Monday, August 23, 2010

Chicago, IL

I’ve seen a ton of great cities in my travels. New York, NY. Washington, DC. Paris. London. Florence. Venice. The list goes on and on… But there is one major city I have been saying for years that I absolutely need to visit. I’ve only heard great things from tons of people. Seen hundreds of sweet pictures. Watched incredible SNL skits with Chris Farley & company talking about, Da Bears.




I explained earlier that I rarely go into a movie, play, city, etc. with any sort of expectations. However, on some occasions, I find myself so excited about something that I just know it is going to be amazing…



Chicago did not disappoint. It was awesome!



We woke up, packed up, and headed out. We walked to the same train platform as our failure yesterday. Ascended the steps to find… One other person. On the other platform. Better than no one I suppose… In the end, our train came as scheduled and actually stopped for us this time. 15 minutes later we were on the streets of Chicago!



Having run into no problems this morning, we actually had gotten into the city earlier than expected. Time enough for us to stop in at our old favorite of Dunkin Donuts for the first time on the trip. I don’t drink coffee so it’s not a huge issue, but it’s really nice to be in a coffee shop where they actually speak English. As opposed to the pseudo European/English/every other language craziness that you hear at Starbucks and the like…



Charged up and ready for the day, we boarded the big red obnoxious double-decker bus tour! I know I know. They are ridiculous. Everyone stares at you and judges you for the tourist you are… I grew up in a huge tourist trap. I know they are annoying. They take pictures of everything. They stop in the middle of the sidewalk with no warning and for no reason. I even try my best not to pull out my map in the middle of a city, whenever possible, just so that it isn’t blatantly obvious that I am a tourist.



But. They really are the best way to see a large city like Chicago or New York… You can hop on and off whenever you like, using it like your own personal taxi service. And when you are on the bus, a tour guide is pointing out all the things that you might have missed on your own. Plus, some of the guides can be really entertaining... So first thing in the morning we boarded the big red tour bus, ready to see Chicago! Of course, the majority of the views driving through Chicago look something like this…





And our first tour guide wasn’t anything special. We can get the names of buildings and the dates they were built some other way thanks. So we hopped off to check out one of the well known parts of Chicago, Millennium Park!







Great views of the city. And really gives you a feel for the pride that Chicago takes in its Architecture. Frank Gehry designed this amphitheatre…







This pedestrian bridge was really cool…





And this sculpture fountain…



And of course, the Bean!











After deciding that both Megs and I wanted to have a bean of our own to play with someday, we figured it was time to try out our luck on the bus again…



Jackpot. This guy was fun, informative, and had some great insights about the history, culture, and architecture of the city he has called home for decades. We stayed on the bus for the rest of the loop, seeing everything we could possibly imagine by bus in Chicago…



Obviously, Chicago is most proud of its skyscrapers…







Also the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, with its mailbox shaped front lobby...



The John Hancock building was renowned for its concept of being a virtual small city. It houses retail stores, offices, a supermarket, a community pool, and 700 residences!



This pair took it a step further and included parking spots, a bowling alley, jazz club, etc….





Then we headed over towards the waterfront of Lake Michigan. There were tons of boats in the harbor, ready for the Tall Ships convention going on this week…



And we did a loop around Soldier Field where da Bears play…





Went past the Navy Pier, complete with a balloon ride, amusement park, and a Ferris Wheel erected to pay homage to the original one erected in Chicago by Mr. Ferris back in the day…







Our guide told us that the Chicago Spire is supposed to someday rise from this hole. It has been empty for a year though, so he was skeptical…



There was no skepticism about the Transformers 3 Movie, however. It has been under production all around Chicago! We drove by a set. And a lot of fake building pieces, post explosion. And I decided that this was Shia Leboeuf’s bus…







And more random pics of the city…









Towards the end of the tour, we got a new guide. Dave. Dave was a character. Pointing out random things. Making horrible jokes. My favorite was when he described how this one building had its own zip code, ”kinda like yo mama!” We giggled a lot. The rest of the bus was a tough crowd… Dave’s greatest moment, however, was when we had stopped at a traffic light. “Ok folks, when we get around this next corner, you’re going to see this big yellow building that looks like a wedge of cheese. And you’ll be able to see people walking around at the top too! It’s really cool.” He points to the people at the front of the bus who already see it and are pointing it out to each other. “See! Those people already see how awesome it is, aren’t you guys jealous?!” The bus begins to move. He tells everyone to wave to the people. So everyone waves. “Yeah, isn’t it great! Wave kids!”



“That’s the Illinois State Penitentiary folks. Those are prisoners up there…” Hahaha! Amazing.



So we left the bus and found someplace to eat lunch. Then went and checked out the interiors of a couple buildings…





This one designed by Frank Lloyd Wright…



By this time it was about 2pm. We’d been all around the city. We could do an Architecture tour or go up to the Sky Deck of Willis Tower, but that all costs money. Could go out to the Navy Pier. Or check out a museum or the Planetarium. Lots of things that will be awesome to do the next time I come to visit for a longer time. In the end, we decided that we’d go check out the Zoo at Lincoln Park…



I wasn’t expecting much from a free Zoo, but Megs hasn’t been to one since she was little! So we were off!



First we came across a small scale farm area…





Then it was into the Zoo itself. Camals. Zebra.





Pretty cool so far. Much better than I expected. Then into the Ape house…







It’s always weird for me to see Apes at the Zoo… Just too similar to us. Makes me think about how we’d like being the ones on the other side of the glass. Zoos are always a strange experience for me because of it…



But we continued on and saw lions…





Eagles and Vultures…





A hippo! Some giraffes! Some rhinos! So cool!





Then the scholar in me takes over and I start to marvel at how all these dramatically different animals evolved…



We finished up the tour of the Zoo with seals, penguins, beavers, bears.









And saw many more creatures along the way. The tigers and the polar bears were the only real no shows...



But I did catch a glimpse of a Chicagoian in his natural habitat…



In the end, it was a really nice zoo! Lots of diverse animals to see. We’ll probably be going to the San Diego Zoo later on, which is supposed to be amazing. But this one was great for a few hours on a beautiful day!



We headed back to Chicago’s Union Station…



Was kinda smokey actually. Apparently they had just finished shooting a Transformer’s scene there that day… Getting excited for it already!!! Even though it will probably be horrible…



We got back on the train and back to Walmart without any issues. Our RV was still there too. Also a plus…



Then after a short respite, we bid farewell to Chicago and headed south for a couple hours to cut down on the next day’s drive.



I’ll def be back someday… Tons more to see for the next visit!!



Tomorrow? St. Louis! With a quick stopover, along the way, to pay our respects to Lincoln being born…

2 comments:

  1. My favorite city!! Looks like you saw most of the hot spots. The building with it's own zip code is the Merchandise Mart and it's HUGE! Lots of companies have their storerooms there and such.

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  2. The San Diego Zoo is a must...

    ReplyDelete