Took the iconic Chicago 'L' (short for elevated) train to get to town today to first meet up with my ex-colleague before doing more sightseeing. The oldest sections of the 'L' started in 1892, so that explains why they're not willing to give up the wooden boardwalk feel to the lines!

We arrived at the Chicago Board of Trade and this is really where trading really began. It's all due to farmers and merchants wanting to buy/sell and ensure best prices for their stock, even before they're harvested. Yup...that's how Futures started.

CME is very proud that they're the only exchange left with the open cry system and we could see many traders taking a short lunch break near the fountain. How do we know that they're traders? By their colourful jackets and tags, of course! ;)

The view from my ex-company's Chicago office gave us an almost 360 view of the heart of Chicago. We could see the planetarium (above) as well as the prison (below).

Why the heck is there a prison in the middle of the city?!?! The prisoners get to play basketball and exercise with an even better view than most Chicago locals can afford! Moreover, the scary thing was that a week before our arrival, 2 inmates managed to make a hole in the wall and escaped! They even managed to take a cab! We could even see the area on the building where they patched it up.

My friend explained that the prison is there probably because the High Court was there so that they could house the prisoners there while they await trial before they go to the higher security prisons. Oh dear. Hmm.

Does this remind you of Gotham City? If it does, you're not imagining things as "Dark Knight" was filmed here and the Chicago Board of Trade is so iconic that wedding photos are even taken here!

We walked a little further towards the Chase Tower Plaza and I love it when there's art in the city! This here is the mosaic wall named "Four Seasons" by Marc Chagall.

Proof that I'm in Chicago! LOL. This is another icon of Chicago and yes, that's the exact same sign used in Chicago - the musical's original artwork. It actually is the Chicago Theater's sign. So that explains why it was used in the musical!

We finally found a place where we wanted to have lunch at - Shake Shack! So ironic that it started in New York but we were unable to eat it in NYC due to the incredibly long queues. You can read my review on their burgers on my food blog here.

No bull this time. Just cows. But I'm still grabbing its horns. Just like what I did in New York. May I have bull runs with no bull shit.

Love random art strewn across the city. There was another cow near our apartment but I didn't get the chance to take a photo of it as there were flash floods for both nights that we were in Chicago.

After lunch, we headed across the road to Millennium Park because I just wanted to see The Bean!

Cloud Gate aka 'The Bean'

From under 'The Bean'

Art plays an important role in Chicago and this amphitheatre within Millennium Park boasts of free rehearsal 'concerts' by the Chicago Orchestra every week. Even when we were there, I saw posters about free movie screening and plays within the park. 

Mission accomplished! Haha...I just wanted to see 'The Bean'! Anyway, no trip to Chicago is done without a visit to Garrett's popcorn!

Look at the freshly popped pop corn! Pardon the reflections.

I didn't buy any popcorn but Joanne bought the Chicago Bears one. It was really quite cute but I couldn't imagine lugging it with me to Wisconsin and then Singapore.

Anyway, this post is getting a bit too long so I'm going to continue onto the more architecture part of our sightseeing in the next post!

It's my first time in Chicago and the main reason why I decided to go there was because I thought that it's airport is the best to reach my aunt's place in Wisconsin. However, I didn't mind it because the last time I've ever been around Chicago was merely the airport.

Once again, I booked an Airbnb apartment for us to stay and boy were we blown away at how gorgeous the place is!! Check out the video below.

Because the apartment was so beautiful, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon just lazing around, eating Deep Dish Pizza and drinking beer while watching TV on their big screen. Reviews on both can be found on my food blog In Chef Mode.

Tomorrow will be catching up with an ex-colleague in the Chicago office!

We rented the car for 2 days so on Sunday, we decided to go out of Manhattan island and explore other parts of New York! Joanne had brought along a guide book which recommended visiting DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). DUMBO is a neighbourhood in the borough of Brooklyn and I was thrilled when I was planning the route there as it would mean that we will be driving ON the Brooklyn Bridge - one of THE oldest bridges in the USA!!

The sad thing is that it was raining, so we it was marred by grey skies and of course, you saw the window wipers doing their job. As such, we couldn't really walk around the neighbourhood which is largely populated by artists and tech firms. Seems weird but with these 2 industries, you get a different vibe and feel from Manhattan for sure.

Although we couldn't walk around, we tried our best by driving through the neighbourhood to soak in the architecture:

I felt that this building really stood out due to the intricate details AND it was very colourful. This is quite representative of the other buildings in the neighbourhood, which were all more red than grey!

Anyway, the rain didn't let up so we decided to drive over to another borough of Williamsburg and searched for Momofuku Milk Bar! Dessert time!

The menu

I went for their Cereal Milk Shake (US$6.20) and it reminds me of Horlicks. Although I was rather pleased to see some cereal bits in the shake. Not that I can complain because Horlicks in a milkshake is extremely delicious!

My Cereal Milk shake

I was quite surprised to learn that the law in the US states that you have to consume alcoholic beverages within the restaurant/cafe/eatery! So sad that I couldn't try their alcoholic shakes because Ken was in the car waiting for Joanne and I to return with the desserts. We couldn't find parking :P

Joanne and Ken had the ice creams alone and boy did they melt super quickly and it didn't help that the cups holding the ice cream was super tiny. I ended up having loads of melted cream on my hand as I walked to the car with Ken's ice cream.

Again, the architecture in Williamsburg is a real contrast to that in Brooklyn and Manhattan. It's a lot flatter and has a slight bohemian/ hipster feel coupled with a lot of grunge.

After 'dessert', Ken decided to have 'real food' and he got all excited about Costco's pizza. Hence, we typed in 'Costco' into the GPS and headed over to the nearest branch.

Joanne and I decided to share a massive churro (US$1+) and it looks like wifi is more important to her...haha. The churro was rather disappointing. It was too doughy. So sad.

Ken not only decided to get a slice of pizza (US$1.99+), he also ordered the beef brisket burger (US$4.99+) and it was rather amazing to see him chomp all of that down after the ice cream. Wish I could trade metabolism with him.

After Costco, we really didn't have much time to do anything but return to Manhattan and send the car back. Ironically, we were all so tired that when the rental service drove us back, we didn't tell him to stop at the right junction so we ended up in the dodgier area of BUT...we found White Castle!

It doesn't cease to amaze me that 1 slider like this costs only US$0.99. It's no wonder that the poor are sustaining on fast food and getting more health problems! Honestly, White Castle isn't that great. It's just cheap and will fill up the tummies of those who can't afford better meals. Thanks Harold and Kumar for bringing more fame to this brand!

When you're in New York, you have to watch a musical or a play. Unless you hate either. Otherwise, either go online to book your tickets or stalk the TKTS booths in Times Square for discount tickets. I chose to buy my tickets online because I wanted to be ensured of tickets to "The Book Of Mormon". Why this musical? Because it'll never come to Singapore due to our religious harmony act/rule.

Stalking the website Theater Mania for a week, I managed to get the tickets slightly cheaper than its usual price. The discounts aren't as deep as those in London's Westend but we still saved about US$20/ticket.

Tip: only buy your tickets online a week prior the performance date. You'll get the better seats for less.

"The Book Of Mormon" is the first musical by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It's a religious satire where the storyline revolves around the young (and most promising) Elder Price and his partner Elder Cunningham (the 'outcast' overweight nerd) who are sent to Uganda on a missionary trip. In Uganda, it is where both Elders had to face their personal flaws and convictions about their mission/religion amidst a village that has been plagued by poverty and attacks from a warlord.

Outside the theatre

The whole musical was done very South Park style - full of vulgarities, sarcasm, irony and seemingly one-dimensional characters based on loads of stereotypes. I'm quite sure that a lot of Mormons will find it extremely offensive. However, no matter how rude it was and how they made fun of Mormonism being a made-up religion, I liked that their main message at the end of it all is this: it may not really matter if the theology of a religion is made up, so long as they're helping people, bringing peace and making the world a happier/better place. Sounds really ideal but in a lot of ways, I think Parker and Stone were not trying to tackle a complex issue on religion but to tell people to step back and think about these issues within ourselves and to judge for ourselves.

After the show!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and so did my friends although Ken thought that it was dragged out a little too long. I beg to differ. For a first musical, I think that "The Book Of Mormon" was really well done and it's no wonder that they won the Tony award for Best Musical of the Year a few years back and has been running full shows ever since it started. To me, it's up there with "Avenue Q" where I was laughing really hard. So, if you ever get the chance, do catch it!

Yesterday was about catching up with friends but today was all about sightseeing and shopping! It was a nice cheerful and sunny Friday morning where Joanne and I decided that since our Airbnb apartment is next to the Museum Mile, we might as well walk the whole stretch and take in all the sights! Helped that it's also parallel to Central Park so we also got to see whatever was going on within Central Park too.

Before you read on, be warned that this will be a very long post as we did walk a very long way. I managed to clock in >30,000 steps on my Fitbit.

The Museum of the City of New York was only a stone's throwaway but we didn't want to go in and explore because museums have this wonderful way of absorbing your time. So we walked on.

Reached the famous Guggenheim Museum and although it was only 10am (that's when it opens), there was a crowd forming within the lobby of the museum and people were waiting to get their tickets.

Besides the modern and impressionist art collection, the Guggenheim is also famous for its landmark work of 20th-century architecture. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom, was conceived as a "temple of the spirit". Its unique ramp gallery extends up from ground level in a long, continuous spiral along the outer edges of the building to end just under the ceiling skylight. The building underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 (when an adjoining tower was built) and from 2005 to 2008. Source: Wikipedia.

The circular screw-like ramping up as seen from within the museum

Again, we didn't go look at the collections due to several reasons, namely: time, US$25 entrance fee and too long of a queue to purchase tickets.

Walking a little further along and this time, along the Central Park side, we chanced upon this playground within. It also happened that nature was calling very loudly and it has the nearest toilet. :D

I love the gate! They had a short nursery rhyme about The Fox and the Crow on one of the gates and even the animals on them! How cute and quaint!!

The other side of the gate had 3 bears! Aiy...so cute. I wished Singapore had more of such cute and quaint stuff.

Walked a few more blocks and we hit The Met!! This is my second time visiting this museum but the first time I'm not viewing any of the exhibits. Crowded again. Tourists flocking in by the busloads. Not kidding.

What do we do instead? Eat food from the hot dog stand and sit on the steps of the Met while just watching people walk by. The food from the nearby stands were a lot more expensive than those within Central Park itself. Jo's hotdog cost US$7 while my Chicken Kebab was US$8.50. Not worth it.

Came across Central Park Zoo and if you're familiar with the map of Central Park, you'll realise that this is the other end of it. I felt rather sorry for the animals in the zoo. They looked really cramped and dirty.

There was this really interesting book store on the pavement itself and that's what it's famous for! The books sold were not cheap and I couldn't help but wonder how they'd store the books when it's closing time! It was when I was pondering this question that a pigeon decided to offload on my arm. Thank goodness I have wet wipes and tissue! May this be a sign of good fortune to come!!

Is this random artwork a sign of New York Fashion Week that's about to arrive? Hmm...spools and spools!

 I spy my little eye on...Yeo's?!! Well done Yeo's for bringing a Singaporean brand overseas!

Ah...the very famous Plaza hotel, which has been featured in many movies! This also marks that we've officially reached the end of Central Park and so...it's onward towards Times Square for some more sightseeing and...*drumroll* shopping!! 

 More walking ensued and more icons along the way...

When I saw Radio City, I was kinda bummed that I didn't manage to get tickets to the Jimmy Fallon show OR Saturday Night Live. ):

We did stop by a sandwich shop named Num Pang on our way towards Times Square and they've got great Cambodian sandwiches. You can read about my experience eating there over on my food blog In Chef Mode.

Panoramic view of Times Square

 After Times Square, we quickly headed over to Macy's where I got my...

new luggage!! That's a 27" Delsey semi-hard case luggage with 4 wheels. Cost me about US$174 or so. I believe the same thing would cost double the price in Singapore. Woohoo! So thrilled about it.

We were so tired by the end of Macy's plus I didn't want to lug the luggage back to our apartment, we cabbed back so that we could have a bit of rest before heading off again to watch "The Book Of Mormon"! What a fulfilling day it has been!