Day 4

July 21, 2009

Today was the big day! We got up around 5am to find out it was raining. Rain or shine, no turning back now. We dropped off the rental car at Park N' Fly and took a shuttle over to the airport. With no bags to check, we easily got through security and sat down for a nice breakfast. The flight was about 3/4 full, so the seat in between us was empty. It was nice to be able to stretch out, especially with two sets of long legs! Chicago Midway was much bigger than I thought; being it's Chicago's secondary airport! We navigated our way through what felt like a backstage hallway until we emerged at the Orange Line railway. For a cheap fare of $2.25 each, the Orange Line took us straight into downtown Chicago. From a distance, I realized that this was probably the largest city I've ever been to (with exception to LA). The high rises filled the skyline for what looked like miles. This was nothing compared to San Diego's downtown. It felt matured and sophisticated; actually downright intimidating! It was about 11am by the time we arrived in downtown. Our first tour, a riverboat architecture cruise, was at 1pm. We figured 2 hours was plenty of time to eat and get to the river walk. We tried to find a cafe which had outdoor seating. With little luck finding one that was under $15 a person, we ended up experiencing what we found typical of Chicago restaurants; food that was quick to make or pre-made and service (or lack of) that would get you in and out under 10 minutes. We shared two small pizzas and were on our way. We stopped at the Architecture Foundation Building to check it out (home to where most all our tours would start). The riverboat tour was a great way to start our Chicago adventure.

I could go on and on describing all the sites we saw, but that would take forever. Instead, I'm going to hit on what I thought were the highlights or interesting observations. The first thing I noticed was how clean the water looked; almost as if it was being pumped straight from Disneyland. :) Turns out Mayor Daley has made the beautification of the river a major priority and the condition of the water has gone from toxic to polluted. The riverboat tour lady boasted this with pride. Which reminds me that Chicago did not get it's nickname "the windy city" because it's windy, but rather because the people were thought of to be windy or pompous. All 4 of our tour guides were great examples of this! There were also an abundance of operable brides spanning the river. As the riverboat passed under the bridges, you could see the cars passing ahead through an open grate. Each bridge had an old bridge house where an operator would open or close the bridges as boats passed through. The bridges are now rarely opened and when they are, an email goes out to all the businesses in the area to notify them that there will be traffic delays. I found the bridge houses to be interesting in that each one was unique. Architecturally, they play an important role in the history of the city. I imagine a book could be put together just on the bridge houses of Chicago.

Another fascinating thing was the city's transportation is layered. What appears to be ground level is actually not. While on the cruse, this was most obvious. Below street level is what appeared to be another set of roads. The edge of the river was like looking at a section cut of the city. There was the water, a river walk and the first layer of traffic and on top of that was street level and more traffic with the emergence of the high rises. The third layer would be the elevated railway called the "L." This was probably 25ft. above the street level. Occasionally along the river the subway could be seen on the first layer. I had never seen anything like this. It was mesmerizing; hard to fully wrap your mind around the complexity.

Our second tour was the happy hour Millennium Park tour from 5-7pm. Come to find out, Millennium Park is practically one big green roof. Below the park is theatre. Because of some ordinance made some 100 years ago, no buildings could be built within so many feet of the water front. A man by the last name Montgomery went to court many times to protect the waterfront and won every time. Chicago has him to thank for beautiful Millennium Park. So, because of this ordinance, all the buildings were put underground, with exception to Frank Gehry's outdoor amphitheatre. To get around the ordinance, the partially enclosed stage is called a "sculpture." Go figure! Gehry also designed a pedestrian bridge to connect an existing park (Grant Park?)with the new Millennium Park. If the bridge were to go straight across, it would have required an ADA handrail because the slope would have been too steep. Instead, the bridge snakes across keeping within the ADA slope requirements. Tricky, tricky! The park, is beautiful. It is spectacular to look toward the edge of the city and see lush green and blooming flowers in the foreground.

Along Michigan Ave., the street the separates the park from the city, is a sculpture that looks like a giant kidney bean. It's made out of a polished reflective metal. The "Beans" curvature captures the entire city skyline, making for some awesome picture taking. I just couldn't stop taking pictures. Even when we were on other tours and passed the "Bean" I still took more pictures. What fascinated me was how the lighting from different times a day and sky reflected off of it. Sometimes the sky was overcast and blended right into the "Bean." Other times, you could see the reflections of the clouds in it. And at night, when the city came to life, the "Bean" lit with lights.

The tour ended at a restaurant on the edge of the park. Apart of the tour included a happy hour drink. We also wanted dinner, so we sat down at what we thought was the restaurants outdoor eating area and ordered dinner. Come to find out, in order to get our included drink, we had to go inside the adjacent restaurant (same restaurant, different menu) and order at the bar their. The indoor restaurant was a fine dining place and after a full day of walking, neither one of us were feeling or looking very fine. Instead, mom got a strawberry daiquiri and I got a 312 local beer with a really yummy hamburger. 312 got it's name from one of Chicago's many area codes. This one being located on Goose Island. After dinner, I dragged mom to see Frank Gehry's pedestrian bridge because the tour guide was on a schedule. I promised that this would be the last thing we did for the day, so she trudged along. What a trooper!

We finally got to the hotel for the first time around 9:30pm. I think I could have lasted a few hours more, but I didn't want to kill my mom. :) Taking off shoes has a new meaning! My feet never felt so liberated. Even when traveling in Germany, my feet didn't feel this sore. I guess it's because we know we only had 2 days, so we were going and going and going like there was no tomorrow.