Chicago: Part 2

The “Bean” aka Cloud Gate

I’m still recovering from my whirlwind trip to Chicago, which concluded earlier this week. Definitely planning on a return trip some time in the spring or summer when we can bring our skates and explore the famed Lakefront Trail, Chicago’s version of our Vancouver Seawall, which loops around the shoreline of Lake Michigan with a beautiful scenic walking/biking/skating path.

You can read about our first couple of days in Chicago here.

In the second half of our trip, we had lunch at the iconic Eleven City Diner, dinner and dancing at Artango, an Argentinean Steak House in the picturesque neighborhood of Lincoln Square featuring a Brazilian jazz band, and tried some of Chicago’s famous deep dish pizza among friends.

On our last day in the city, we took a bus to Hyde Park to visit the Museum of Science and Industry, a sprawling educational and entertainment mecca, featuring far too many exhibits to fully appreciate in one day, including the Henry Crown S[ace Center with an Apollo 8 Command Module and a Mercury Aurora 7 Capsule among other space program artifacts.

They have a German U-boat which was captured in 1944 that you can walk around and tour inside, a 1964-era Boeing 727 aircraft, a coal mine, a high tech toymaker exhibit where you can 3D print your own designs.

We buzzed through exhibits on weather patterns, farming technology, chemistry, the history of transportation, plastics in the oceans, extreme weather and the melting of the glaciers, fighting forest fires, patterns in nature, the human body and a mirror maze.

On our last night in Chicago, we caught a Blackhawks game (my first professional hockey game!), which they won in overtime. The weather couldn’t have been better all week, with sun and unseasonable temperatures almost every day. I only wish the sun had set an hour later (ugh, Daylight Savings Time!) so we could have seen more of the city as we drove through places like Winnetka, Wilmette, Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Drive.

Here are a few more highlights from the architectural riverboat tour, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. Even though we arrived the day after the US election, we managed to avoid talking about politics most of the week. Say what you will about Trump, but the glittering silver tower emblazoned with his name is a beautiful building! ;)