Loud Talking: Vacation

This is the second of a two part blog that covers our vacation. This is our time in Chicago.

Our vacation lasted 10 days, 8 days aboard the ship that took us around Lake Michigan and 4 days in Chicago. It doesn't add up because 2 days were on board the ship in Chicago.

We got into Chicago the day before our boat left for the cruise. Since we were flying in, I didn't want to take any chances that there would be a foul up with the airline. The cruise line let you board a day early and didn't leave until 6 the next day, so we had a day in Chicago before we left and planned to stay there for 2 days when we got back.

The time before leaving, we stayed pretty close. The boat was parked at Chicago's Navy Pier. This is a large pier with a lot of different stores and things to see. It was very heavily trafficked on the weekend. They had a stained glass exhibit that was interesting. The first night we just walked near the water and the next day, we went up onto the pier. We also went to a store to buy a small bottle of gin and two 6 packs. Just in case we got thirsty.

Later that day, in front of the pier, the Budweiser clysdales were hooked up to the wagon and they walked around that part of Chicago. It took a while to get them all hooked up and it attracted a large crowd. A good way to start the vacation.

A week later, when we got back after the cruise, we had breakfast and then were expected to leave the boat promptly. We went to our hotel and stored our bags until we could get into our room. Then we went out walking. During our two days walking around Chicago, we walked MILES.

For the most part, I'm not completely sure what we did on each particular day. On the first day, we went up the Hancock tower and looked around. On the second day we tried to go up the Willis tower but there was a 2 hour wait, so we decided to skip it. It's a shame because I wanted to go out onto the glass ledge and look down. Unfortunately, we were in Chicago on a weekend, so I guess everything was more crowded.

We had some good meals. We went to Giordano's (I think it's called), for lunch one day. It's a famous pizza place, according to my wife and the pizza was excellent, according to me. Unfortunately, I could only eat half of it. They put the rest of it in a box and I gave it to a gentleman playing the saxophone on the street.

Another time, we ate outside at an Italian restaurant near our hotel. I don't remember the name, but the food was very good. The last night, we were tired of big meals and went to a place that serves mostly burgers and such. Unfortunately, the burger was huge and also very good, so I wound up eating too much again. The diet didn't start again until I got home.

We spent some time in Millennium Park. I took some pictures of the flowers and the Bean. The Bean is a bean shaped sculpture, large enough to walk under and fully reflective. They were having a free concert there the first time we walked through. It's actually a very lovely place, although very crowded on the weekend during the summer.

We spent quite a lot of time one day in the Art Institute. It's a lot larger than it looks and we didn't get to see even half of it. They have several different areas with different types of art. We started in the section that had ancient Indian (from India) art. Some of the pieces were over 1,000 years old. We also made it into the more modern sections. I like representational art. Blobs on canvas don't do anything for me. A lot of it didn't seem like it belonged in a museum, frankly, but that's just personal taste. And there were some pieces that were exceptional. All in all, well worth the time.

We also spent some time walking along the river that runs through downtown. It's nicely built up and very pretty. There were a lot of boats on the river, both personal and party boats. That's one thing that Philadelphia doesn't do. Philadelphia has 2 rivers, the Delaware and the Schuylkill. There's basically nothing on the Schuylkill and less than there could be on the Delaware. One problem is that the rivers border the downtown area in Philadelphia but run through the middle of downtown Chicago.

I went into the Harley-Davidson store before we left and got a t-shirt and a hat. I always visit a Harley store any time I see one, even though I don't have a motorcycle, (yet). The rest of the time, we just walked and window shopped.

I like Chicago and hope to get back there someday. We walked a lot during those two days and didn't see much at all, although we saw as much as we could. Downtown Chicago seemed to be larger and more built up than Philadelphia.

We took an afternoon flight out the last day so we didn't have to rush around in the morning, but somehow, I hurt my back lugging the suitcases to the hotel elevator. I hurt all of the way home and it took 3 weeks, a trip to the doctor and 40 pills to get me back in shape.