Chicago on Segway

Tuesday 21 August 2012 – Segway my friend we meet again

Day 131 and 27 to go

I must be getting use to getting up early, as I was awake and ready to get the day started at 7am. My goodness. That being said neither of us were interested in getting out of bed any time soon. We watched morning TV before I had a shower and we got organised our selves ready for the day.

At 8.45am we left the room and made our way down the street to Houlihans where we had a buffet breakfast so much cheaper than what was on offer at our hotel. When we finished we moved on locating our Segway tour company where we signed in and then watched a safety video before getting kitted up and taking our Segways across the road for initial training. The four others with us were first timers so they needed more time. We didn’t get on our way until 10.45 which was a bit of a bummer.

We finally moved on skirting around the edge of the Millennium Park, we weren’t allowed to ride the Segways within the park unfortunately. We made our way passed the Art Museum and then the old Stock Exchange façade before arriving at Buckingham Fountain. This was a gift given to the city in1927 and on the hour the fountain shoots up higher staying that way for 20min. We stopped briefly to take photos and it gave Paul time to hoon around, the closest thing to two wheels he has had in a while. He is missing his bikes. I don’t think I will see him for a week when we get home.

Our next stop further down the road was Museum Campus where the Chicago museum is housed. In side they have Sue the largest most intact T-Rex found in one of the Dakotas. We stopped again for a drink and hotdog break but we weren’t interested as we were still full from breakfast.

From here we moved across the road to Soldier Field where the Chicago Bears football team play. The stadium holds 62000 and was refurbished in 2003. The locals who weren’t impressed with the new stadium say the space ship had landed. There is a beautiful old façade that was kept but the rest is silver and steel.

We crossed the road to a park that was created when a private airstrip was dug up by the mayor’s men over night in 2003. 3 planes in the air were left hanging and 6 on the tarmac weren’t able to lift off. Go figure. From here there was a great view back to the Chicago skyline as well as around Lake Michigan where we could even see Indiana. The lake tody was sparkling and was such a beautiful turquoise colour the best it has looked.

We continued to follow the path making our way passed Adler Planetarium where we had more great views of Chicago and we could see the back of the Shedd Aquarium and oceanarium. We then had to continue following the path back passed Millennium Park and we returned to our starting spot at 1pm. Way too soon.

With our tour over we decided to walk to Navy Pier and see what it had to offer. It took us about 30min to walk over there passing some interesting artwork. We stopped at Harry Carey’s Tavern. Paul had a beer while I had a Fruit Loopy cocktail made with fruit loops. It was yum. We shared a plate of calamari and then continued our wander down the pier. Checking out the boats and the lighthouse at the end.

We wandered through the middle centre where they had a stain glass museum with many Tiffany glass pieces that were so beautiful.

We continued to wander upstairs where they have amusement rides; a large ferris wheel, carousel and swing ride as well as a large atrium with many tropical plants inside. By now our feet were starting to zing so we decided it would be best to head back to the hotel for a rest. We finally made it back by 4pm.

We had time to rest before we decided to head to the 42^nd floor for a spa and a swim to try and revive our aching feet. It wasn’t too busy, though there was a swim class going on. We returned to the room at 4.45pm and sat around watching the TV before thinking about heading out again. We were both quite content to sit around but by 7 figured we should venture out so we wandered towards the John Hancock Building where there is a bar and observatory. However when we got there we were told we had to pay to go up so we decided to give it a miss and instead walked down Rush Street where we found a Thai restaurant "Silver Spoon" where we had a delicious and reasonably priced meal. It made a nice change. 
When we finished with dinner we wandered back to the hotel and it wasn't long before we were tucked up in bed.