Join The Navy, Travel The World

Story and Photos By Hannah Lester

I’m still dreaming of the breakfast food. Ironically, that was one of my favorite parts of my trip to Chicago in January — the breakfast place that my family chose to eat at not once, but twice.

Wildberry Cafe. Every time we’re out and about now, we lament the lack of a Wildberry Cafe in whatever city we happen to be in.

In fact, I had a friend living in Chicago in August who sent our friend group some pictures of her trip and I recognized one of the restaurants she was in — that’s right, Wildberry.

Maybe it was because it was so cold that we felt like we were dying, but inside the cafe it was warm and there was a fire. Perhaps it was the insane amount of choices for sweet breakfasts (my favorite types) or the hot coffee I like in the mornings.

Whatever it was, we made the trip back for our second morning in Chicago, too.

My parents and I traveled to Chicago in January to watch my brother graduate from basic training.

My brother, Thomas, entered basic training last October and is now located in Pensacola, Florida, at the Navy Base there.

Anyway, we made it to Chicago late one afternoon in January. Chicago. In January. It was so cold that my mom said she began to wonder if she’d be able to leave the hotel at all.

It was snowing, and my fingers were numb, but we were excited. Not only would we be be able to see my brother, who we hadn’t seen in three months, but none of us had been to Chicago before.

Which meant that our first stop was Portillo’s. Portillo’s is a Chicago staple, if you’re unfamiliar with the restaurant.

This chain is actually spread out across the country, with locations as far west as California and as far south as Florida. But mostly, they are located up north.

So we stopped in and I grabbed a hotdog. I really wanted a milkshake too — since they’re famous for them and they had a raspberry chocolate milkshake for Valentine’s Day — but with the weather as it was, I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.

The next day we had to ourselves — I mean, my mom, dad and I. My brother wouldn’t be graduating until the next morning.

One of my sight-seeing goals in Chicago was to visit the art museum, so our first stop (after breakfast at Wildberry’s, of course) was the Art Institute of Chicago.

Highly recommend. I saw a lot of well-known artists’ work there — Monet, Mondrian, Picasso and more.

Following this, we got lunch at a great Italian restaurant and then headed to the Field Museum.

The Field Museum is a museum of natural history, but its biggest draw for us was Sue the Dinosaur.

My mom once took me and my brother to see a replica of Sue (the largest discovered T-Rex specimen) at a place in Alabama when we were young … but this was the real thing. Sue is 40 feet long and on display in Chicago.

The next morning was an early start for my brother’s graduation, but following the ceremony we had him all to ourselves.

Lunch was actually Chick-fil-A because a Navy man who’s been eating galley food for three months wants fried chicken.

Afterward, we visited the Chicago staple — Cloud Gate, better known as “The Bean.” If you’re unfamiliar with this giant art exhibit, the name gives it away. It is literally a giant “bean.” It is made of stainless steel, reflective, and the appeal is being able to take your picture in the slightly distorted color of the bean.

Later that afternoon we visited two more museums (The Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry).

I’m a big museum person but specifically ones that have unique draws or interesting interactive elements. The art museum has famous paintings, the Field Museum has Sue and the Museum of Science and Industry has German U-boat 505.

U-boat 505 is a real German U-boat that was captured during WWII and is on display in Chicago — the full boat.

My dad was in “history heaven.”

The display was truly interesting, giving us the history of how the U-boat was captured, not sunk.

Between all of our restaurants, museums and the aquarium, the majority of what we did on our trip was inside. But that was just fine. The weather was too cold to spend much time outdoors, other than our quick trip to The Bean.

If you were to visit in the summer, I know there is much more to see and do. But even if the season boasts warm weather and blue skies, I would still recommend the museums to you. They held unforgettable memories for us.