One Day in Chicago Illinois, Chicago, Illinois

One day in Chicago, Illinois…well, technically I had one full day plus a few hours the evening before. And honestly, it’s not enough to see this beautiful city. But it was all the time we had, so we hit the highlights. If you only have One Day In Chicago Illinois, here are my recommendations.

If you saw last week’s post Yellowstone National Park, USA (or if you are following along on Instagram), you know we are tackling a month long cross country road trip from Washington State to Maine and back again. And Chicago is a beautiful city so we thought we would spend two night there on the way.

We arrived our downtown Embassy Suite hotel about 4pm in the afternoon. We had been driving all day, but we wanted to take advantage of the few hours we had. So after getting settled in our room and grabbing a cold drink at the complimentary evening happy hour we headed out.

Did you know the first Ferris Wheel in the world was in Chicago? Well it was, an invention of George Ferris for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. That Ferris Wheel of course is long gone, but today the Chicago Centennial Ferris Wheel rises 200 feet above Lake Michigan and gives great views of the lake and the city. We enjoyed a brief walk through the Navy Pier Building and then boarded the wheel with no line at sunset (you can buy tickets in advance here) and enjoyed the ride and the views. A perfect way to start our short visit to Chicago. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).