Chicago Revisited

Monday 20 August 2012 – Chicago revisited. Happy Birthday Jo and Jack

Day 130 and 28 to go

The phone alarm was buzzing but I wasn’t interested in moving. As usual Paul was up and getting himself sorted and tehn encouraging me to do the same. Urgh… Do I have to? And the answer is yes.

I got out and zombie like went through the motions of getting ready. We ate breakfast while watching the morning TV and doing a final check on the net.

Paul began taking our things to down to the car while I finished up and then we did the final sweep of the suite before locking the door and heading downstairs to return the keys and it was out the door and in the car.

Our first stop at 8.15am was the post office where we sent a large box home. The staff just wanted us to keep talking us they loved the accent, pity we couldn’t sit there and listen to theirs all day. It was that real whiney southern drawl.

Once the box was organised we made our way through the suburbs. Some were obviously on the low economic side and looked really beat up and then we passed through an area that looked a little more appealing before we were on the I65 and heading north to Chicago. We stopped briefly for fuel 70km from the city. The guy who served me had no teeth and I am pretty sure he had no brain either. 3 times I had to tell him we needed fuel and to turn on the pump as we couldn’t use our credit card at the pump. DUH!

At 11 we passed the Illinois state line with the clocks moving back to 10am. Shortly after we could see the city skyline looming in the distance and 30min later we were in amongst it with increased traffic. We just followed the GPS that directed us directly to the Swissotel forecourt.

We parked, cleared out our car and then checked in at the front desk. The hotel is super fancy. The pool is on the 42^nd floor while we were sent to our room on the 25^th floor. When the elevator reached our level we were greeted by a fabulous view out to Navy Pier and over Lake Michigan.  Once we had made it to our room we were amazed by our view over Chicago River and north into and beyond the city.

Once we were settled we returned to our car and drove it back to the hire car company where we were given the all clear and sent on out way.

We walked back to our hotel stopping at a bank to change some Aussie dollars. We are still not getting the full market value which sucks. The US loses their AAA rating a couple of years ago Australia continues to boom and have a strong economy surpassing the US and they won’t accept it. Grr.

We returned to the room, having a drink and enjoying the view before deciding on what we would do. It was just beginning to rain but it didn’t last.

We firstly took the elevator to floor 42 to check out the pool and fitness area, The view from here was pretty impressive and we decided to come back later in the afternoon. We then returned down stairs to collect a map and ask some questions and then we made our way south on Michigan Ave to Millennium Park, so names as it was created to celebrate the Millennium, though like most big projects ran hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and wasn’t complete until July 2004! It was here that we checked out the Wriggley Square and Pritzke Music Pavillion. We then moved onto the Cloud gate, a giant silver, mercury-like droplet that reflects the Chicago skyline. It was really cool.

We stopped shortly after for lunch in a sports bar. The meal was yum and the hostess was happy to have a chat. When we were filled we continued to wander west into the business district and amongst the tall buildings. Our destination was the Willis Tower, previously known as the Sears tower. Here we were to ride the elevator to the Skydeck 103 floors above the pavement. With no lines or wait time we were whisked to the top and a minute later we were out wandering the top and checking out the view to the south, east and north before making it to the west side where they have four retractable glass booths that sit outside the edge of the building giving you a view straight down.

We waited for the large Latino group to finish up and then I walked out onto the glass and sat down, it was kind of freaky out there and I opted not to look down for long. With our photos and video taken we moved to the exit and made our way out of the building.

We walked back towards Grant Park and the Art Institute of Chicago checking out the interesting building. We then passed the Crown Fountain, two 50 feet tall glass brick towers that cascade water while also having pictures of Chicagoans and Chicago scenes projected onto their surface. The pavement between the two pillars was also flooded and there were many people running or standing around in the water. It looked like fun.

Our walk finished when we returned to the hotel at 3.30pm. We sat in the rom listening to the Ipod while having a drink. I did some checking of things for tomorrow’s Segway tour and then we donned the bathers and made it to the 42^nd floor for a dip in the spa and a swim in the pool. It was very relaxing despite the number of kids racing around.

We returned to the room and watched the news, checking on the weather for tomorrow. I did up the blog before we started to think about heading out to dinner. By 7 we were tidied up and heading to the House of Blues where we were intending to have dinner, but the menu just didn’t cut it and seeing the band didn’t start until 9pm we decided to move on to the Public House down the road and where we had enjoyed lunch last week.

We ordered our meals and drinks that arrived quickly however they were not as impressive as the lunch we had had. Big money, small meals that was disappointing even though they were tasty. Paul had another new beer, a raspberry one, it was delicious. It was the first beer I could have had and finished without pulling a face.

When we had finished we walked along the Chicago River, passing through the Vietnam memorial park. It was pretty wandering along the riverfront with the buildings lit up. At 9.20pm we were back at the hotel after scaling the 91 steps from the river up to our hotel. We hung out in the room for a bit and watched TV before calling it a night. 

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