Chi-town

Before we came to Chicago all I really knew about it I learned from Gilmore Girls,

"Chicago, windy, Oprah" - Rory Gilmore


So it was an eye opening experience coming here.  We stayed at airBnB on the North side of Chicago, and it was ok. (we heard just a few fights outside of the apt we stayed in) The heart of the city is really where the beauty is though.  The first day was unfortunately very rainy and of course it was the day we rode our bikes. The weather was an obstacle that day but otherwise Chicago is a great city for bikers. Lots of bike lanes, places to lock up, and great waterfront paths too.

On the Train with our bikes. Reminded me of the film "While you were Sleeping"

While we were there we bought the Chicago go-card. We customized ours since we were only there for the weekend, so it was a bit different. If you are planning on being a tourist in Chicago I highly recommend it! It saves on money and on lines. If anything get if for the Sears/Willis tower it cuts down your wait time in line a lot! 

Our first day we went to the Field Natural History Museum. We spent all day here exploring (well half of the day since it took us most of the morning trying to figure out which entrance to the train we could get on with our bikes).

Field Museum

Tons of animals here

The bones of this T-Rex, named Sue, were mostly found together and intact which is a pretty unusual find. 

Glad these bears no longer exist and we didn't cross him in the wild

The most important thing I learned about Chicago is they love and know how to do Pizza here. SO matt was in Pizza heaven!!! We ate at Giordano's where they do deep dish but the toppings are also flipped around. It is the toppings and cheese on the bottom and then the sauce on top. I usually don't go for deep dish but this pizza was delicious!  The crust was really good and the edges of it tasted like a light fluffy pie crust.

The next day we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, we loved this place!!! This place was huge and we only saw about half of it. It was really interactive and fun. A great place to take kids but also a lot of fun for adults. There was so much to learn about from the human body, to space, to a mirror museum! I wish we could have spent more time there. Then we went to The Alder Planetarium. There is a great view of city skyline from where the planetarium sits. From there we had to go visit the Bean! We also tried to see the Monroe statue that Matt remembered from his last trip, but she is a traveling statue so don't go looking for her there. The square is really pretty though where she use to be and it is worth checking out still.

View From the Planetarium

The Planetarium

At the Apollo exhibits at the planetarium

Funky sculpture downtown

The art institute, I wanted to go in here but there wasn't enough time to make it worth it. I believe it was recently voted number one in the nation for art museums.

I also wanted to go here because "The Vow" was filmed here,  which is why I thought it was funny there was a bride& groom right outside when we walked by it.  

This place is an architectural dream! I loved all the different styles of buildings they had here.

This park where different faces smile at you and then all of a sudden they purse their lips and squirt water at you.

The Bean

Us in the bean's reflection

Vie from the square where Monroe was suppose to be

We then went to the Sears/Willis tower. It really is the Willis tower not but Sears is still so familiar to everyone. The elevator ride up to the skydeck was really quick and made my ears hurt as we climbed to the 103rd floor, rising up 1,353 feet. We of course had to go to the "ledge" where they have these glass enclosures that you can step into and you feel like you are floating on top of Chicago. I am not a fan of heights so I was not in there very long. The view was pretty incredible from the skydeck and it gives you a good sense on how widespread Chicago really is. All in all I really liked Chicago and would come back to visit.

You can see the shadow of the Sears tower building all the way out into the lake

View from the Top of the Tower

In the tower

Standing over the city

The inside curve of the bean view

I decided this was my favorite building there.

I forgot to include in my last post about the World's Largest Covered Wagon we saw in Illinois. Who knew?!

Of course Abe was steering it

We did also quickly visit Abraham Lincoln's home. It is a National Park so they have lots of free tours and sites to visit. We unfortunately did not have enough time that day to see it all.