Illinois, USA: More from Chicago

Before taking that elevator ride up to the Skydeck, the bus stopped over for a few minutes at the United Center so that we could take some photos. The United Center is the home of the Chicago Bulls.

Outside is a statue of "His Airness" Michael Jordan, the team's legendary guard who lead the Bulls to six NBA championships. By acclamation, he is said to be the greatest basketball player of all time! It was a surprise though seeing the statue there when Michael Jordan is very much alive and kicking.

After Sears Tower, we also dropped by Navy Pier for lunch. This is another heritage structure that was adaptively reused and converted into a shopping and entertainment complex. If you plan to hop on the Architecture Cruise or cruises to Lake Michigan, Navy Pier is where you can find them.

We also dropped by the Bahá'í House of Worship in nearby Wilmette, one of the lakefront suburbs of Chicago. It's the temple of the Bahá'í Faith, a religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in nineteenth-century Persia. Plans to construct this temple began in 1903. Construction commenced in 1921 and was finally completed in 1953.

For the evening, we had a picnic in Grant Park while enjoying the 25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival. But I didn't stay long since I had to meet up with my family who were on vacation in Chicago as well. So I took a Metra (the transportation system from Chicago to its suburbs) to Lisle where my family was staying.

It was a coincidence that my mom had a mini-reunion with her US-based high school classmates in Chicago, and an even bigger coincidence that the dates matched with my Chicago trip. So at least I got to meet up with them even just for a few hours since they were leaving the next day.

Illinois, USA: Sears Tower and the view from the Skydeck

Sears Tower in Chicago was the tallest skyscraper in the world from 1973 to 1998. It's still the tallest building in Chicago and a visit to the Skydeck on the 103rd floor which is 1,353 feet (412 m) above ground, is definitely worth the visit.

It was our first real day in Chicago since we went straight to DeKalb as soon as we arrived at O'Hare. And we had a list of places to visit today, one of them being the famous Sears Tower.

They say that up there, you can see up to fifty miles on all sides. It was a great experience looking down at Chicago's magnificent skyscrapers. The city is known far and wide for its architecture which covers more than a century of history.

Contemporary structures are properly blended with old historic buildings, standing side-by-side in a harmonious mix of past, present and future. We'll see that in detail when we take the Architecture Cruise later in the month.

What looks like the beach and a sea is actually a large freshwater lake called Lake Michigan. Although I've swam in lakes, I've never experienced a freshwater urban beach before (meaning the usual beaches we all know about, the same fun without the saltwater).

In fact, the water was so blue, if I did not know it was a lake, I would have mistaken Lake Michigan for a sea. Even the river that runs through the city is very much clean and that was evident from where I stood.

It costs $12.95 to get up to the Skydeck and you can stay there for as long as you want during visiting hours.

Illinois, USA: Northern Illinois Univeristy in Dekalb, Illinois

Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb, Illinois is going to be our home away from home for the next four weeks. A public university founded in 1895, it has 25,000 students in seven degree-granting colleges that together offer 54 undergraduate and 74 graduate programs, and 12 doctoral programs.

DeKalb is about an hour and 30 minutes (104 kilometers) west of Chicago. Sad to say, there is no train service to DeKalb so we couldn't sneak out to Chicago that easily. Oh well!

Anyway, We got to tour campus today and visited some of its older buildings, including Altgeld Hall which houses the administration, and the East Lagoon where some wild Canadian geese can be found. NIU was in the news early this year being the site of another campus shooting incident in February. But all is well here and life has moved on. As the motto of NIU goes: "Forward, Together Forward."