Chicago

We left South Bend in a blowing snow and headed to Chicago. We wanted to spend some time in the windy city so we arranged our departure from Chicago for the next day.

Train arriving in South Bend

We explored Union Station for a while getting our bearings.

Union Station fountain

Union station greenery

Amtrak has a nice waiting area for Business class and Sleeper coach passengers

While at the station we enjoyed a classic Chicago dog. 

Gold Coast Dogs in Union Station

Poppy seed roll, hot dog, celery salt, tomato, relish, onion, peppers, dill pickle and mustard - no ketchup

Later we made our way to our hotel - Club Quarters at the Loop. It was nicely done with clean rooms and a nice decor.

View from our window

After settling in we went to the downtown library and found a number of good books and sat around and read/relaxed for much of the afternoon. The library had nice signage and great architecture.

Next day we grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds where one of the customers told us all about the upcoming mayoral elections and his thoughts on the candidates - most interesting.

There is a service in which you can rent bicycles for a short period of time to get around the city. I'd like to try this in warmer weather.

We strolled thru Macy's (former Marshall Fields) and admired the merchandise and store architecture.

Target has a downtown store that has provisions to move your shopping cart to different floors using an escalator for shopping carts.

 While looking over the news stand at Books a Million I found a copy of 'Wreck Diving'. This issue includes photos of dives on two different WWII U-boat wrecks.

 We left Chicago at the start of a snow storm and had a nice trip home.

Great posters on-board the train

RR museums along the way

Leaving the train at 2:30 in the morning