Chicago - Millennium Park, Grant Park & Navy Pier

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Well, we managed to sleep all night in stretches of two to three hours - not too bad considering our body clocks are trying to deal with the six hour time difference between Manchester and Chicago! We went down for breakfast at 8.00am and helped ourselves to juice and fruit before ordering what we wanted from Ray's mouthwatering breakfast menu. Bernie decided on an omelette while I decided on the stuffed cinnamon toast ... which was to die for. Goodness knows how may kilojoules??!

With plenty of energy to burn we headed to the station to take the train into the city. We found the station without any trouble, but couldn't see any option at the ticket machine to purchase anything except a ticket for a one way trip. We knew that we should be able to get an all day travel card so we went to ask the station attendant. Oh no, we don't sell those here - you have to buy them at Walgreen's or a currency exchange. Of course, why would you be able to buy a rail travel card at the railway station??!

Fortunately there was a Walgreen's Pharmacy nearby so we walked there and bought our travel cards for today and tomorrow. So, back to the station and onto the train into the city. We disembarked at Washington and, after a short walk down Washington Street, we found ourselves in Millennium Park. After starting at the Millennium Park Monument in the northwest corner of the park we made our way to the sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor that is officially named 'Cloud Gate', but known by the locals as 'The Bean'.

Next it was the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, an outdoor concert area, before a walk over the BP Bridge to the Daley Bicentennial Plaza. From here we could see over Lake Shore Drive to Lake Michigan. We also caught a glimpse of a fountain so we headed off into Grant Park to find the fountain ... which ended up looking much closer than it actually was!! We eventually found and photographed Buckingham Fountain, from every angle.

This put us very near the intersection of Jackson Street and Lake Shore Drive - which marks the start of Route 66. Since we have decided that we are not going to bring the Mustang down town to drive this section (it's one way these days, going the wrong way!) we walked to the water's edge and photographed ourselves with Lake Michigan in the background. Then, for good measure we photographed ourselves with Willis Tower (Sears Tower until 2009) in the background. Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world from its completion in 1973 until 1998.

From the beginning/end of Route 66 we walked back to the southeast corner of Millennium Park where the Lurie Garden is located and then onto the Crown Fountain which is considered to be the jewel in the crown of park. The fountain incorporates 50-foot-tall images of the faces of Chicagoans. From mid-spring until the middle of autumn these faces appear to spit a spray of water into the reflecting pool at the bottom.

After our circuit of Millennium and Grant Parks we walked north along Michigan Avenue and across the Chicago River before turning east on Grand Street to walk out to Navy Pier. We walked all the way to the end of the pier, as you do, so that we could photograph the Chicago skyline. While on the pier we visited the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows which is a permanent display of 150 stained glass windows housed in a series of galleries along the lower level terraces of Festival Hall.

We enjoyed a late lunch of clam chowder on the pier and then walked back along the pier to the ferris wheel. I joked about riding the ferris wheel, but Bernie decided that an elevated view would give us the best photo of the Chicago skyline so ... up we went for a slow seven minute circuit on the wheel. Near the entrance a couple from Florida asked us about food in Chicago. They thought they had come a long way to visit Chicago until we told them we were visiting all the way from Australia!

From the pier we walked along the Chicago River past the Nicholas J Melas Centennial Fountain. We were very impressed with the fountain when we saw it, but have now discovered that for ten minutes in every hour (not the ten minutes when we were there!) it shoots a massive water arc across the river. From the fountain we continued walking along the river as far as Clark Street where we found our way back to the underground to catch a train back to Bucktown. This afternoon when we arrived back at Ray's we caught a glimpse of the black cat, Rocky, and found Maggie washing herself on the stairs up to our room.

Back at Ray's we put our feet up for a couple of hours before going out to dinner. We were going to try Takashi a Japanese restaurant with a French influence, but discovered that it is closed on Monday nights. We ended up at Babylon which offered Middle Eastern fare, but was unlicensed. Despite having to wash our meal down with iced water, we really enjoyed the lentil soup and lamb and chicken kebabs with chick pea salad.

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Comments

[janet]

love that bean!
What a great sculpture, I love it and all your other pics as always. Enjoy the Route 66 pilgrimage.