Tag: http://www.choosechicago.com/

America, Countries

Washington deserves a guided tour

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And because Washington deserves a guided tour instead of a dangerous midwinter barge Crossing of the Delaware.

We’d like to take him on a hop-on, hop-off bus around the city which bears his name.

Which, of course, we can do because we have the right connections.

Having bumped into George on the National Mall.

And then having been tour guided around the capital of the US by no less a figure than DC mayor Muriel Bower.

Hot in the City

Hail to the Chief: And Issy and Jimmy

Good luck on topping that but you’ve got more than a fighting chance this USA 250 year on board with City Experiences.

The 24-hour hop-on hop-off ticket gives visitors the chance to take in the capital at your leisure.

All the Smithsonians, the Capitol, your must-do selfie in front of the White House, and the monuments, memorials, and parks.

While, DC being the great cycling city that it is City Experiences are giving us a complimentary one-hour bike rental. And all starting from £44pp.

Now to borrow from Aleta Adams a minute.

We really should get there how we can for America 250 and when we do hop on the range of modes of transport and entertainment CE are offering.

New York, New York

Statue no limitations: Lady Liberty

Now one of the best ways to take in New York is on the Hudson and East Rivers.

And CE will take you on a signature dinner and dance cruise.

Where you can take in views of the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, and One World Trade Centre.

The two-and-a-half-hour cruise features a chef-prepared buffet, live DJ entertainment, a fully stocked bar, and open-air rooftop decks. Prices start from £63pp. 

Out on the Great Lakes

Chicago-go-go: Taking in the Second City

If that whets your appetite, and you are in some of these other great American cities, be our guests and go cruising.

On Lake Michigan, with a chef-prepared buffet on a two-and-a-half-hour cruise taking in panoramic views.

Of the orginal American Skyscraper City, or the Second City Chicago, including the Willis Tower and Adler Planetarium. Prices start from £47pp.

Frisco dancing

Golden trip: San Francisco

Or wine, dine and cruise for two and a half hours in Frisco.

In San Francisco Bay in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge, and Alcatraz Island. Prices start from £99pp.

San Diego chargers

Whale of a time: San Diego

While if you want to enjoy too those who live in the seas, then City Experiences put on a San Diego Whale & Dolphin Watching Adventure.

Where your three-and-a-half to four-hour adventure will give you the chance to spot Grey, Blue, Minke, and Fin Whales, along with dolphins, sea lions, and marine birds.

Expert narrators from the San Diego Natural History Museum provide live commentary. Prices start from £50pp.

And again we say Washington deserves a guided tour and so do you, and particularly this America 250 year.

 

 
America, Countries, Sport

Take me out to the ball game

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No marks for originality here but don’t tell me the song hasn’t been going through your head… take me out to the ball game.

A lot has been going on in the world in the last seven days.

But the one thing everyone has been talking about is the Coldplay Couple.

Caught on a kisscam in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Cam on now: The Coldplay Couple

Not that the kisscam originated to expose amorous astronaut company CEOs but sneaky Pete’s and Petras will be extra-wary now.

Kisscam has become part and parcel of the American stadium experience, now extended to music concerts.

And, of course, the first thing humiliated Mrs Astro will have said to Bad Boy Businessman will be ‘I will fix you’.

When it was my first rodeo

Go Bronco: Jimmy at Coors Field

The truth is that none of us are safe from the prying lens so just be sure you’ve nothing to hide.

As I discovered at the Coors Field in Denver… and I was indoors at the time.

Practising my rodeo skills on the electronic bull.

Only for it to be shot up on the big screen.

Now entertainment in the Oo Es of Eh has always been even-handed with the fan as valued as the athlete.

And even if you’re not clued up on the intricacies.

And it took two quarters for The Scary One to work out that in American Football you pass the ball forward.

Fly balls and podgy presidents

Home run: In the Bull Pen in Washington

There is always plenty going on in the crowd.

Whether it’s having your hot dog thrown along the row of seats to you.

Trying to catch a fly ball and fans will push their grandparents outta the way for these lucrative artefacts.

While the Seventh Innings Stretch transcends sport.

Dating as far back as the 1860s with Brother Jasper, who brought baseball to Manhattan University.

And started the practice when he called for a break in the game to catch breath.

Where it really takes off is in 1910 when the portly President Howard Taft took time out to stand and stretch his legs.

During a Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics match.

And the crowd followed suit in respect.

A date at the game

Duck stops here: The Anaheim Ducks hockey team

The Seventh Innings Stretch now being a thing all that was needed was a song to sing along with.

And so the legend of the baseball anthem Take Me Out To The Ball Game written a few years earlier by Jack Norworth.

Who the story goes was riding a subway in New York.

When he saw a sign that read Baseball Today –Polo Grounds.

In Polworth’s room, Katie’s (and later Nelly’s) fella calls to ask her out to see a show.

To which she agrees but only if he takes her out to the baseball game.

The tradition, of course, has been built upon over the years.

Harry’s game

Walking tall: Outside Wrigley Field

And if there is one figure most associated with it in modern days it is Chicago sportscaster Harry Caray.

Who any visitor to Wrigley Park, the second oldest ballpark in the country will recognise from his statue.

And who we all honoured in the Windy City at the American Travel Fair, IPW, last month.

Sing up: Harry Caray

Though on this occasion my antics weren’t captured on the big screen.

Not that I ever would but certainly not if I ever want these, or future hosts, to take me out to the ball game.

 

 

 

America, Countries, Food

Hot Dog… Chicago’s is dragged through the garden

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And something to line my stomach before my flight back to Scotland. Hot Dog Chicago’s is dragged through the garden.

On account of its green add-ons and more later.

For many of us Europeans, and other types, the hot dog is our gateway to street food Stateside.

So if you got your first taste of a dwaaag from a Manhattan vendor you might imagine that they’re uniform across the country.

Hot Dog years

Check in: Skyscrapers in Chicago Airport

Wrong, there’s a pack of dogs out there.

While we’re road testing the two best known here, New York and Chicago.

Our source, or should that be sauce, are hot dogoligists (OK, we made that up).

At the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (and we didn’t make that up).

They run us through a history of the wiener and the origin claims of Frankfurt and Vienna.

With even Homer and the Ancient Greeks thrown in for good measure.

New York on a roll

Now, just like the hamburger, there is consensus that German immigrants took their sausages with them to the States.

And their first port of passage was naturally New York.

Where inevitably there are rival claims for who was the first to make a buck out of the-then dachshund sausage.

Either an immigrant in the Bowery district, along with milk rolls and sauerkraut in the 1860s.

Or more specifically baker Charles Feltman, who in 1871 opened up the first Coney Island stand.

Selling 3,684 dachshund sausages in a milk roll during his first year in business.

Hot stuff

Good to go: The Chicago hot dogs

How the sausages came to be known as hot dogs is also shrouded in mystery and mythology.

With one version crediting a vendor at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day.

Shouting ‘Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!’

And sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan taking the story and running with it with a sketch.

Of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls.

And because he couldn’t spell dachshund he wrote hot dog instead.

A tale of two US sittings

Super Bowl: Ben’s half-smoked in DC

All of which is filling, albeit pretty interesting, in the discussion around the NY and Chicago hot dogs.

The NY offering leans heavily on the sauerkraut and brown mustard with onions.

While the Chicago dog which really took off with the World Fair in 1893 packs in a lot more.

Served on a poppy seed bun, topped with mustard, tomatoes, onions, sport peppers, green relish, dill pickles and celery salt.

Which I slurp down at the airport bar with a Boston Sam Adams in the company of Hawaiian Chase.

The other dog: In Los Angeles

Because hot dogs are a communal event I’ve enjoyed from Washington and Ben’s Chilli Bowl to Venice Beach.

And Hot Dog Chicago’s is dragged through the garden. And me after it.

 

 

America, Countries, Music, Sport

The L word in Chicago

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It’s its USP, the rickety elevated trains that run through the Downtown Loop and which everyone knows as the L word in Chicago.

For a wide-eyed Scottish adolescent with American cousins my entry point to Chicago was through The Blues Brothers.

And Elwood tossing and turning in his sleep above the Plymouth Restaurant.

The filmmakers depicted his room as being right next to the L tracks, named for the elevated position.

With the location now a small park in front of the restaurant.

Your inner Elwood

Shades of Chicago: Jake and Elwoood

I channel my inner Elwood in the Palmer House Hotel these five days in Chicago.

Where I nod off every night to sleep, with the clanking train in my ears.

The L couldn’t be easier to navigate, no validating tickets here.

Just book your $2 trip (yes, you read that right) or $5 all-day ticket.

Which praise be, you can pay for too in old Earth money at the machine.

Spell it out: The L

And if even that confuses those new in town there is help at hand at the information desk.

With Old Willie giving me a pass without the need for the machine.

And chewing the fat with me about Scottish white soul band The Average White Band.

An L of a ride

Let’s go round again… and that, of course, means a return to the scene of the crime from my first day here.

The Gaybourhood of North Halsted Street, Andersonville.

And it’s spiritual home the multi-bar Sidetrack where we gather on a hot and sweltering night to celebrate Pride.

In the company of Veronica Pop, Boy J and Tender Oni.

Tender, or Oni, they go by either nomenclature, is championing Drag Kings.

And wows us with an out-of-this world Bruno Mars.

While Boy J prides themself that they can survive and does a mean Bruno themself with Veronica’s Lady Gaga.

Partners in time

We watch it all from the intimate main bar with slushy cocktails in hand of course.

Before doing our own thang on the dance floor.

Where a 4ft tall pocket rocket owns the floor, announcing to everyone that it is her 30th birthday.

She has me at ‘you only look 35’ when I tell her I’m twice her age.

She only, of course, has eyes for her partner, who holds on to her protectively.

Looking out from under the peak of her Cubs baseball hat.

Home run: Wrigley Field

Halsted Street is just down the road from Wrigley Field and I join the wave of happy sports fans back to the Belmont train.

It’s cooling down, there is lightning in the sky and the Chicagoans have brought the thunder.

The L word in Chicago.

I am travelling with Aer Lingus from Edinburgh through Dublin and now back with my luggage and staying at the Palmer House Hotel.

America, Countries

A star in stripes in the US on Flag Day

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And finally, I’m off to Chicago, a star in stripes on Flag Day.

Today, June 15, being the day Americans celebrate ‘Old Glory’ every year.

In honour of Betsy Ross’s drape, marking the 13 founder states in stripes.

And 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing the new constellation which was the new nation.

Flagging up Chicago

United States of AmAerica: My flight providers

That I’ll be spending the next week in The Windy City is apt.

As a major rally featuring 300,000 schoolchildren honoured the Flag here 130 years ago.

In Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks.

Proud nationalist Benjamin J Cigrand had taken up an idea from the Civil War and run with it.

Where Ross is boss

Flag happy: In Philly

And so we are where we are now.

And for that we are thankful to Philadelphia upholsterer and friend of George Washington Betsy.

Whose story we can follow in the City of Brotherly Love at Betsy Ross’s House where a flag-raising ceremony is held daily.

Lying in state: In the Rotunda in DC

When in Philly, of course, we gather around a certain cracked bell.

But this Americanophile and revolutionary naturally sought out a flag-raising ceremony myself at the old town hall.

Holding back the civic officers just so I could get my picture for posterity.

Waving the flag

Old Glory: And the American flag

Now wherever I go across the Oo Es of Eh I seek out the flag.

And wrap myself up in it since taking the Atars and Stripes back with me from my first visit as a 17-year-old.

By order of the Flag: In the ‘White House’

Which has been used on a flagpole, as a dinner cloth.

And the least said about what my Best Man Andy used it for the better.

Not, of course, what the founding fathers had in mind.

Best Man: Andy wears it with pride

When they adopted the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

I’d expect though they’d appreciate my devotion.

A star in stripes in the US on Flag Day.

 

America, Countries, Pilgrimage

Sweet Rome Chicago

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And as £1.4 billion Catholic eyes turn their gaze to the Windy City why all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago.

Because Cardinal Robert Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as we now know him, hails from what could now be tagged the Holy City too.

That Chicago of all the cities in the world should be chosen to produce the 267th Pontiff is, of course, God’s calling.

But he has long cast his blessings on the great city of the Mid West since its first French Catholic settlement in the 1690s.

And our new Papa has French blood running through him and Italian and Spanish.

The Holy Ground

We recommend the locally-released documentary Holy Ground for those who want to delve deeper into Chicago Catholicism.

And we are grateful too to Chicago Catholic for helping us see the light.

Better still find yourself in Chicago as we will, God willing, next month.

Bless you all: Chicago’s most famous son, Robert Prevost

And will now seek out the Queen of All Saints church in Sauganash.

Where the worshippers have dedicated a stained-glass window to favourite son, Billy Caldwell, the very same Chief Sauganash.

That he has had the thriving southern neighbourhood of Sauganash named for him is testament to his contribution.

Hail to the Chief Sauganash

Two tribes: Billy Caldwell/Chief Sauganash

The son of a Scots-Irishman (all the best people are) and a Mohawk or Shawnee woman Caldwell championed the indigenous tribes.

The Potawatomi people who would populate the Chicago area.

Chicago Catholic marks the year 1833 as pivotal in the church’s story.

When Robert Prevost would have been but a twinkle in his great-grandfather’s eye.

The annus mirabilis 1833 marks the incorporation of Chicago as a town and the creation of its first parish, Old St. Mary’s.

The explosion of Catholic Chicago when because of its positioning in the Mid West it became a transport hub.

And a destination of choice for immigrants from the Old World.

With more parishes built to serve immigrant communities and outlying or daughter parishes.

Sky’s the limit

Chicago has long prided itself as the home of the skyscraper.

And like every other visitor we stand out among the locals for looking up.

But look between the soaring temples to consumerism, hospitality and business.

And you will see another history of Chicago, its ornate steeples.

And perhaps too, St Mary of the Assumption Parish on 137th Street in Riverside in South Chicago.

It may be a shell now of what it was but a stained glass window remains which a young Robert Prevost would have lost himself in.

The boy who would become Pope Leo XIV, the first Pontiff from the USA, now has a rather grander Vatican church from which to worship.

But all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago

America, Countries, Ireland

Trump letting the rivers run green on St Paddy’s Day

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It is, of course, the day when the Irish take over, with even Donald Trump letting the rivers run green on St Paddy’s Day.

Whisper it but The Donald has kept the tradition, started by Michelle Obama, alive of dyeing the fountain on the White House North Lawn an emerald hue.

But hey, the 45th and 47th President considers himself a great friend of the Irish.

Particularly the Irish-Americans who he namechecked in meeting Taoiseach Micheal Martin for voting him into the White House.

O’Bama: Michelle greens up

Of course, The Donald may believe green is also a good way of ‘draining the swamp’ in Washington.

It was too a very practical solution to a drain problem that inadvertently gave rise to the greening the water tradition.

Green and White House: Fountain is green

Now synonymous with St Paddy’s Day in America.

And which Chicagoan Michelle was only too glad to adapt to her new Washington surroundings when she and Barack lived in the White House.

The Limey City

Chicago for green: A staple of the calendar

Nor would The Donald want it to be mentioned that it was a Democrat who got the whole thing flowing.

When in 1961 Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley used a special green dye to clean up the river which had become a dumping ground.

Or more specifically Daley’s pal Stephen Bailey, also the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman.

Whether Daley and Bailey had heard that Savannah, Georgia, had tried to counter their problem by greening up, Chicago has dined out on their dye job ever since.

And other emerald cities

Green Antonio: Texas goes big

Now where Chicago led others followed.

With San Antonio‘s businessmen dyeing the River City Walk, an unmatched oasis in a city.

And they keep their river green a whole three days rather than Chicago’s half a dozen hours, around the same length of time Tampa Bay, Florida colours their water.

Randomly Indianapolis and Charlotte, North Carolina both get into the greening around St Paddy’s.

Splash of green: And giving it a whirl

And so while Indianapolis colours their canal green over their four days of partying.

Charlotte goes one step further with participants in their 5k run dousing themselves in green.

All of which points to it being green for go for the Irish in America.

Particularly with Donald Trump letting the rivers run green on St Paddy’s Day.

 

 

America, Countries

Ail to the chief on a draining night in Georgia

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Ail to the chief on a draining night in Georgia, as all eyes today are on what Joe Biden next in the race to be the next US President.

And whether he can go forward for the Democratic candidacy in Chicago in August.

The hysteria and confusion over President Biden’s frailties and what to do if he declines further suggests all this is new to America.

Which, of course it is not.

With before Slow Joe, Franklin Delano and Woodrow… and a sprinkle of others.

FD-argh and Wobbly Woodrow

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was, of course, crippled with polio.

But he stood for office four times despite it being torture for him to even stand.

All of which contributed to his early death even before the Second World War was settled.

And Harry S. Truman stepped up seamlessly.

Even more impressively Woodrow Wilson’s wife filled in behind the scenes for the POTUS when he had a stroke in 1919.

Rickety Ronnie

At the ballpark: Ronnie on the ball

None of which is being mentioned in the public discourse.

After Dim and Dimmer, or Biden and Trump, went head to head.

Then there was Ronald Reagan ‘The Gipper’, who many speculated had already contracted Alzheimers while in office.

And who had the formidable Barbara pulling his strings and the able Veep George HW Bush.

When he was recuperating after being shot, and from his colon cancer.

At the heart of US history

Wiggin’ it: With ‘The Donald’

Now for Americanophiles the chance to see politics live and in action is always a thrill.

And we were fortunate enough to be there during Barack Obama’s procession to the White House.

And flying overnight to Orlando and discovering that the Donald had won.

Now while Washington moves to the beat of politics.

Other great American cities get a tourist spike when the politicos roll into town.

Winds of change in Chicago

Bob’s the job: The first Bobby Kennedy

The Windy City of Chicago, so-called because of the hot air from the politicians, is well used to welcoming the Democrat delegates.

And should Joe pull out, or be pulled out, of the race then observers will doubtless reflect.

On a stormy Chicago convention in 1968.

When Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy duked it out.

All against the backdrop of the assassination of Robert Kennedy who was racing towards the nomination.

Back to the Kennedys

Second time around: Robert F Kennedy Jnr

As politicos all fixate on the advanced ages of Joe Biden and Donald J Trump.h

It has largely gone unnoticed that there is a Kennedy in the race for the White House again…

Bobby’s son, Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, who CNN wouldn’t allow in on the Atlanta debate.

Remember me: Kennedy for ’24

And who had to hold his own Q&A in Los Angeles.

Kennedy is polling as high as 16 per cent but has not been quoted unusually as a possible replacement for Biden.

Of course, the takeaway from Atlanta was headlines (ours) Ail to the chief on a draining night in Georgia.

They won’t be the last.

 

 

 

 

 

America, Countries

Tracks on Route 66

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OK it’s a forced rhyme but here goes, get your Tracks on Route 66.

With our old pals Travel Department who are offering this kickstastic journey on America’s most famous highway.

Rev it up: On Route 66

Now we can give you the prosaic history and description of US Highway 66 and its 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Chuck it our way

Duck Walk: To Route 66

But that’s not the romantic king of the road spirit which would have engaged Jack Kerouac or Chuck Berry to sing its praises.

It’ll take you anything between two weeks and a month to traverse between Illinois and SoCal, Southern California.

But just a couple of minutes on Chuck’s odyssey.

Great eight states

Gateway: St Louis

Now you go through Saint Looey/Joplin, Missouri/And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty/You see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona/Don’t forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino…

Won’t you get hip to this timely tip/When you make that california trip/Get your kicks on Route Sixty-six.

Of course some of us even cheat by getting the de rigeuer photo at the end of the route on Santa Monica pier.

TD’s the day

Tis Grand: With Tara and Tryphavana on the Grand Canyon

TD’s trip, a 15-night adventure is from €3,799pp inc. flights, transfers, B&B stays and guide. Dep. September 4.

Oh, did we mention that you’ll get to walk the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Now you’ll make your own Route 66 story but for everyone else’s visit the Route 66 Museum & Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma.

TD also flags up a walk in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln on a guided tour to his home in Illinois.

And a trek high above the Sandia Mountains on a breathtaking ride on one of the world’s longest aerial tramways.

Back to the future

See you on the other side: United Airlines

Now I’ve been to the end I’m backtracking.

And I wish I could in time too to September 2018 when I should have been with my pal Martina and my go-to flyers United Airlines.

Only a selfish oul’ woman banjaxed my plans by going and turning 90.

And yes, that wee Irishwoman, my Mum, who had already enjoyed the charms of the Windy City.

And much more on her Tracks on Route 66.