Full of kitsch and small town charm, my friend, Karen, and I took a 4-day trip to Southeast New Mexico, including Roswell & Carlsbad Caverns.
Full of all sorts of information, stop at the Roswell Visitor’s Center before you head off on your Southeast New Mexico adventure. Renting a car is a must to get around the spread-out region.
Whether you’re stopping through Chicago on a long layover or driving through on the way to a nearby state, there will definitely be more than enough to keep you busy. Below is a list of how to have a rockin’ time in the Windy City for 24 hours with options depending on what you want to get out of your experience. Despite choosing some touristy things you just can’t miss, I’ve also added a resident-twist to it.
This post features the Near Southside of Chicago, including Northerly Island, Chinatown, Pilsen and Douglas Park. Public transportation is not as easy to get around here, so rent a car or Divvy bike, use the CTA bus system or make Uber your bestie. This post is the 2nd part in a series about spending one day in Chicago; the first was a post on the Loop & River North.
Northerly Island – One of the newest parks in the city, Northerly Island features 91 acres of grass, flowers and trees – a real commodity in the urbanity of Chicago. Pop into a grocery store before you arrive to pick up breakfast items for a picnic on the lawn. Enjoy a stroll along the nature path, walk north along the waterfront or drink in views of the boats and skyline along the marina-front path.
My sophomore year at university, I got this itch to go on a study abroad trip for May term (one month either spent traveling or in class) to Asia, though I’m not sure what possessed me seeing as my family had never traveled outside of the country. After having convinced my parents that China was where I wanted to go, I spent a month with my fellow classmates traveling the country. Within 24-hours of being in Beijing, I knew that I was going to live in China someday. And at the end of my years in college, I applied to a school in Shanghai but ultimately decided it wasn’t the right time for me.
Instead of a big move to China, I decided to take a job offer to teach at a rural school in Illinois about an hour away from my hometown. After having failed to leave college with a single friend thanks to a drowned relationship, I was excited at the prospect of meeting new people. My school was an absolute gem and my coworkers were friendly and fun, yet I was still having troubles making friends with my same interests. The teachers were all married, and many of them had kids in that small town sorta way. I went to yoga a few times a month, spent Saturday nights grocery shopping or at my parents’ house, and diligently set my VCR any time I had a school function after hours. While I loved reading and drinking tea, preferably at the same time, I cringed at the thought of going to the book store or coffee shop alone. I wouldn’t have dared to go to a restaurant by myself, and a solo trip to the movie theater was out of the question. Sad and lonely, I clung to the job I loved, spending hours planning lessons and decorating my classroom.
Whether you’re stopping through Chicago on a long layover or driving through on the way to a nearby state, there will definitely be more than enough to keep you busy. Below is a list of how to have a rockin’ time in the Windy City for 24 hours with options depending on what you want to get out of your experience. Despite choosing some touristy things you just can’t miss, I’ve also added a resident-twist to it.
This post tackles the Loop and River North, the most touristy parts of the city. The Loop is also the business district, so it becomes a ghost town on the weekends and after about 7pm. Look out for future posts on the rest of what this exciting town has to offer!
Do-Rite Donuts – Not the healthiest or most filling option around, but donuts are a staple breakfast item in Chicago. And Do-Rite does it right. I’m a huge fan of the gluten-free cinnamon & sugar option. I’m not a coffee drinker, but there’s always a line of people waiting to get a cuppa.
Corner Bakery – Need more substance? Like chai latte instead of coffee? Then head next door to Corner Bakery on Randolph St.
Free Tours by Foot – City tours are a great way to get a lay of the land somewhere new, and this company offers theirs as pay-what-you-like. To be a true tourist, sign up for the North Loop and Millennium Park Tour and make sure to take pictures of the famous “bean” and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at the park.
More times than I can count while living in Hong Kong, people told me that Americans were a hard group of people to truly like*. Non-Americans complained that Americans were loud, wore inappropriate clothing, and acted entitled. I’d go to a museum and hear the Americans coming. I’d walk into a store and see a line of Americans complaining. It was embarrassing. I am proud to be an American, certainly, but I wasn’t proud that a select group of Americans were worldly enough to hop on a plane to Asia, but were not cultured enough to know how to assimilate, or at the very least, not stand out.
While living in Hong Kong from 2010-2012, I caught the travel bug visiting 11 different countries, most of which were in Southeast Asia, except for my trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina during summer break. I wrote about a few of my experiences in my then-blog, Ashley’s HK Experience. As a new travel piece to this blog, I’m reposting my piece on a trip to Buenos Aires where I went to visit my friend Steven in August 2011.
Granted, I live in a country where English is not the (only) official language and I am sufficiently able to survive, but Buenos Aires is not quite the same as Hong Kong. With its signs in letters and characters, Hong Kong is easy on the eyes and brains of travelers and expats alike. Buenos Aires, on the other hand, has signs only in Spanish. Now if you donned a Spanish name, learned to count to 100 starting with uno and how to order a cheeseburger in high school Spanish class, you could easily survive the capital streets of Argentina. But for those of us who sported berets, listened to stories about Pierre et Fifi and watched movies with Gerard Depardieu, Buenos Aires can be a tricky location to find your way around. It’s not that I can’t match street signs to the Spanish words on a map, but asking for directions, ordering lunch or shopping for a pair of new boots can seem to be on the verge of impossible.
New City Life Adventure 