Road Trip Day Two- Chicago Part I

We left Madison at 11 am on the dot and headed to Chicago on Wednesday, August 14th.  M had never been to Chicago before and I hadn't been there since 2003.  This was my sixth time there but I got more out of this trip than any other time I've been there.

With tolls, a quick bathroom stop, long-term road construction and Chicago traffic, we arrived at our hotel at 2:20 pm, which was in downtown, two and a half blocks from the Magnificent Mile.

Some of the album covers in one of the elevators while riding up to our 8th floor room.

I booked this room on Travelzoo.  It was a king suite measuring 404 square feet.  It was a very fun hotel room.  

Living room:

Bedroom: 

Bathroom: 

This crazy guy sculpture hangs outside the window.  He even has friends above and below him.

View of the city from our room (the windows were kind of dirty):

Once we got settled in, we ventured out on foot to see what the city had to offer.  We didn't have any real destination in mind but once we hit Michigan Avenue we decided to continue to Navy Pier.

We walked around a little before deciding to do the Architecture Boat Cruise.  We hopped in the boat on the Chicago River that runs through the city and learned about many of the buildings that make up the Chicago skyline.  I would highly recommend this tour.

After the one hour tour, we walked some more around Navy Pier and then we ate dinner at Harry Caray's Tavern before heading out to another cruise, the sunset skyline tour.

The weather was a perfect cloudless day and a little cooler than normal August weather.  During the day it good get pretty warm with all the walking you're doing in the sun but once the sun started to go down, it got chilly so I was concerned with getting cold out on the lake.  I didn't have a jacket or anything and didn't even bring long sleeves for the whole trip.  M kept me warm while we were waiting on the boat and for some reason when we got on the lake, I wasn't as cold.  The sunset skyline tours lasts 45 minutes versus the 30 minute tours during the rest of the day. 

We walked back to our hotel where I changed into a dress and we went back out again on foot, this time headed to the John Hancock Center, about 7 blocks away.  It's currently the 7th tallest building in the United States.  Jerry Springer currently lives on the 91st floor and Chris Farley died there in his condo on the 60th floor in 1997. 

I read that you can pay $18 to go to the Observatory on the 94th floor or you can go to the 96th floor to The Signature Lounge and buy a drink for several dollars less and 2 more floors.  We chose the latter.  We had to wait on the 1st floor while they allowed people from the 96th floor to leave in the elevators.  They said they needed 400 people to leave before we would be let up into the elevators.  The wait took 20-30 minutes but it was worth it.  We got seated right at the window facing west and ordered our drinks and took in the spectacular view.  I saw a shooting star up there and it was crazy.  It was like it burned out right at eye level.   

We left a little after midnight and tried to get pizza walking around close our hotel.  We found a place that was open but they need 45 minutes to cook the pizza so we were out of luck.  They sent us to another place that was open until 4 am that serves pizza. That place was called Bijan's and they don't serve pizza.  We settled for a steak quesadilla and mac 'n cheese instead.  We walked back to the hotel to call it quits for the night.  We had a fun-filled first day in Chicago and needed some sleep to do it again the next day.