My Random notes n thoughts

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]
You only have to do a very few things right in your life, So as long as you don’t do too many things wrong - Warren Buffett

Being a family man, you don't often get this chance to travel like a bachelor. I utilized this time since my family is in India and decide to take a nomadic road trip. We had a great weekend travelling on this unplanned, sudden road trip. We Watched Captain America - Winter soldier On Friday Apr 4th evening, and decided to drive to St.Louis, MO and to visit Kansas City at the last minute almost during the end of the day.We booked a rental car and packed our luggage and all set for starting our journey.Drive from Wisconsin to Kansas City: We drove approximately for around 9-10 hrs (including breaks) via Iowa state without touching Chicago through Des Moines Iowa. Major Highways thru which we traveled during this leg are I88 W, I80 W and I39 S. We noticed the frequent availability of Gas pit stops and rest area. Noticed gas prices being little higher in Iowa compared to Missouri. This time we didn't use the Gas price app, but the gas price app will be good and provides options to plan for cheaper gas. Approximate total miles traveled during this leg is 570 Miles~580 Miles.Day 1 (Morning): We visited the World War I museum (liberty memorial) at 10 AM which is the opening time. It was informative and lots of history/information to process. Since the tickets are valid for 2 days, History Buffs can spend 2 days gathering interesting information. There are 2 sphinx statues on each side of the memorial covering their eyes. They are named as "Future" and "memory"Sphinx one "Memory" looks east, towards the past and the European Continent. Her wings cover her face, hiding it from the horrors of that past War.Sphinx two "Future" faces west, away from Europe and toward the future. Her wings also cover her face, since the future cannot be seen.They have a nice short video presentation narrating the World War I.After reading the Ken Follet's Novel Jackdaws recently, I was attracted towards the World War related stories. Lots of medals, guns and armory, military Equipments, War books, magazines, newspapers and Soldier's journals etc on display.more information related to WWI memorial can be found in the below sites:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Memorialtheworldwar.orgEven though there are other attractions listed in Kansas City, we decided to drive to St.Louis in the afternoon to visit the Gateway Arch.Day 1 (Afternoon and evening): Drive to St.Louis, Mo from Kansas CityAfter finishing our lunch in the liberty memorial, We set for our journey towards St.Louis, MO. This leg of the journey is from Kansas City, MO to St.Louis, MO on highway I70 E. It took around 4 hours to complete this leg, the distance traveled is around 260 miles. We reached Cathedral Basilica St.Louis around 5PM -5.30 PM, which is wrong time since tours are cancelled because of on-going mass prayers from 5-6 pm. We took some photos of the cathedral and decided not to wait and headed towards the Gateway arch/Mississippi River Walk trail in St.Louis, MO Downtown.We heard from some of the fellow travelers that the Gateway Arch tickets are booked and not available after noon. So parked our car in the Mansion place in downtown roamed around the arch and River walk trail. Because of construction in downtown area, there are lot of detours and GPS suggested routes didnt work for us.We decided not to stay in St.Louis and head towards Chicago(which is close to Home) after having dinner.Day2 : Chicago DowntownWe took turns in the wheel and slept a little in Rest Area during our journey to Chicago on I55 N. In between we stopped and watched movie Noah in AMC theater near Springfield, IL, which is best time/oppurtunity to charge the camera battery. we are able to find a outlet inside the theater and charged our camera Battery. The travel time is around 4-5 hrs and distance is around 300 miles.We thought about staying in Springfield, IL and visit AB Lincoln Memorial museum next day morning. Since we already had enough of history to process this weekend, we decided for Chicago downtown.Being visited Chicago a lot, I always have this feeling of liveliness in Chicago downtown. Tall skylines lifting your spirits up and astonishing view you could stare all day and marvel at the downtown architecture. We took a 70 min shoreline Architectural tour from Navy pier, which took us in all the branches of Chicago river in downtown. The guide is very informative covering all aspects of Chicago - Food, Brewery, Architecture, history and movies shooted in famous buildings. provides oppurtunity to take great photographs. Since architecture is not my cup of tea, some of them are way over my head but good to listen to.Next to the architecture tour, we visited Shedd Aquarium. The queue for regular tickets are long since the spring season is kicking off and people waited long enough this winter to get outdoors. To avoid the queue, You could either take Chicago City pass which will cover entrance fee for other attractions in Chicago downtown or some special ticket which cost 52$ per head. Jellies, Aquatic, Wild Reef and 4D shows in Shedd are my favorite and I plan to visit along with my kid who loves fishes and aquarium.Lake Shore walking trail near Field Museum, planetarium, and Aquarium campus is one of the best place I love to take photos of the downtown skylines.In order to get back to work on Monday, we decided to skip the other attractions and drove home for a good night rest. Getting Back to Work after vacation or your awesome weekend filled with Travel is daunting task, As I am facing one today! :)