivers will drive you up to the location you're looking for so you won't go wandering around shady places to find your destination
• Secondly, I would have spent the same amount taking Uber/Lyft as renting a car and parking, cause their parking prices are EXPENSIVE. I literally spent $30 to see the Bean. ya, i know. It killed my wallet.
• Avoid parking tickets. I haven't gotten a ticket in my travels yet. Having that as one less stress would definitely make my traveling more enjoyable.
• Frequently, places would "validate" parking. However, they're SUPER specific about which places take the validation. So unless you're knowledgeable about where each parking structure is designated, expect to pay the highest price.
• The parking meters typically only allow 2 hours, meaning you have to constantly keep track of the time you put on your meters and take that extra time to stop what you're currently doing to pay the meters and resume what you're up to.

I think I've made a solid case for taking Uber/Lyft. Nonetheless, here's the list of places I've visited.

PLACES I VISITED //
✈︎ o'hare airport
✈︎ north beach
✈︎ art institute
✈︎ crisps
✈︎ wendella boat tour
✈︎ jeni's splendid ice cream
✈︎ bobby's bike hike
✈︎ lou malnati's
✈︎ rj grunt's
✈︎ molly's cupcake
✈︎ murphy's red hots
✈︎ murphy's bleachers
✈︎ The Bean/Millenium Park
✈︎ the office

Highlights: North Beach at Sunrise, Bobby's Bike Tour and the Office - highly recommend doing these

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