After 8 days on the road and over 2000 miles, Monday was the first full day of rain we've had on our entire road trip. It rained the day we went to Miller Valley, but we were driving most of the day. That does not count! Monday we had a whole day to explore Chicago: in the rain. We didn't let it stop us though as we grabbed some Dunkin Donuts and headed out the door!
Our hotel was located in the Magnificent Mile/Navy Pier districts of Chicago. We were surrounded by Neimann Marcus, Cartier, Gucci, Coach and some others I can't remember right now. We needed to get some necessities, but those stores were not going to have what we needed. So we headed south on State street. Crossed the famous State St. Drawbridge and passed the Chicago Theatre! (Notice the Sky)
South of the theatre we found a store that suited our needs: Target!
Next we headed east toward Millennium Park.
The park started construction in 1998 with the intention of opening by 2000, the Millennium. The original budget for the planned park was about $150 million. After delays due to poor planning and design changes, the park opened in 2004 to the tune of $475 million! Millennium park has 4 majors hot spots.
The Crown Fountain
The Jay Pritzker Pavillion
The BP Walkway Bridge
And Cloud Gate...AKA The Bean!
Cloud Gate is a reflective steel sculpture that is inspired by liquid mercury; the sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline. The curved, mirror-like surface of the sculpture provides striking reflections of visitors,the city skyline (particularly the historic Michigan Avenue "streetwall") and the sky.Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate's 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the "omphalos" (Greek for "navel"), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor's artistic themes and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties. <---Stolen from Wikipedia!
The underside of the bean
Having some photo fun!
After Millenium Park, we headed south toward Buckingham Memorial Fountain.
And some more Photo Fun!
So at this point, we've walked about 2 miles from the hotel. The next stop from the fountains was back north toward the Navy Pier...2 more miles!
While we were walking on the lakefront trail, it started to rain pretty hard. By the time we got to Navy Pier we were soaked and hungry. As most of you know, when we get hungry things are not pretty!
The Navy Pier reminded us of the shops around the harbor of Baltimore. The Pier is full of shops, restaurants, boat tours, and some amusements.
^not our sunny picture!
We found our way to a little ol' place called Harry Carry's! As you know, Harry Carry was the famous Cubs announcer often imitated but irreplaceable.
We started off with an appetizer of warm pretzel sticks with sides of cheese and mustard. For Lunch, Di had a Chicago Favorite "Italian Beef" and I had a Tilapia Po'Boy! After lunch we walked the 3,300 ft toward the end of the pier. It was raining hard by now so we only stayed for a second and headed back toward our hotel.
We trekked another mile in the rain toward the hotel to rest up and dry off. We continued to check the weather channel hoping the Cubs game wouldn't get postponed. We also discovered that a hair dryer will dry soaking wet shoes, jeans and shirts extremely well. Around 5pm we decided to head out to Wrigley Field game or no game, just to see the outside and grab a shot of the famous sign! We walked another mile to the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) subway red line. Nice clean stations and friendly helpful transit workers, a nice change from the subways back in NYC. After a 10 minute ride, we arrived at the greatest place to watch a baseball game : Wrigley Field! (Their slogan, not ours!) Luckily the game was not cancelled or delayed!
It was Starling Castro Bobble head Day!
A Panoramic shot!
We each had a hot dog and a few beers! Old Style: The official beer of the Cubs since 1902!
Watching a baseball game at Wrigley reminds you of simpler times. A time where there weren't fancy scoreboards, fancy music and fancy amenities. The hotel room we were staying at was larger than the Cubs team store I went in! The bathroom had troughs instead of urinals! The walkways were as wide as our old high school hallways!
The ceremonial first pitch was Chicago Blackhawk great Eddie Olcyzk! He also led Cub Nation during the 7th inning stretch!
The Cubs broke a 4 game losing streak and beat the Astros 7-1
We are now 5-1 on our roadtrip! Next Stop: Kansas City!
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