Windy city ... take two ...

My next few weeks were kind of just relaxed, which was a nice change! So after my first “fun-filled” Chicago experience, I heard that a few other girls were thinking of traveling there…I jumped at the opportunity to go back! Early on Saturday morning 5 of us girls were Chicago bound…we arrived there at 8am after taking a 2hour bus trip, our day started with the Shedd Aquarium which was truly amazing! (we saw a 4D show called our planet) Next we visited Field’s museum where we saw “Sue” the T-rex, lots of artifacts and even a taxi-cut out for the Africa display.

African taxi...slightly different from a NYC taxi

Next on our self-guided tour of the Windy city was the Adler Planetarium where we saw 2 movies about space one of which was a children’s movie (the better of the two) and one that was shown on a dome shaped roof! (wow!) Our next stop was the Willis Tower (aka the Skydeck or Sears Tower) which has the most amazing view of Chicago from 103 stories up. After taking way to many photos of the same thing, meeting new people and watching a proposal we decided that it was officially home (well hotel) time. Back safely in our room we showered, changed, ate and…zzzzzz

Rieke, Nadine, Tamara, Fernanda and I in the Willis Tower viewing window

Rise and shine on day two (and final day in Chicago) we caught the metro into Chicago as the hotel we stayed at was in a suburban of Chicago and not downtown (that’s traveling on a budget I guess) At this point I would like to point out that I armed with a map and computer researched metro colours and bus numbers managed to get us to all these wonderful places…without getting lost! (Ha, so much for being directionally challenged!)

Posing with the statues...

The day began with Dunkin Donut breakfast at Millennium park (which is where the ‘Bean’ aka Cloud gate is) then we headed to Navy pier, where we meet some crazy people! (Lots of pirates walking around and people on mechanical chairs that were kind of freaky) We decided that we had to check out Chinatown, so that was our next stop…after eating at a super cute Vietnamese restaurant we started to head back to Union station where our bus would fetch us and end our magical Chicago weekend! But what a weekend we had!

All the girls at Navy Pier

Loving Chicago (taken at Navy Pier)

Pickin' dem apples ...

As you can all see or read I am having a great American adventure, living the America dream if you like. I hope you are enjoying reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

Milwaukee nature shot

My next great American adventures began in…well our backyard! It’s fall at the moment which a month ago meant all the leaves are turning gorgeous hues of red, yellow and gold. Unfortunately now it means the trees are bare and no longer cloaked in glorious shades, and there are a lot of messy backyards that need to be raked. I think it’s so cool, well I thought! My host mom and dad decided to enjoy the full American experience I needed to rake leaves and make scarecrows. We had to rake up all the leaves and then we stuffed them in Dave’s old (doctor scrubs) clothing, then we added masks so we had a werewolf/doctor and an old man in funny pj’s on our front porch. I think I’m a pretty good leaf rake-er unfortunately it’s a thankless job, because there’s always more leaves!

AJ and I in the leaf pile

Coupled with scarecrow building, apple picking is another fall activity that we shared. What fun! We drove to this farm (Elegant farm) where there was a big red barn with a smiley face on it. Knowing that we were “roughing” it on a farm I wore pigtail plaits and a checked shirt with bomber jacket, feeling like quite the farmer’s daughter! Lucky for me I brought a few extra layers because damn! It was cold. The type of cold where it catches your breathe every time you breathe in, you cheeks turn various shades of pink and your eyes want to water. But in all fairness the sun was out, he just wasn’t doing his job very well. Needless to say this the first time I recessed my wardrobes readiness for winter! At the apple farm we went on a trailer attached to a tractor, up to the apple orchids where every tree has a colored ribbon tied to it signifying the type of apple it produces, not really caring about the type and rather just the experience, it didn’t take this safa (South African) long to be up the tree and picking ‘dem apples! Annabel was cute helping out by standing at the base of the tree and collecting the apples I collected, reminding me every time that it was going into her basket! The day was ended off by indulging in hot apple cider donuts! Yummy!

AJ and I apple picking