Evening folks!
What a long day today! We are currently en route to our hotel in Illinois. We are tired but happy!
We started our day with the fighting Irish. We checked out the University of Notre Dame. Seeing the football stadium in the football field was amazing and we took some fun pictures. The rain did not stop us from playing on the campus this morning.
After some fun with the fighting Irish, we jumped into the car and headed west towards Chicago! City traffic is cray-cray, but the city was amazing!
Our first stop of the morning was the John Hancock building to visit 360 Chicago! It was awesome seeing everything from 94 floors above the sidewalk. We rode up on a narrsasistic elevator who was confident in telling us he was the fastest elevator in the world. We were on the 94th floor in 40 seconds, moving at a speed of approximately 23 mph! It was awesome! We were above the clouds looking down on the huge city and our 2nd Great Lake of the trip, Lake Michigan! We had a great time and didn't want to come back down to Earth.
The open air Skywalk allowed us to hear all the sounds of the city including an emergency vehicle racing through the streets below. The sirens reverberated off the building amplifying the sound more than 1000 feet above ground into our ears.
Next, we strolled down the street to get some free samples from the Hershey store and Ghiridelli store. They were yummy. Across the way was a beautiful older building that we learned was the old city Water Tower. Today the Water Tower is a free rotating gallery. Right now it showcases a famous chef from Chicago.
After that, we had to hurry back to the car before the meter expired. Parking in Chicago is no joke!
From there, We made our way to a parking garage on the Navy Pier. The Navy Pier was built in 1916! Today it is the number one tourist attraction in Chicago, so obviously we couldn't miss it! We parked and walked around for a bit until we found Gioradano's Pizza, which we had for lunch. It was fantastico!!
We walked off at 1000 cal lunch by walking from the Navy Pier to Millennium Park (on our way we came across the Trump Tower). We enjoyed taking pictures of the "bean" with all the other tourists in the area, and we really liked the amazing stage where they have music almost every night of the week. As we walked around the park, we took in some art and watch kids play in a cool fountain.
As per tradition, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and got our official Chicago shot glass and then we began making our way back to the Navy Pier. We stumbled across a beach and decided to get up close and personal with Lake Michigan!
Afterwards we dragged our feet (either from "the leaving blues" or pure exhaustion) back the the parking garage to make our way to Normal, Illinois.
Our temporary abode in Staunton anxiously awaits our arrival, as do we.
Tomorrow, St. Louis better be prepared for the Inman's; we are coming for you Gateway Arch!
-Paul and Kim
