The Hindu Business Line : Skyline highs

With a bunch of route printouts, which gave us blind directions, we were driving along the Interstate 94 from Detroit towards Chicago. As we neared the city and added to the Labour Day traffic we couldn't follow the routes.

We were moving north and were relieved when we sighted the skyscrapers, among which we identified our landmark, the Sears tower — the tallest building in Chicago. We gave ourselves full marks for geography as we located our hotel in the narrow streets of Chinatown, two miles south of Sears.

Museum Campus

Hedgerow made of exhaust pipes at an open-air exhibition

We took the elevated train to the Roosevelt station all set with a pass, which allows unlimited rides for a day for as less as $5. To top it, a free trolley shuttle took us from the station to the museum campus comprising a planetarium, aquarium and the field museum.

The aquarium is built very close to the lake; we could get a clear view of the blue waters through the glass walls. The dolphin show was both educational and interesting. The instructor tried to clear several myths about dolphins with the trainers getting them to do a few tricks.

Among the other interesting marine creatures on view were the sting ray and the sea otters in the coral reef. The green Anaconda and the impressively recreated Amazon forest were crowd-pullers. The Iguanas and the Komodo lizards were equally interesting.

The field museum guides visitors through the evolution of life both above and below the earth; there are separate display sections for Africa, Pacific, Tibet and Egypt. The African stall even displays an old ad poster announcing the arrival of a "cargo of prime, healthy, ninety-four Negroes". It announced their divisions and the date of sale. A section displaying the mammals of Asia and Africa saw many visitors posing for snaps with the Bushman, a lowland gorilla that once roamed in Chicago.

The "TimeSpace" show at the Adler's planetarium, said to be the first planetarium in North America, took us back billions of years to explore space right from the time of the Big Bang, through the present and into the future. Besides numerous other shows, it had exhibits of the Mars rover, asteroids and the earth's atmosphere.

With the $50 city pass, which allowed entry to the science museum and the John Hancock building along with these three museums, we managed to bypass the long holiday queues for tickets.

Shoreline

For Chicagoans the museum campus is a place that affords a glimpse at the majestic skyline along the lakeshore. A group of people were taking a guided tour of the museum campus, gliding along in the Segway. On any evening, newlyweds arrive in a limousine for the picture postcard view of the Chicago skyline. It was dazzling to watch the brides in white gowns, clutching a bouquet of one dozen red and yellow roses and posing with a couple of bridesmates and groomsmen against the gentle waves of the lake with the skyline in the background.

A stroll along the lakeshore led us to Buckingham fountain, supposed to be the centre of Chicago, which shoots water jets as high as 135 ft. On the nearby lawns, an international jazz festival had a festive air and it was time for us to relax. Very interestingly, at a nearby park sculptures made using salvaged automobile parts were on display, showcasing the artist's unique creativeness. Some of the exhibits were eye-catching such as the trees with quarter panels to represent leaves, a bench assembled using windshields and a hedgerow formed by bunching together exhaust pipes and reflectors.

And Chicago city has its fair share of history. It was here in 1893 during the Columbian Exhibition that Swami Vivekananda from India gave his maiden speech. That exposition was a melting pot for a number of new ideas and innovation like the hamburger, commemorative stamps and coins, carnival concepts and the Ferris wheel, set up by George Ferris himself. Again, May Day commemorates the police shooting against striking workers in Chicago on May 1, 1886.

Magnificent Mile

The Navy pier.

Chicago, on the shores of Lake Michigan, is connected to the Atlantic through a series of lakes, canals and rivers. Situated well inside the continent between the eastern and western coast, it nevertheless became a centre of trade and commerce and thereby a financial hub. A walk along the Congress Parkway led us to a red granite building with an underpass — the Chicago Stock Exchange.

Nearby is the Chicago Fire Department, which reminded us of the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 that left around 300 people dead and nearly 17,000 buildings burned to ashes. This destruction however led some of the young and finest architects to rebuild the city from the ruins. And now the city boasts some of the most elite and tallest buildings, attracting building climbers such as Spider Dan Goodwin.

A visit to the top of the 100-floor Hancock building gave us a fantastic view of the shoreline along with the illuminated road arteries. The most stirring was the display of some rare photos of Chicago's past at the tower top. The James W. Jardine water purification plant, jutting into the lake, without a shred of doubt looked to be the largest in the world.

A walk along Michigan Avenue, known as the Magnificent Mile, was an experience in itself. Name any high-end brand and it is there. Also present are the Ritz-Carlton and Hilton hotels. Everywhere there was a festive look probably because it was the last weekend of summer. The Magnificent Mile ended near the Drake, a quixotic hotel decked out all the time for the many marriage parties that happen for the affluent and the celebrated.

However, most notable is the water tower, now shadowed by the high-rises, which was the only building that escaped the great fire of 1871. A buggy ride through the elegant downtown in horse-drawn carriages is a popular attraction. Sumptuous dinners are on offer at the numerous Indian hotels and restaurants at Devon Avenue.

But we ended up taking the skyline tour of Chicago from Navy Pier, a prominent tourist and leisure destination. As the boat entered the lake with the captain explaining the history and pointing to the skyscrapers, we were immersed in the panoramic view of the skyline stretching from the museum campus to the Navy Pier. Little wonder Chicago boasts of its skyline that features three of the world's tallest buildings — Sears, Aon and Hancock — all, remarkably, constructed during the 1970s.

Pictures by the author