2014-10-06 Willis Tower & Architecture Boat Tour

Nothing infuriates planners more than a website with incorrect information. We're retired! We have schedules to keep! I guess I really haven't gotten out of "vacation" mode yet and into "retirement" mode.

Willis Tower was supposed to open at 9am. Didn't. Opened at 10.

We had an hour to kill so we went on to item #2 on the agenda. Check out Union Station.

This place is huge inside.

Another beautiful architectural building.

Oh, and it's functional also. 14 trains enter the north side of the terminal and 10 enter the south. If you are going THROUGH Chicago you need to get off of your train and then onto another.

Time to get out of the underground and soar 103 floors above the street traffic. Going up. Or going down? Strange that we had to take an elevator to go DOWN in order to take the elevator going UP to the Skydeck.

It's a bit cloudy today but we can see everything we want to see .

Yes, that would be another ugly Frank Gehry structure in Millenium Park.

This is the top of the Rookery Building that we toured a few days ago. It is a square doughnut with a skylight at the top.

We'll be down on the water later today taking the boat tour on the Chicago River.

That's the local prison with the triangular exercise area on the top of the building.

That huge hunk of land is going to be another park.

The black building is the Hancock Building that we were in the other night.

Sitting on a piece of glass 103 floors high.

Chicago is FLAT. That's the Eisenhower Expressway (a misnomer) coming into town from the west.

Lou Mitchell's restaurant is famous. It's been on Route 66 forever. We had lunch here and it was delicious. The waitress had her mind elsewhere but the food and atmosphere were good. Toasted cheese and ham for me and a ham and cheese omelet for Karen.

We drove around for a while until we needed to find a place to park and get to our boat tour on the north side of the Loop on the river.

It was an educational ride and since it was about an hour after lunch I managed to see a few buildings even with my eyes closed.

The only thing they don't like about this building is the fact he chose to advertise.

Condos and car parking

Some cool building

It has been the norm lately in cities to change warehouse space into condos.

There were some pleasure boaters out today

Boeing Building

Willis Tower

A marina under condos

Nice waterway

This is a remarkable building because "somehow" they are the only high rise between Lake Michigan and Michigan Street.

One of only a few buildings that remain from the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago.

Once again we managed to get to the White Fence Chicken restaurant when it was closed. So we found another iconic Route 66 chicken restaurant and ate there instead.

2014-10-03 Elevated Tour & Chicago at Night

It was, indeed, unfortunate that we had to drive into Chicago early in the morning for a tour. It's Friday. There is no easy way into Chicago that doesn't involve a 10 mile bumper to bumper drive. So, relax, put on a little music, and enjoy the skyline of the city as you drive in.

The "L" as they call it here in Chicago is an elevated train. In a city that built bigger and bigger buildings because they had no more floor space they had no place to put a train but on stilts.

Our 9am architectural tour would be held above the traffic on these trains. How original.

The tour guides on these tours love their work so much they do it for free. They have fire in their voices as they explain the designer of the building and the style and how it fit into the time frame of the city growing up.

The LOOP in Chicago is an oval of tracks within the busiest section of downtown Chicago. We climbed the stairs and hopped on a train and then got off at the next station. While standing on the platform we learned about the important architectural styles and what era they belonged to.

The building fronts on the left are every bit as fake as any Disneyland building. They are merely facades to hide a parking garage.

We saw the original Sears Building and then the new, tallest building, Sears Tower that they built to put all of their Chicago people in.

On a train, off a train, on a train, off a train. Building after building we saw and learned a little more about each. It was entertaining, educational, and it helped to make the city seem more personable.

The entire waterfront here is lined with park after park after park, Burnham, Grant, Millennium, and a children's park named after deceased Major, Maggie Daley.

We wandered into Grant Park and took pictures of the Versailles-inspired Buckingham Fountain.

In Millennium Park the highlight is to get your picture taken with the BEAN. So many people, so many pictures taken.

We toured around Navy Pier and really wanted to see the Stained Glass Museum but the majority of the display had just been boxed up. It was a major bummer.

At the end of the Pier I was able to tell Dr. Bob how upset we really were. I think it fell on deaf ears.

After dinner on the Pier we went up into the 4th tallest building in town, the John Hancock Center. Out intent was to see the lights of the city come on from someone up high. 100 floors up was a great vantage point for this.

Going from window to window we took more and more pictures as more and more lights illuminated the city.

The city looked great from up here.

There was a "thrill factor" thing to do up here. You stand in a window box and they tilt the top part of the window out while you are standing in it. First a little tilt, then out to a 45 degree angle, hanging out over the street below. Fun stuff. Great way to end the evening.