First, we opted for public transit instead of a car. For any big city, I would always recommend this option. Chicago's public transit is impressive and fast. It put us within walking distance of everywhere we wanted to go, whether museum(found 2 that were free that day), the bean (left), Hancock building (below), comedy club (free show), or food. We only missed the subway twice, and both times the next subway came within 7 minutes. Once it was 10:30pm on a weekday. That's impressive. I was musing as to why the SF Muni can't follow suit and joked it was because Chicago Transit Authority would face riots if people stood out in the snow for more than 7 minutes. Hmmm, seasons. Imagine that. By the way, at the Hancock building I would highly recommend going up t the 96th floor for cocktails, forwarding the $16 you would normally pay for the observatory towards food. Brilliant!
The Chicago bus system was clean, quiet, and new, but had too many stops (like bus systems usually do). When I caught the bus (so I could take the luggage) from our final dinner to Union Station (Chicago's Amtrak station), my mom beat me walking. She said the bus would pass her, then get stuck at a light or stop, and then she'd pass it, etc. This actually happens to me a lot when I'm biking. Then, depending on whether there is a hill or not, I am beat or beat the bus permanently. I rarely take the bus in SF, after biking for a year, I quickly learned where the worst hills were and always avoid them. Or, in the case of my house, take the least offensive version.Then, off to Ann Arbor to visit my younger sister. As I gave away before, we took the Amtrak, which was $36/person (AAA membership discount) and 4.5 hours. A rental car one way would have been $195 (I'm not even kidding, I did a print screen) and 4 hours (says optimistic google maps). Plus, the rental car was available at the airport, which is actually 15 miles from downtown. Union Station was (obviously) walking distance. The choice was easy, and I'm glad we had it!
In Michigan, we carpooled twice (such as to get 2 miles from amtrak to her house), but mostly walked/bused. My sister lives very close to campus and the bus systems were free for everyone. We took it to go eat downtown and even stayed in to cook some nights! That ensured the leftovers we took home didn't go to waste, and it's always greener to cook in.
Finally, on our last day we rented a car to go to Detroit and the airport. My sister has a Zipcar account, which is a great company that parks cars all over an area (usually a big city or campus) and rents them out by the hour, covering gas (up to 180 miles) and insurance. You also have to pay a $50 yearly membership ($35 for students) and a one time $25 sign up fee. In SF, the rate is $7/hr which means combined with public transit and/or walking, there really isn't a need for a car in the city. And who can pass on the chance to drive the coolest cars (e.g. the BMW 3 series and the Prius and Insight hybrids)? We chose an Insight about 2 blocks away from our last meal in Ann Arbor and zipped (ha ha) off to Detroit.
Detroit was only midly depressing, but we had a lot of fun. My favorite part was, hands down Southern Fires which I found off yelp. Our entire dinner, complete with 4 sides and 2 mains, cost us just over $20 with tax and tip- delicious!
I like the pictures! In Texas they don't have public transportation and my family took two cars when we had six people to transport 3 miles. Also, they made fun of me when I carried the ice cream instead of using a plastic bag. Texas is weird.
ReplyDeleteYou commented! Yah, I took the customary after-dinner walk with my parents to Safeway (I steered it that way) and then they went in and bought too much stuff for me to carry so we had to get 3 plastic bags. *sigh,* the older generation is weird.
ReplyDeleteWay to carry that ice cream =D