Our First Full day in Chicago

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We had an awesome night's sleep.
Yesterday after dinner, Natalie had a long discussion yesterday with a very helpful concierge at our hotel about things to do. (I watched, but we must know who's the boss about some things.)
It was a very nice, but hot, day, so we decided to take the architectural river cruise. Our speaker was a Chicago-based architect who knows all about Chicago and its history. He gave a fascinating tour as we cruised around the city's rivers.
One building is the Boeing headquarters. I plan to include a photo of it today. It's the only building with exposed trusses above it. The exposed truss work is necessary because a third of the building has no foundation. Instead it is suspended from that truss work.
Every other building was built over the extensive rail depot and track system in Chicago. The tracks are grouped in a way that allows support foundation pilings to be placed between sets of tracks. The Boeing building, though, was built over a curve, so no piling could be sunk, and the only answer was to suspend part of the building.
The Willis tower is another interesting building. It only recently became the Willis tower after spending most of its life as the Sears tower. From space, it would look like a tic-tac-toe game because it was built as 9 different buildings, each of a different height.
The tour was 90 minutes, filled with interesting information about architectural facts about the fascinating history of the buildings and the city. We'll include a couple more photos from the tour, including the Willis tower, some other pretty buildings, and the city skyline from the lake Michigan side.
After the tour, we decided to walk down to Navy Pier. Its name is because it was a Navy training base at the start of World War II for Navy pilots. It's now a tourist spot, with a Ferris wheel, a nice mall with shops and restaurants. After our long walk in the 90 degree heat, we were quite happy to set foot inside the air conditioned comfort of that mall. It was so nice we had to have lunch there at Giordano's Pizza.
After lunch, we rode the Ferris wheel, which showed us some wonderful views of Lake Michigan and Chicago. Then we walked to the end of the pier, right to an edge of Lake Michigan. Natalie talked a lady into taking our photo (much to my dismay) in front of the anchor from the USS Chicago, with Lake Michigan in the deep background. Natalie returned the favor and learned the lady is from Serbia. It is a small world.
By the time we returned to the start of the Navy Pier, we were mostly done walking for the day, so we took an Uber back to the motel.
Now, it's approaching 8:00 pm, and I'm writing this while sitting on a roof patio, enjoying a very nice night with a nice view of the city's night sky.

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Photos

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Boeing building truss work in the center

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Willis tower, skyline from Lake Michigan

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Curve matching the river

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View from the pier

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Lake Michigan, the anchor, and us

Comments

[Elaine D Lee]

NICE PICS!!!
Beautiful pics. am so glad you are having a great trip. I think about you a lot. Have fun. Elaine

[Jane]

Sounds like a great trip so far! And fascinating details about Chicago's buildings and Boeing HQ. I think Denise would recommend a stop at Garrett's popcorn. :) Have fun!

[Beth Undhjem]

First Full day in Chicago
Looks, and reads like ya'll are having a true 'trip of a lifetime'. Thank you for such good information about where you are, what pics denote too.