Travelogue 2: Visit to Temples around Chicago and Chicago Downtown

Posted by B Sadasivamoorthy, SomasundaraminApril 15, 2014 Edit Posted in Generic ,Travel

It was yet another lovely sunny Saturday, as we set for our exciting weekend trip planned. Me and My friend/colleague decided to explore some nearby attractions/locations. If you live in Racine, WI or nearby, you either have Milwaukee, WI or Chicago, IL; 2 nearby big cities. We choose to explore Chicago suburbs along with sometime in Chicago downtown. Downtown was planned, because of our hunger to learn and explore more about Chicago.
Day 1: On Apr 12th 2014 morning, As part of Chicago suburbs exploration decided to visit some temples. Started with Sri Venkateshwara temple, Aurora, IL. Obviously because of our attraction to food/breakfast in temple canteen, Delicious and traditional Tamil breakfast Pongal/vada along with some idlies and dosa.

After the temple visit, We drove to BAPS SwamiNarayan Temple, Barlett, IL which is 20-30 mins drive from Aurora. Awesome architecture of this temple along with hand carved marbles/granite was treat to our eyes and camera (which you can see below). Of course you could plan a delightful North Indian thali along with Indian samosas and Lassi for your lunch.

Too much of spirituality per day is not good, so decided to catch up with some tamil film/movie in Schamburg, IL AMC Loews theater. Interesting to know that, 10.8% of total population in Schamburg, IL are Indians. This might be the reason why regional films are being released in the AMC theater. After the movie, We strolled in the “Streets of Woodfield" and visited the Woodfield Mall, which is one of the largest shopping malls in the United States and largest shopping center in the state of Illinois. Being in Schamburg, IL, you will have more indian restaurants/places to choose for your dinner. We completed our first day trip with dinner at Paradise Biryani. Of course family men can also plan to do Indian grocery shopping in Patel brothers located in Schamburg, IL.
What else you could ask from this trip, All 3 meals of the day filling with mouthwatering, exotic spices/dishes from Indian cuisine.
Day 2: On Apr 13th 2014 Sunday morning, we drove to Baha’i temple. Baha’i temple is a spectaculary beautiful building located in Wilmette, IL is one of the eight Continental Baha’i houses of worship all around the world. Also listed as one of the seven wonders of Illinois state (wondering what are the other 6). All these 8 houses of worship has one architecural character, they all are nine sided representing the prayer “Alláh u Abhá" (God is Most Glorious) in Arabic. It is the numerical value of these four letters in the words abha and baha (for Bahá’u'lláh) that add up to total nine, one of reasons Baha’i Houses of Worship are nine-sided. Interesting to know that Delhi is also one among the eight Baha’i houses of worship. There is a Arabic inscription on top of the tomb (visible from inside), which translates to “O Thou Glory of Glories". You can find picture of the temple below, and pamphlets explaining Baha’i principle in different languages. I picked the pamphlets printed in some Indian languages, to show it to my father who is more interested such religious/historic expeditions. Unfortunately I couldn’t plan a trip, when my parents visited me.
If you need to more about Baha’i Religion, visit this link .

On the afternoon, We planned to visit Chicago downtown again. This is because Baha’i temple is located close to downtown and accessible by CTA public transit. After reaching Chicago downtown, we were hungry and decided to try Chicago style pizza which is one of the item in my to-do list. We ordered Chicago classic pizza (of course Veggie) along with Bruscheta for starters at Giordona’s (a famous Italian chain in downtown Chicago). They have this awesome drink Frozen Lemonade which you could choose along with your meal. I heard about the Thunderstorm warnings for Racine and nearby places in local radio news, because of which weather was gloomy and cold (Which is NOT Unusual for Mid-westerners). Due to the weather and lack of visibility, We have to cancel some of our outdoor activities planned (Shoreline sightseeing and Chicago Skyline picture at night)
. So we visited the Field museum, where we get to see some exciting collections and met Sue, best preserver, largest T-rex specimen ever found. More about Field museum here:
Also wanted to share this awesome photography of Soldier field from Field Museum entrance.

After our museum visit, we were tired and decided to end our weekend exploration/journey and plan for STRESSFUL Monday mornings [When you could be trusting an inexperienced Knief throwing doctor with your life..].
[Photos are Courtesy of Christopher M Arun]
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