Chicago Vacation - 2006

Chicago recap. Tuesday July 4 was our last full day in Chicago. We took a bus to the river by the Wrigley Building on Michigan Ave. From there took an hour-long Architectural Boat Tour. The boat toured both branches of the river, with the guide informing us about the buildings and their history. It was very interesting. There are four different styles of architecture and every type of bridge. We saw the new Trump building under construction, it is right by the river. Afterwards, we took a train to the Sears Tower, then went up to the observation deck on the 103rd floor to get views of the city from every direction. By this time it is late afternoon so we took a train over to State Street where we knew there was a lot of shops and activity, and happened upon the Italian Village restaurant (a place we had read about) where we went for dinner. The atmosphere is very nice and they have pictures on the walls of all the celebrities who have been there. From there we walked back to the hotel and watched fireworks from the hotel window. Wednesday we packed and went to the Navy Pier for a few hours. The interesting thing about this day is that we took about every type of transportation in one day. We took the free trolley to the Navy Pier. We took our time watching boats, seagulls, and checking out the downtown skyline. We also spent some time in the Museum of Stained Glass (it had some windows designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as well as Tiffany glass and much more) and had Chicago hot dogs (with mustard, relish, tomato slices, and a pickle slice on it). We then took the free trolley back to the hotel, took a cab to a nearby train station (so that we wouldn't have to schlep our luggage and bags 5 blocks), and took the orange line train to Midway airport. We took a short plane ride back to KC, a shuttle bus to the airport's economy lot, and then drove a car home. Chicago has so many things to do - museums, parks, festivals, shopping, dining, theater, sports, etc -that a person could do different things in every trip. It also has very good public transportation. The free trolley goes to all the popular tourist spots. The bus lines and trains go everywhere, including the suburbs. People do a lot of walking downtown. We heard tourists speak all different languages. It is a very interesting city.