Illinois - The Land of Lincoln
The arrival in Chicago turned out to be a bit of a nightmare to be honest, we got stuck in rush hour traffic for about 2 hours, then couldn't find anywhere to stay...we eventually did, and found an Irish Pub right next door (hmmmm shepards pie and apple crumble, with no crumble!!).
Chicago actually turned into more of a 'hunt for my Great Uncle's Grave' than a siteseeing tour - he lived in Chicago and was killed in the Santa Fe train crash in 1956 and my poor grandmother has never seen his grave, so we set out to find it! The search involved trawling through libraries, contacting Polish cemeteries and using the Microform machines to go through the old Chicago papers (it was like being a real historian, so fun!) - unfortunately we couldn't find the grave, but there was mention of his name in the papers.
We did do a little bit of exploring in the city , saw the giant bean, did a bit of shopping, ate an original 'Chicago Town' pizza (very odd - more like a pie!), rode the 'L' etc. Chicago is a beautiful place actually, the Christmas decor and snow helped a lot I think!
