Monday, 31 July; a visit to Chicago

It doesn't feel as humid here as Oshkosh, but perhaps it is because it is cooler than normal.
We enjoyed our morning coffee and then headed out.
We needed to return one of the EZ passes Rob had purchased because it is for 2 axle vehicles only.  We need a 4 axel for the truck pulling the rig.  So, we went off to the place that sells them as well.
Then we drove to Chicago.  We parked in Soldier Field which is the stadium for Da Bearce (The Bears) and we walked along lake Michigan.  It is really a pretty color of aqua.  Looks like Hawaii.  The water is much warmer than Superior as well. Here we got our first glimpse of the Chicago Sky line.

We continued walking and let Bella run through the grass and the trees.  We caught the "Big Bus", Chicago's Hop on Hop off sightseeing bus. We got on on stop 9 which was the Soldier Field Museum.

We had a really nice and informative narrator for the ride.

We went by the Sheraton Grand and the Navy Pier.  

The Navy Pier  is a big tourist area with shops and  has the largest Ferris Wheel.  Each car is enclosed with heating/air conditioning and wifi.

I can't remember what this man's name is.  He was one of the Originators in the city.  He is holding a little dog and looks exactly like one of the game pieces in Monopoly.

We went by the Water Tower which is one of only two buildings that survived the Chicago Fire. We went by the John Hancock Center and 360 Chicago.

We got off at the Hard Rock Cafe Which is right next to the Rainforest Cafe because we were hungry and wanted to go to this famous "deep dish" Pizza place.  So we walked.

I love rivers that run through cities where they utilize it with shops and restaurants.

 Rob liked this statue and had to jump in.  Very cute!

 Pretty big flowers.  I am carrying Boo because along the river, especially under the bridges, there are grates that she gets her toenails caught in.

 We finally arrived at Lou Malnati's where we had salad and a very, very yummy deep dish pizza.

This was a small pizza;  they have to put the cheese on the bottom with all the goodies on top or the cheese will burn.  It is so dense that we were only able to eat one piece each.

We walked back to the Rainforest Cafe to pick up the Big Bus again.

Back on the Bus we went to Fort Dearborn, and Chic

We went by the Nike store and, although difficult to see in the picture, they have chandeliers made of white soccer balls and tennis shoes.

We also went by the Disney Store.

We went by the Chicago Theater

We went by the Willis Tower and Skydeck, Millennium Park and Palmer house; Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Hilton & Grant Park

This is an apartment building with the parking structure under it, and below that there is also a place to park your boats.

You can see that the cars are parked backed into the stalls to the edge of the structure.  This is where Steve McQueen's scene was filmed driving off of it.

 We also went by the Alder Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium

The stadium is pretty funny.  They rebuilt it, but they kept the old one and added on.  They were hoping to host a Super Bowl game, but even the new one is too small and it is open at the top.  Needless to say, it is odd looking with the old and the new side by side.

We got off the bus and headed back to our car.  We went by the Aquarium and through a nice park as we walked.

We got back to the car and drove back to town.  We stopped at Costco on the way and got some yummy goodies.  

We got home and ate the rest of our pizza for dinner.