Chicago - getting around

Chicago is a very pedestrian friendly town.  Chicago is a very stroller unfriendly town.  There, I said it.  It was tough with a stroller. 

My research about Chicago led me to believe that the easiest and even most cost effective way to get around would be to purchase an all day public transportation pass for $5.75 each.  These passes would eliminate the need for me to continuously have small bill and change handy and also would alleviate me of the need to figure out fares all day long.  I also, mistakenly, thought that things would be a lot more spread apart than they were.  I pictured us on buses and trains all day.

The negative was that these passes are not sold at kiosks in the train station rather can be purchased at places like CVS and Walgreens.

A very helpful station attendant instructed me to insert $1 twice for the kids and $2.25 for myself.  And, then we were off for our first 30 minute train ride of the day.  As soon as we got off the train, I found a CVS and purchases our all day passes.  And then stuck them in my bag, where the remained until the very end of the day.

In hindsight, I would still purchase the passes but I would buy them ahead of time and have the mailed (free shipping) to my home.  They are activated on first use so it will be a good time to have them on hand before our next trip to Chicago.  According to the website, we should allow ten days for shipping.

The passes would not have saved us money on this particular day but, as I mentioned, would have taken the hassle out of travel.

We took the train to Millennium Park

From Millennium Park, we walked to all of or other destinations until it was time to head back to the airport, at which time we took a bus and a train.

I call Chicago unfriendly for strollers.  Newer areas like, Millennium Park, are full of ramps and very easy to navigate but the rest of the city seemed to be filled with thousand foot staircases and narrow openings.  When we first got off of the train, we were faced with a steep, narrow, long set of stairs where we had to carry the stroller.  Going down to Billy Goat  Tavern was another staircase challenge and once actually i the restaurant, more stairs had to be navigated.  We felt like we carried that strolled up and down hundreds of steps.  I am still glad we brought it but it was getting tiresome.  A stranger helped us out one time but all others, it was just the kids and myself.