One day, I asked Lydia, what are we going to do in this school break? Do you have any plan of what are we gonna do? She said "no! Staying at home!" I said "come on!! old lady!! Just do something during the break!" So, I suggested to plan a two days one night trip to Chicago. I just wanted to get away from Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit somewhere else.
We started to do our research, buying train ticket and make the hotel reservation. Unfortunately, it was the peak season when we decided to visit Chicago, and the tickets already sold out and most of the hotels were fully booked. At that time, Lydia almost decided to give up. But I said "No way!! We got to make it!!" So another place that came out on my mind, which is LAS VEGAS, Neveda. It sounds like a pretty good idea to visit LAS VEGAS, Neveda. So we started to do our research. Again, the ticket was extremely expensive during the peak season... Haiz... Lydia said "forget about the trip to anywhere, just stayed at home for Christmas and New Year!" I said " Probably, you're right!!"
After a long way discussion and argument, we finally decided to visit Chicago. I told Lydia "Just do it!! If we keep discussing we are not going to anywhere." So we finally made up our mind to visit Chicago on Dec 26, 2007. We decided to drive since we can't buy the train ticket.
On Dec 26, we woke up early in the morning and set off to Chicago. We stopped by at AAA, which is the insurance company and also the travel agent, such as maps and hotel reservation for their members. Lydia joined the AAA membership, so we went there to grab the map of Chicago. We never thought about staying at Chicago before, but ended up staying for a night, because we got membership discount from AAA if we made the hotel reservation through them.
We left from about around noon. We have to drive 4 hours long to Chicago. But we planned to stop by at Indianna, Michigan City outlet mall.
We took these pictures before we invaded to Indianna and Chicago. Are you ready?? Let's check it out the pictures below:
In front Michigan Stadium-- Ann Arbor
On the I-94 west freeway. The weather was so nice. It was the sun shine day!
Both of us took turn to drive to Chicago. 
Welcome to Indianna!! After 2 hours drive, we finally got Indianna!! As you can see from the pictures below, we can't even get a shot of the signboard. It was 120 km per hour. Time difference with Michigan and Indianna and Chicago is one hour, because of the time zone.
Michigan City!!
Michigan City outlet mall!! We spent an hour here for shopping!!
It called Lighthouse outlet mall!!
After that, we drove for another hour to Chicago.
We paid toll at Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge.
Chicago Skyway toll Bridge
After a few hours drive, we finally got Chicago downtown. We made the reservation at Comfort Inn, which is located at Chicago downtown area. We followed the direction on the map and found Comfort Inn. After the checking and unloading our baggages, we started exploring the night view of Chicago. First, we parked our car at garage, which cost us $34 per day!!! That's really expensive. We decided to buy a day pass for our transportation. It included bus and subway, unlimited use for 24 hours, which only costs us $5 each. We arrived at Chicago downtown around 7pm. It was the dinner time. I suggested to visit Chicago Chinatown for Malaysian food. So we decided to have our dinner at Chinatown.
I took a lot of pictures at Chicago downtown area. Night view of Chicago downtown:
We took subway from Grand station to Cermak-Chinatown station
We took pictures at Grand Station
It took 10 minutes from Grand Station to Cermak- Chinatown. Here are some pictures that we took at Chinatown.
Chicago Chinatown is considered small when you compare with New York Chinatown. We first welcome by the "tian xia wei gong" this fours words at the "city door"!!
We had our dinner at Penang, which is the Malaysian food restaurant at Chicago Chinatown. The is the place that I can find my curry and Nasi Lemak. I can't wait to visit this place, because I miss Malaysian food so much!! So I suggested Lydia to try our Malaysian food. However, Lydia can't handle the spicy food, so she did not really eat much that night. When I look at the menu, I felt like I was in Malaysia. I wish I could order all of the Malaysian dishes that I love, however, I was not able to do that, because the portion is really big and we can't even finish it. I ordered Beef Redang and one of my favorites, cendol.
Haha!! Interesting!! I took this picture!! human need to pee!! Haha... It means restroom!!
Fried Intestine!! I love this dish so much!! Malaysian food? I'm not sure. It's appetizer, which ordered by Lydia. But It was so good!!
Another appetizer-- Fried Egg Oyster--, which ordered by Lydia as well. It supposed is Lydia's appetizer, but ended up become her main course, because she can't even finish it and we realized that we ordered too much food!!
Beef Redang!! It was not spicy enough. Although it's not the authentic Malay food, but it was so good!! I really enjoyed my dinner that night!! We realized that we ordered too much food, so we canceled our dessert, which is one of my favorites -- cendol--.
After we done our dinner at Penang, we started to walk around the Chinatown. These pictures were taken at Chicago Chinatown:
Dr.Sun Yat-Sen Museum. It only open at weekend. We missed that.
Chinese Church at Chinatown
Look!! The Chinese road signs at Chinatown.
Sears tower at Chicago downtown
Waiting for subway at Cermak station at Chinatown.
We stayed a night at Comfort Inn. It's a 3-star hotel. Not too bad!! We paid $130++, so what can we expect for!!
The famous Deep Dish Pizza - Pizzeria UNO- is next to the hotel that we stayed
Night view of Chicago downtown 
We went to Michigan Ave., which is a street at Chicago downtown. It's pretty much same as Orchard road in Singapore. You can shop at Michigan Ave for the whole day. It was so beautiful, especially the Lights decoration in Michigan Ave for Christmas and New Year!
Carriage for tourists
The shopping heaven-- Michigan Ave-- for girls
Water Tower just right in fron of us
Tiffany & Co.
Water Tower Place.
The eight-level Water Tower Place reigns as the largest mall on Michigan Avenue. Anchored by a
Church
Thanks for Lydia's camera. Because of her camera, we got a lot of beautiful night view pictures.
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