We are currently in the middle of an arctic freeze here in South Bend, the temperature had a low of negative 8 degrees last night. I am continuing to work on catching up on my 2018 trip reports and this one took place on Saturday June 30th, 2018 to July 1st, 2018 which was an overnight trip for me and Louise into Chicago to stay with friends and swim in their pool (and possibly also in the lake).
On Saturday June 30th we took the afternoon 1:05pm train to Chicago instead of the usual 9:01am express train that starts most of my weekend Chicago trips. We had some things to take care of at home in South Bend and Saturday morning seemed best. The extra 35 minutes making lots all the local stops plus the crew change in the Michigan City yard made this train ride feel painfully slow, but otherwise uneventful. At Millennium Station we found a new in office building exit from the station that got us to the northbound side of Michigan Avenue where we wanted to be (photos are too bury to share, will return to this entrance) and stopped for a snack before an easy 15 minute bus ride on Route 151 up to our friends house on the Gold Coast. After the rest of the afternoon lounging in a pool, we realized it was cheaper to get a VIA ride share for the 4 of us up to Pequod’s Pizza, than all pay for the two stop Red Line ride. Wanting to walk of dinner (and with slightly cooler temperatures) we took the Red Line back the two stops from Fullerton to State/Lake.
Sunday morning Louise found a stationary store she wanted to go to in Lincoln Park, and heading up there seemed like a good activity on this over a hundred degree day. We got on the ‘L’ at Clark/Division–(3 Photos), and I snapped my first publishable (iPhone) photos of the trip. Today, as I’ve gotten to processing these photos I now realize that State/Division has been renovated and received a new western mezzanine since I first wrote up a photo essay for it so these 3 photos are my only ones of it post renovation, guess I’ll need to add it to my revisit/get more photos list.
We took the Red Line up to Fullerton–(8 Photos) and walked beneath the tracks in what is a parking alley between through DePaul University, I got some photos of the emergency exit staircases that exit both platforms.
We ended up getting lunch near the Armitage–(6 Photos).
With the extreme heat walking back up to Fullerton to catch the Red Line didn’t seem appealing, so we took a Brown Line one stop north back to Fullerton–(3 Photos) and double-backed onto a 95th-bound Red Line, we took this train to Chicago, wanting to visit a store on Michigan Avenue before heading back to our friends apartment to grab our luggage on the Route 151 bus (a 25 cent transfer).
After getting our luggage (and with the new $15 Uber credit posting for the month on my AMEX Platinum Card, and no further city trips for July planned) we decided to Uber back to Millennium Station for the 4:43 train home to South Bend. This Uber ride had a driver who clearly didn’t understand the lower-levels of Columbus Drive and other streets just south of Chicago River, who chickened out and headed back up to the surface, not dropping us off at the super convenient car entrance to Millennium Station at the same level and right next to the South Shore Line platforms.
The 4:43 was another uneventful, not very comfortable South Shore Line train home, we had downloaded some shows to my iPad to watch together to pass the time on the ride home which was nice. I got a nice photo at South Bend Airport–(1 Photo) of our just arrived train as we got into the car at the Kiss’n’Ride area where Louise’s Dad had come to pick us up.
