Michelle & Marty hit Chicago

We slept in a bit Saturday morning, October 25th. We headed to a local diner, Macs, where they only had seating for maybe 20 people. It was so busy, but we got in pretty quick. You could tell most people were locals, so it was kind of fun to be at the local hangout. After breakfast, we headed to the train (subway, El, whatever). It was right behind the hotel, and a day pass was only $5 per person.



Here comes the train

Our train to the city

The train system was under construction, so after about 4 stops, we had to get off, go above ground, get on a bus which skipped about 10 stops, and then get back on the bus. It was definitely an adventure. We were glad we weren't on a deadline. All the locals were frustrated because they were going to be late.

Navy Pier - our first stop



After getting off the train in the city, we took the bus down to Navy Pier. We wandered around here for about an hour. It was mostly shops and some performers. You could see the Chicago skyline from here. There was a ferris wheel, an ice-rink, a funhouse, a bunch of restaurants, and other things. We walked through the stained-glass collection they had. It was really beautiful and fun to look at.

Michelle and Chicago Skyline

Marty and Chicago Skyline




Our Trolley Ride





From Navy Pier, there was a free trolley that connected to 2 other trolleys. We could get on and off whenever we wanted. We did this all day, jumping on and off when we saw something we wanted to do or when we just wanted to walk around.
Here are some of the things we saw:


Sears Tower: Marty had to lay on the ground to get this picture. I can't believe how tall this building actually is. Looking up to the top of it makes you dizzy.



Marty - Sears Tower - I didn't think to lay on the ground.

We didn't go up to the top of Sears Tower. The line was hundreds of people long and we figured it wasn't worth the long wait.

Typical Chicago street - where's the sun? It was cold unless you were in the sun. Every once in awhile we would find the sun and warm up. We found buildings to go into to look around and warm up at the same time. The Chicago library was as big and beautiful as a 4-star hotel.

Cool picture - Look for the "Chicago" sign in the background

This was at Millennium Park. It was just a bunch of legs - I don't get it!

We loved this street. It seemed so typical of a big city. Notice the Hotel for Men Only.

Just like in the movies - fire escapes on the outside of the building - can you imagine living on the top floor?

I caught this pic of Marty on the train back to the hotel - he was wiped out!

We got back to the hotel after the train-bus-train ride probably around 7pm. We were so tired that we just went to the hotel and watched TV for about an hour. We weren't extremely hungry, but decided we wanted to eat the famous Chicago pizza before we went home.

We went to a place called Giordano's, which had been recommended to us by everyone. We ordered a small, 6 slices, with 2 or 3 toppings. Chicago-style pizza is about 2 inches thick and has a ton of cheese. It was so good, but we couldn't eat it all. It was definitely worth it.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed, so exhausted.