Lakeshore Limited to Chicago
We boarded the Lakeshore Limited in Springfield, Massachusetts in mid-afternoon after a quiet but nice evening at our hotel. This was our third trip on the historic Lakeshore Limited route so we had a pretty good idea of what to expect... the good and the not-so-good (more on that in another blog entry). Sheila had booked us in two roomettes... one for us, one for Will and Sue.
The roomettes have privacy, larger seats, a narrow closet and bunks. These private rooms allow us to spread out a lot more than in Coach. Will and Sue were in a roomette right across the narrow hall from us so we were still able to easily talk with them.
The Lakeshore Limited is a "Viewliner" train which includes a few sleeper cars, quite a few Coach cars, a Cafe car, and a dining car. The dining car is located on the opposite end of the coach cars so this means that there is a bit more walking to do on these trains which, for a long cross-country journey, is welcomed news! I think we had to walk through six Coach cars to get to the dining car...
Approaching Chicago...
We made it to Chicago! And, the weather was far nicer than the weather we left in Vermont!
Pictured below is the Willis Tower formerly known as the Sears Tower. There is an all-glass ledge outcropping on the upper floors of this skyscaper where you and your daring friends can stand on a glass ledge at 1,353 feet above the street below, surrounded by nothing but glass. None of us had any desire to do this but I mention this because, shortly after we walked past the Willis Tower, this glass ledge cracked with people in it! We still have no desire to visit this all-glass observation ledge...
This lamp post is the very beginning of the world famous Route 66 right in front of Lou Mitchell's restaurant...
We had a late breakfast/early lunch here at Lou Mitchell's. We were in good company in choosing this restaurant. We learned that three Presidents have also eaten here... President Carter, President Bush (the son of the previous President Bush), and President Obama. We were pleasantly greeted when we arrived and given complimentary donut holes which were still warm and very tasty!
We had a train to catch for the next leg of our journey within a few hours so we didn't have much time for sightseeing on this visit to Chicago. We would have more time on our return trip. We leisurely walked the few blocks back to Union Station in the relatively warm sunshine (compared to the snowy Vermont we left) after our meal at Lou Mitchell's.
The next leg of our journey would take us all the way to California over the course of three days. This would be a new route for us so we were all excited to experience this route for the first time!
The roomettes have privacy, larger seats, a narrow closet and bunks. These private rooms allow us to spread out a lot more than in Coach. Will and Sue were in a roomette right across the narrow hall from us so we were still able to easily talk with them.
The Lakeshore Limited is a "Viewliner" train which includes a few sleeper cars, quite a few Coach cars, a Cafe car, and a dining car. The dining car is located on the opposite end of the coach cars so this means that there is a bit more walking to do on these trains which, for a long cross-country journey, is welcomed news! I think we had to walk through six Coach cars to get to the dining car...
Approaching Chicago...
We made it to Chicago! And, the weather was far nicer than the weather we left in Vermont!
Pictured below is the Willis Tower formerly known as the Sears Tower. There is an all-glass ledge outcropping on the upper floors of this skyscaper where you and your daring friends can stand on a glass ledge at 1,353 feet above the street below, surrounded by nothing but glass. None of us had any desire to do this but I mention this because, shortly after we walked past the Willis Tower, this glass ledge cracked with people in it! We still have no desire to visit this all-glass observation ledge...
This lamp post is the very beginning of the world famous Route 66 right in front of Lou Mitchell's restaurant...
We had a late breakfast/early lunch here at Lou Mitchell's. We were in good company in choosing this restaurant. We learned that three Presidents have also eaten here... President Carter, President Bush (the son of the previous President Bush), and President Obama. We were pleasantly greeted when we arrived and given complimentary donut holes which were still warm and very tasty!
We had a train to catch for the next leg of our journey within a few hours so we didn't have much time for sightseeing on this visit to Chicago. We would have more time on our return trip. We leisurely walked the few blocks back to Union Station in the relatively warm sunshine (compared to the snowy Vermont we left) after our meal at Lou Mitchell's.
We've been to Union Station in Chicago a few times before so we had already seen the newly renovated station. This is definitely an impressive station! What was new to us, however, is that the First Class Metropolitan Lounge had been impressively and beautifully renovated. This renovation turned out to be a stunning surprise!
Here are a few photos from Chicago's Union Station...
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