In 2021, we want to give you some special editions of the Travel Book throughout the year. Whilst there is still so many places to write about, I think it is also really fun to write about actual experiences that I have had whilst travelling. There have been so many interesting stories so I thought what better way to celebrate them then by telling you all about them..

Tornado Warnings, Barack Obama and Evacuations In Chicago

When you read these set of articles you probably have seen a lot about Chicago, well believe it or not I still have a few stories to tell from these travels. Today we are heading to 2011 when I visited in the summer, as part of our trip we decided to head out to Boston to go whale watching well this story takes place on trip back to Chicago.

Our flight was already delayed from Boston because it was rumoured that the airport in Chicago had been held up due to Barack Obama (president at the time) was landing / taking off from the city so there was a lot of security that was making flights delayed.

We were one of the last flights to land into Chicago that day and we did not realise this until we landed – there was a storm coming to town and every flight after us had been cancelled and apparently we were even lucky to make it into the air. That particular night we were staying at the airport for the night as we had got a really great cheap deal on a five star hotel and we were really excited to stay at it – although not everything went to plan.

We arrived to the hotel starving as we hadn’t eaten all day and the receptionist told us that all the food was stopped because they had lost power in the kitchen or something so we had to go to the shop and bought crisp, sweets and bottles of drink to try and make up for the hunger. The hotel gave us a really nice room on quite a high floor which was really big. However when we walked through the door of our room the lights went out and the alarms went off – we were being evacuated due to the potential threat of a tornado.

It was scary, being from a country that doesn’t have them it was a very weird experience, walking through a hotel in the dark as well was also really weird. We were all told to stand in the centre of the building in this hall area and we were all there in this weird quietness being able to hear the wind outside. I don’t think it ever turned into a tornado and eventually we were given the all clear to go back to our rooms – which still didn’t have power – so we went to our room and ate our snacks looking out the window at the storm – i have never seen wind so strong and lighting was everywhere it was insane.

A very weird day.