Chicago: Part 1

There are so many places in the world that I'd like to see, sometimes we forget about the places that are closer to home in North America.

Chicago is just over three hours away, so Tom and I caught a flight on Thursday afternoon to the windy city. We landed, and it was windy. And rainy. Go figure!

Surprisingly, we have several inadvertent connections to Chicago. Two family friends grew up in Chicago, and they were both able to offer us plenty of suggestions for sights to see and places to eat.

We started with a Chicago classic-- deep dish pizza at Giordano's. We waited over 45 minutes for our tables, and after a day of flying and public transportation, I was basically ready to gnaw my hand off.

Artichoke, sausage and black olive pizza.

Since we new it was going to be rainy on our first full day, we decided to head to the Museum of Science and Industry so we could spend most of the day inside.

All I can say is... You know you're in America when the Museum of Science and Industry has this kind of signage!

Charming signage.

I think both of us were a bit disappointed by this museum. The place was HUGE, and there were plenty of exhibits, but it was very kid-oriented. Moreso than we had expected! The exhibits had a lot of hands-on aspects to them, but they didn't have a lot of substance to them. 

Here was a cool "tornado" making machine.

Day 2 in the city. I can only think of a handful of times when I have walked so much in one day. We started the day with a trip through Millennium Park. Millennium Park is perhaps most well known for it's piece of public art, the Cloud Gate. I don't think a single tourist leaves Chicago without a picture of the "bean." It was a beautiful sunny day, and the square was crawling with tourists like ourselves.

Cloud Gate

Great Lawn.

Our next stop was near the river, where we hopped onboard a Wendella architectural boat tour of the city/ Chicago has a unique skyline, interesting stories, and plenty of former record-breaking towers. For example, the Aon Tower (in the background of the Great Lawn photo above). It has 83 floors, and was originally constructed with slabs of white Italian marble. About 12 years after construction, numerous cracks and bowing was found in the marble, and it was ultimately completely refaced with white granite. Although the cost of the refacing was never made public, rumours suggest that it cost nearly half the amount it cost to build the building in the first place!

We were told that Portillos is an institution in town for hot dogs. When we walked inside, we  were both a little dumbstruck. Flashing lights, hordes of people, lines everywhere! After some wide-eyed staring, we figured out where we wanted to go and ordered some fully loaded hot dogs and onion rings.

Our next stop was Navy Pier. Stayed tuned until next time!