Category: Chicago

Day 7

We bought a package deal while at the Art Institute the other day that included the Skydeck at the Willis Tower (saved about $8 and a long wait in the ticket line).

It was pretty impressive with a 360° view of the city. On a clear day you can see about 50 miles.

The Skydeck, located on the 103rd floor, has a 4 ft. glass floor that hangs over the edge, to give you that “floating on air” feeling.

 

The Skydeck level is 412 m (1353 ft.) high. The total height of the Willis building (rooftop before antennas) is 443 m (1450 ft.).

Lots of tourists came for the experience.

We even found the perfect gift for our friend Dave at Willis Tower         ( he likes the Old Guys Rule stuff )

 

For lunch, we walked just over 3 km to another restaurant featured on the TV show, You Gotta Eat Here (Chicago Edition), Manny’s Coffee Shop & Deli. The restaurant opened shortly after WWII, and moved to its current location in 1964.

It is cafeteria style – grab a tray and order what you want along the counter. It is simple, fresh, authentic Jewish food. The continuous line of customers entering assured us we had made the right choice. We each ordered the lunch special: Matzo Ball Soup, a potato pancake, a dill pickle, and for Todd, Pastrami on ½ Rye, and for me Brisket on ½ Kaiser. Good thing we were walking – portions were HUGE.

After a brief rest, we headed to the Chicago River for our boat tour by the Architecture Foundation of Chicago.

It was very interesting learning about Chicago’s history as it related to architecture. What is known as The Loop in Chicago burnt to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Since then, architects has designed numerous styles and sizes of buildings in The Loop. The Trump Tower completed in 2009, like Trump himself, is in your face on the riverfront. To combat the wind issues, concrete support pillars that are normally built on bedrock, are drilled 50 ft. deep into the bedrock.

333 West Wacker completed in 1983 has a blue-green glass façade that mimics the colour of the river.

Marina City, known as the corncob towers, completed in 1967 is very unique. It is a development that was ahead of its time incorporating a city within a city (office building, apartments, retail, parking, a theatre and more).

Merchandise Mart completed in 1930 is 2 ½ city blocks (the largest building in the world upon completion). Originally owned by Field & Company, it was sold to the Kennedy family in 1945, who owned it until 1998 (the profited hundreds of millions on the deal).

The Tribune Tower (Chicago Tribune newspaper) was completed in 1925 in Gothic Revival style.

The above pics just touch on the buildings we saw. We also saw some interesting “boats” on the water…( this one maybe a little small for the chopper on it)

After the tour, as sun set, we walked to the John Hancock building (aka 360° Chicago). The picture below shows the building in the daylight.

The Hancock completed in 1968 is 100 floors. We took the elevator to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor. The view of the city was amazing as night set in.

One of the best views is reserved for women only – it’s in the women’s washroom. A room wide, floor to ceiling glass window allows a great view of the city.

Day 8

This is our final full day in Chicago. We walked to Navy Pier, a 1,010 m (3,300 ft.) pier. It was built in 1916 as primarily a cargo facility for lake freighters.

Today it serves as a multi-purpose public area with exhibition halls, theatres, retail stores, and restaurants.

The currant Ferris wheel will be taken apart at the end of this season and replaced by one double its size (300FT tall).

The views from the pier back to the city are beautiful.

Our final dinner in Chicago was at Berghoff, a German restaurant that has been around since 1898 serving their beer with great German food. Todd had the Sauerbraten and I had the Jager Schnitzel. Food was delicious…

Chicago was a very interesting city – a great walking city with amazing architectural buildings.

Next stop…NYC in a couple of weeks.

 

 

Day 5

We bought a day pass for the Trains. Our first stop was Clybourn (where we inevitably went the wrong direction upon exiting the terminal) to go to Goose Island Brewpub for a tour.

This is the original location of the brewery which was founded in 1988 on Friday 13th.

The tour was restricted to 1 room because this location produces only small quantities of local craft beers and one-offs (large production is done at another facility for distribution globally – owned by Anheuser-Busch).

We tasted 6 of their different beers.

And we had lunch before leaving – we shared an order of beer-battered fish n chips.

Our next stop was Wrigley’s Field (even if we couldn’t get in). We had full intentions of doing a park tour while in Chicago (had a great time touring Fenway in Boston a few years back), but lo and behold, the park is closed to tours until the 18th due to concerts there.

We walked the block, peeking in where we could…

From Wrigley’s, we went to Revolution Brewery, hoping for the 5PM tour (arrived at 4:15), but it was filled and the only openings were for the 6PM tour. We decided to join the masses in the taproom while we waited. We read in a magazine that it has gained at strong following; the crowds here would support that.

Revolution Brewery opened its production brewery and taproom in 2012. The owner and many of the employees are former Goose Island employees.

We started the tour with a glass of their Oktoberfest made with 100% German malts. Revolution brews around 50 different beer styles a year.

The brewery is currently 50,000 sq ft and they are getting ready to expand into another 50,000 sq ft that adjoins their facility.

We decided to have a late dinner at a highly rated German restaurant, called Bohemian or BOHO. The place was fully packed, but we did get a seat at the bar when a couple left for their table. We shared an order of Beef Cheek Pierogis with roasted carrots and pickled onions. Then we shared an order of Pork Schnitzel with dill potatoes, bacon, and onions…Delicious AND filling!

Day 6

This was going to be a low-key day. We left the hotel after breakfast to go and buy tickets for the Architecture Boat Tour tomorrow. Upon leaving the hotel, we looked just up the street and noticed it was closed off. We went to see why, and stumbled on a Ferrari car show and annual fundraiser.

So many different styles, years, and colours (although red was the favourite).

Older Models

Todd’s cousin, Paul (he’s kind of a car-nut…), would have loved this car, especially because of the license plates LOL !

Just after buying the boat tickets, we heard a very loud roar of jet engines overhead and were surprised to see a stealth bomber turning away from town towards the lake. It all happened so fast we didn’t get a pic. Todd found this on Youtube the next morning !

We continued along Michigan Ave (aka The Magnificent Mile), wandering in and out of the shops, and admiring the buildings both old and new).

 

For lunch and to watch some of the local football game (Packers were in town to play the Bears), we headed to Ditka’s. For those that don’t know, he is a former coach of the Bears. We were surprised how many Packer fans were in the bar.

Dinner was at the oldest continuously operating Italian restaurant in Chicago, Italian Village (1927). This was headquarters for the Ferrari show earlier in the day. We had a nice table in a cubbyhole.

Todd had the Lake Superior Whitefish with veggies, and I had the Chicken Marsala with linguini. The food was delicious, but so filling (I only ate about half – maybe dinner tomorrow…).

 

 

Day 1

Well, the Adventure didn’t begin as smoothly as planned…. We boarded the plane on time Tuesday morning, but then sat on the plane for almost 3 hours (time for a TV show, a movie, and a few walkabouts) as O’Hare was closed, then only letting limited flights land due to a major lightning storm. We were finally allowed to disembark with a $20 food voucher while we waited out the delay…which turned into a cancellation! After a lo-o-ong wait in line at the AC Customer Service desk, we got the flight rebooked for Wednesday morning….then had to go to another area to speak to a supervisor about accommodations…next, go through customs (even though we never left the country – love NEXIS – avoided a huge line), and finally get our luggage. Day 1 in a nutshell: after 8 hours in the airport, it is time for a couple of cold beers, some prime rib from Canyon Creek, and then bed.

Day 2

After an uneventful flight (thank goodness), we arrived in Chicago and took the Blue Train to Monroe Station (just down from our hotel – Hampton Inn Majestic). The Hampton Inn occupies 17 floors of the former Majestic Office Building built in 1905. The building was a mix of office space and a theatre (presently it houses the Hampton Inn and the Bank of America Theater). It is quite an interesting place with some of its original character preserved.

After check-in, we headed down to the waterfront and walked towards Navy Pier.

We turned to wander along the Chicago River in search of a spot to catch a bite and drink. …So excited to find Kona Longboard!

For dinner, we didn’t waste any time in trying Chicago’s famous Deep Dish Pizza Pie. We went to Lou Malnati’s (it was featured on “You Gotta Eat Here”). While not “pizza” as we know it (more like an Italian Pie), it was delicious! –lots of mozzarella on the base, fresh stewed tomatoes, mild sausage and mushrooms all on a butter crust.

Day 3

After a light breakfast, we walked down towards the water again, but this time wandered in the park towards the Buckingham Fountain. The mist offered a bit of a shower.

Once we reached the area of the Field Museum, Shed Aquarium, and the Planetarium, we turned back and walked the waterfront.

Sailboat upon sailboat waited for their outing.

Millennium Park was very interesting… We stumbled upon a symphony/opera practice performance at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The sound was amazing.

The Cloud Gate (aka The Bean) was much more than we expected. It is huge and every angle offers a different reflection of the city’s skyscrapers.

Look close and you will see our reflection several times ! It is very dis-orienting being under the bean and looking up at the distorted images!

The Crown Fountain offered entertainment for young and old.

We reached 10,000 steps before lunch. For lunch, we weren’t sure what we wanted and headed north along State St. A block after the bridge, we spotted a place of interest – Public House. The bar offered great food, refreshing beverages, and refuge to the rain that began to fall shortly after our arrival.

Day 4

Today, we planned some indoor activities due to the intermittent rain. We visited the Chicago Art Institute, figuring we would spend an hour or two….WOW! We spent over 4 hours wandering the various halls and getting lost in the works.

I took one Art History class in university, and I am amazed at what I remember. It is so exciting to see a painting and know who the artist is. I did a paper on one of American Impressionist Mary Cassatt’s painting which is part of the Chicago Gallery, BUT, would you believe it is currently on loan until the end of the month?!

They did have another of her paintings.

So excited to see paintings by so many famous artists, like Monet,

Degas,

Van Gough,

Picasso,

and so many more….

After hours of wandering the gallery, we took the Pink Line to Lagunitas Brewery. Little did we know Riotfest was in the same neighbourhood – the train was packed full of grunge music lovers. And when we reached the brewery, the taproom was packed too. The waitress said it was the busiest day they had seen since opening 1 ½ years ago.

We had a couple of beers (really thirsty from wandering around the art gallery) and shared some nachos while we waited for the tour to start.

The tour was quite interesting. The brewery is housed in the former Ryerson Steel distribution warehouse.There is many old cranes abandoned on their rails around the building.

They have capacity to do 600,000 barrels of beer. This past week, Lagunitas signed a deal with Heineken to allow global distribution. The owner, Tony Magee, insists business will continue as usual….

Most interesting fact from tour guide – “If you don’t test positive(drug test), you won’t get a job here.”

We ended the day returning to Macy’s to pick up a purse I saw on sale the day before (regular price was $79, on sale for $59.25). The register rung it up at $23.70! So excited!!! I quickly paid and whispered to Todd, “Let’s go…..”