Lindsay was clearly in heaven, due to the blazing ass sun.
We rode the trolley around for a bit, taking in the sights such as the Field Museum. We didn't have time to actually see any of the exhibits, but I hear the pirates ARRRRRRGH awesome! HAHA.
Moving on. We passed by the Adler Planetarium, which I somehow did not get a picture of...so I'll just use Lindsay's. (Thanks, baby!)
Clearly, it's the dome-topped building.
The next big attraction for the bus full of wandering eyes to see was the Buckingham Fountain. Good thing we didn't want to go have a picnic there...it is seemingly under a great deal of construction (still beautiful nonetheless), as you can see here:
Full of hope to what would be around the next corner of our tour, we were delighted to see Centennial Fountain. It only dances over the river for ten minutes of the top of every hour, and we were lucky enough to catch it.
After winding around skyscrapers and loopty-loops, we were feeling SOOOOOO in love. Let me share with you.
Oh wait, before moving onto the Navy Pier section of this tour de Chicago blog...just let me tell you that we randomly had to move from our nice, open, airy seat on the trolley to a pit of hell bus. The top deck (double decker) was full so we were forced to sit on the bottom level which had: A. ZERO air conditioning B. a complete lack of any type of air movement AT ALL C. the goddamn windows didn't even open D. smelled like a dirty armpit and E. was just all around not pleasing, until this sat in front of us.
Thank you, to the world's largest red mullet for being completely oblivious to the shit head (that's me) behind you. Your heinous hair made my ten minutes on that bus from hell worth it.
(Please note, I tried to get a side view of this lady, but she was deep in conversation with the gals in her group and kept flipping her head from side to side. Surely her Wisconsin Waterfall coulldn't have been hot.)
Next, we finally arrived at Navy Pier which we just HAD to see. This is my babe in front of the world famous ferris wheel.
We walked up one side and found some lady to take a picture of us near the water...
Then thought it would be fitting to walk around the pier to the other side and grab a bite to eat. Oops, our bad...there is nothing to eat on the other side. But we did find this....an absolutely gorgeous view of the city
Let me just add that whoever thought of putting self-timers on cameras is a genius. If it weren't for that person, we wouldn't have captured this little gem...
Back on the bus we go...and to our surprise the top level had plenty of seating this time AND we had a tour guide with the personality of a comedian. Here we are, happy to be sitting in the sunshine
I thought this was kind of interesting: Oprah owned two (maybe three) floor of the building below. She wanted to have a personal elevator built so she could have more direct access to the connecting floors. The building owner said "no" so Miss O said "see ya" and blew that Popsicle stand.
It's a different experience riding on the TOP of a vehicle with the world exposed directly above you. I'd advise not standing up on one of these behemoths...you might lose your head.
So we continued along our journey, completely amazed at the unique architecture of Chicago. There's something for everyone...whether you like more modern style buildings...
Or you prefer something a little more aged...
But no matter where you go in Chicago, there is art all around you...check out this larger than life sculpture of American Gothic. Lindsay was convinced it was something out of a horror film and they were going to come to life at any time and kill us...
The bus made it's way down the Magnificent Mile, where I'm certain Lindsay would have been happy to spend all of her money (and mine if I had any), but time didn't allow for that so we just committed it to memory via photographs...
I think her mouth may have watered just a little bit when we passed this store....
She does love THE fashion, but thank god is way too cheap to want any of the really expensive stuff.
I was too busy looking at all of the architecture to really care about any fancy clothing stores. Plus, let's face it..when you cruise around in cargo shorts and t-shirts all day like I do, clothes are the least interesting topic. It was still fun to see the stores and hear crazy facts about them. Our guide told us that in some of these stores you have to make an appointment just to walk in the door and some of the places don't put a price tag on anything. All I could think of was the movie Pretty Woman....and YEA...NO THANKS!!!
Anyhow, so the buildings seriously AMAZED me, which from this blog doesn't seem hard to do, but keep in mind this is my first trip to Chicago. I'm a country kid from a small town who over the past two years has been slowly transforming into the city life. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the city and all it has to offer: diversity, entertainment, people, culture, art, and so on. However, there is nothing like being way out in the middle of nowhere and looking up at the stars and seeing each and every one of them. And, there is the added bonus of silence. Regardless...I'm a changed woman and would never go back to living in a podunk town.
I kind of got obsessed with shooting skyscraper photos at different angles. Here is one of the Hancock Building.
Fun picture of the river and a water taxi....
Check out the building on the left side of this picture. It's an apartment building with a parking garage on the bottom. Those cars look a little close to the edge. How would you like that to be your parking space???
Another angle obsession picture..
This building is SUPER cool. If you look at what seems to be the lobby of this one, there is a staircase-type ceiling. That is actually the ramp to the parking garage...the under side of it.
The Sears Tower was next on our adventure. Now, we had originally planned on going to the Skydeck from our tour. However, due to circumstances out of our control (not enough hours in the day, traffic) we didn't have enough time.We did end up going the next day. Oh yea...and we had to take some random detour because of a fire in the Sears Tower. Go figure. One of the many facts we learned about the Sears Tower is about the entrance that is shaped like a mailbox. According to our tour guide, this is because Sears made their fortune from catalogs and they didn't ever want to forget where all of that money came from. What a reminder every day you go to work, eh??? The other nifty fact I'd like to add is that the building was recently (March 09) purchased by Willis Group, a london-based insurance broker, and will shortly be renamed Willis Tower. They are even considering painting this monstrosity silver to make it more energy efficient. The projected cost of that little project is 50 million dollars. Here it is...still as black as black can be...
The mailbox-shaped entrance...
A look up at the tower from wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down below...
Everything seems so tall in Chicago. I mean, we have some kind of tall buildings in Indy, but nothing even close to what Chi-town has to offer. Ultimately, I think it all has to do with my pure love of being in a new place. One of my favorite things in the whole world is exploring new cities and not having a clue where I am. Thank god for public transportation. You'll get to read about that on my next blog.
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