Travel in Chicago during the Spring Break.

For this week’s passion blog, I want to talk about my Spring Break trip to Chicago. Chicago is the third large city I have traveled in America. The other two are Washington DC and Philadelphia. Among those three, I like Chicago best.

I spent the whole eight-day Spring break in Chicago with my friends from different universities including my boyfriend. Since one of my friends arrived on the second day, we only went shopping and had a lunch in Chinatown on the first day. I think what most Chinese in America miss is the Chinese foods, so one of the goals of our Chicago trip is to have different kinds of Chinese foods there. All girls like shopping, especially those like me who live and study in the small town, not in the big city. Once you enter the Michigan Avenue, there are hundreds of shops along the road. You don’t even need to enter a shopping mall because the shops are right along the road. I like the feeling when walking along a prosperous street with both serious tall buildings and leisure shopping spots.

In the following days, we went to many “must go” attractions including Art institute of Chicago, Contemporary Art Museum, Shedd aquarium, Skydeck, Museum of Science and Industry, Navy Pier, Millennium Park and University of Chicago. The attraction I like most in Chicago is the Navy Pier. It is not as crowded as in other places. There is a Ferris Wheel near the lake, on which you can see the view above the river, especially when you are on the top of it.

But since many on-lake tours open in April, we were not able to experience the beauty of the Michigan Lake, but the view from the lakeshore is also amazing. The weather is becoming warmer in March but there is still big temperature difference from morning to evening, so there is ice floating on the lake. And because the water in the lake is so clear and blue, the existence of ice makes the lake more beautiful. There were also some ducks floating on the ice water, which makes the whole scene live.

The mirror bean in Millennium Park interested me much. Long before, I have seen the picture of it, but it is a different experience when you are actually there. I couldn’t stop taking photos of it because each photo is different taken from different angle. I like taking photos very much so I had lot of fun. And my friends and I also took many mirror selfies, which are really funny.

 Not to mention, there are many museums in Chicago. Since most of us are interested in art, so we went to the art institute and contemporary art museum. Though I couldn’t remember each work and its painter, it at least gave me an enjoyable art experience. Moreover, we went to the Shedd Aquarium because I like animals very much (that’s why we went to a zoo in Chicago as well.) In the aquarium, I even “determine” my future job: to be an otter trainer. Otters are so cute! They repeatedly turn round and round in the water. When they float on the water, they sometimes play with their fluffy face and sometimes give themselves a stomach massage. They sometimes cover one eye with one paw, trying to be as cute as possible.

Eight days are long and short. Time flies. When I heard the broadcast on the air that “ Pittsburgh is not cold now….” I couldn’t believe the spring break has passed. And without doubt I don’t know how to express how much I missed my boyfriend, who studies in University of North Carolina. Anyway, the spring break spent with friends is amazing, and we had lots of fun during the spring break in Chicago.