Saturday, 19 August – Chicago IL

The day starts with our complimentary brunch over at the hotel.  We had to wait for fresh hot foods to be brought out but it was good!  Enterprise Rental Cars will be collecting us around 9.30 to take us to the depot to pick up our car.  We have a metallic, electric blue Hyundai Sonata and it’s a nice care.  I think we are getting two free days car rental, due to the number of loyalty points we have amassed – happy!

So we head into Chicago along HWY 55 which morphs into Route 66 at some stage.  Just less than an hour later we have taken our place as two of Chicago’s 50 million visitors this year.  The population here is upwards of 2.75 million – it’s a big place!  We rock up to the Visitors Centre we previously identified and find a convenient park just along the road - we are right outside Millenium Park!   Parking was reasonably priced $6.50/hour and just required a swipe of the credit card.  First stop is to use the bathrooms at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion - tonight they are holding a free concern - Beethovens Symphony No. 9.  They have all the chairs laid out for the guests and the “Great Lawn” is ready for the overflow. 

First real glimpse of Chicago

Chicago has another moniker - Windy city - but it’s not today.  Couldn’t be better, picture perfect even, it’s sunny and hot.

Right across from there is the Cloud Gate Plaza where we take the photo opportunities with ‘the bean’.  The Millennium Park is lovely with fountains, gardens, sculptural art and walkways.  We took the BP bridge a boardwalk bridge which takes the punters across the roadway to Maggie Daley Park – Maggie was a past mayor and this fun park built on top of carparks is named in her honour. 

Cloud Gate - 'The Bean'

Just across the road is the Chicago Cultural Centre which displays the largest stained glass dome in the world.  It was completed in 1897 as Chicago’s first central public library and a memorial to the Civil War Union Army.  The building was inspired by the structures of ancient Greece and Rome and the Italian Renaissance.  They did use sumptuous materials. 

Largest Tiffany-Stained Glass Dome in the world

We wander up Michigan Avenue cross the Chicago river checking out the 1.25 mile Chicago Riverwalk on the way and on up to the Magnificent Mile, a dozen or so blocks of designer boutique, upscale shopping centres, stopping along the way for an icecream at Ghirardelli Chocolate, a business which has been serving Americans for over 165 years.

On the flip side, beggars and homeless are on every street corner.  Although they are relatively polite - just shaking their plastic drink cups but the rattling does get on your nerves somewhat.  And then there are some which approach saying “I don’t want to sleep on the street tonight” but back off when you don’t buy into it.  Alternatively the bucket thumping drummers earn their dollars!

.

Trump Tower - architects apparently mock it's toothpick look

But to be fair here is a better representation and it's on prime real estate!

Back to rescue our car from the possibility of a parking ticket and to rest our weary feet by driving down to the Lake Michigan lakefront and then north. Today and tomorrow the 59^th annual Chicago Air and Water Show is being held.  We have never seen so many boats in one place, they line an invisible line about 150 metres offshore.  Spectators several layers deep throng the beaches and parks.  Look at them on this bridge:

The masses on the overbridge to North Beach for the Air and Water  Show

We carry on north, the traffic is pretty much stopped and we can’t escape so we go with the flow, turn when we finally can and then make our way back south.  We line ourselves up to check out the Wrigley Park but there is an event on and all the roads are blocked off, with police doing point duty at each intersection.

This is as close as we could get to Wrigley Field

We try to get into Giordano’s for their famous stuffed deep dish pizza.  The city branch had queues lining the sidewalk and there is a 45 minute wait so we ask Garmin to find another one, perhaps further out in the suburbs and find one close to home, in Joliet.  And WOW, it was awesome, it looked exactly like the picture.  We could not do it justice though, after our Bruschetta we could only manage one piece each and had to take the rest home in a box.  Def need more practice!!

Giordano's World Famous Stuffed Deep Dish Pizza - yum!!