Chicago was cool

We had a great time staying with Nicky and Gavin (Sheryl's cousin) at their place in Rockford (about an hour west of Chicago). It's interesting to live in suburbia for a week and see all the subtle differences in the lifestyle over here compared with back home in New Zealand.

Heaps of the housing here is condo style - from the outside the houses look the same - but the owner can add their individualism on the inside. The gardens in these neighbours were immaculate and no fences anywhere. Interesting to see houses here having basements, so the they are actually way bigger than you realise cause a good chunk of it is underground. Central heating is pretty much standard as is a 42" Cable TV, a huge fridge and oven.

Food is an interesting one to look at - I've been gob smacked at the size of meals, soft drink bottles and food packet sizes in the US. Everything is pretty much 50% bigger - no kidding! Softdrinks are dirt cheap. You can get 2 x 24 pack of Pepsi for $9 - which is about $NZD 16 - so about 30cents NZ a can - easily less than half the price we pay. Bottled water is cheap too - you buy that in bulk as well.

Dining out - you have heaps of choice - pretty much every place has a drive through option as well - pricing is about the same as NZ. I found the drive through drugstores (chemists) and bank's slightly amusing.

On to clothing and footwear .....where do I start! The range available is massive and pricing varies from ridiculously cheap to really expensive. On the whole, things that are way cheaper include jeans and alot of labelled sports clothing. Shoes are generally alot cheaper as well. A good pair of Levi's can be found for $30US so thats about $NZ 53 - easily half the price we'd pay back home. You do have to shop around though as you could pay double in a non "outlet" store.
Running shoes are heaps cheaper here - a good pair will set you back between $35 and $85 .

If you want electronics and computing gear - you aren't really going to save anything - Apple's are the same price as back home - you get a bigger range of accessories over here - but pretty much the same deals.

Sheryl has already posted a great summary of our time in Chicago. We have loads of photos up on Flickr too.

Thanks again Nicky and Gavin for your great hospitality - next stop is Vegas.