Take you down…to Chinatown

After we left SkyDeck, we took the L to Chinatown. We had some trouble buying our tickets. I couldn’t figure out how to buy reduced fare tickets, I bought 3 day passes on my Ventra Card (card used for public transportation) then found out I can’t use them for other people, then my credit card locked up due to suspicious activity (i.e. me making multiple purchases with Ventra in a short period of time).

Eventually we bought some single ride tickets and got onto the platform. Due to the holiday, fewer trains run so we had to wait about 30 minutes for a train. Then we transferred and it was another 30 minutes for that train to come. We had spare time today though so it was not a big deal.

I guess because I was a little stressed out, I didn’t take any pictures of the L ride but we got to Chinatown and it was totally worth it!

First we went shopping at a little boutique that had lots of squishy plushies, Hello Kitty Stuff, and Chinese candy. Esme bought a small cat plushie, Nova bought a small duck plushie and Cal bought a balisong (also called a butterfly knife, you can sort of “juggle” these knives and do tricks with them). Then we got bubble tea and rolled ice cream.

Next we walked to Chinatown Square Plaza and looked at the zodiac statues. We each took a picture with our Chinese zodiac.

The plaza had a lot of restaurants in it which made us hungry, even though it was only about 4:30pm. We decided to find a place to get dinner and chose Xi’an Cuisine. We picked it based on star rating and being a “cheap eats” option. It was really different from any other Chinese food I had tried before. It was a noodle restaurant selling hand pulled noodles. While we waited for our food, the kids played a game, passing something around the table using chopsticks. Nova then ate her rice with chopsticks for the first time!

We ordered a lot of different foods and the total was only $104 for 9 of us. Not bad!

Then we left Chinatown and took the L back to the hotel. No transfers this time and the attendant was super friendly and let us on the train for free!

Back at the hotel, we got some snacks from the convenience store. They even had Italian espresso for Giorgio!

There was live music so some of us hung around to hear that and enjoy the beautiful lobby.

Then my mom and I took a self-guided tour of the hotel and picked up the girls for a quick swim. Some things I have learned about the Palmer House during our stay: the brownie was invented here, many famous people have stayed and visited here, and it was the first hotel to incorporate the lightbulb. If you’re interested in more of the history of this hotel, you can find it here.