Chicago 2005

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This past weekend my mom and I met in Chicago to hang out and explore the touristy things about the city. I must say I was thoroughly impressed by Chicago and would love to travel back there soon (before the winter comes ;o).

We arrived Friday afternoon and decided to take a trip up to the top of John Hancock Center (thanks for the tip, Adrienne). Although it was overcast, the view was still spectacular! Afterwards we intended to check out N. Michigan, but the stores were closed so we just grabbed dinner.

Saturday we woke up early and took a morning walk around the museum campus and along Lake Shore Drive. Again, the landscaping and the view of the skyline was wonderful. We then cleaned ourselves up and took a ride on the trolley tour around the city. The neat thing about the trolley was that you can jump on and off at any of the pick up spots. We jumped off back on Magnificent Mile, went perusing through a couple of the shops, grabbed some lunch, then hoped back on for the rest of the tour. We got a nice overview of some of the history and a chance to check out most of the major landmarks/highlights about the city.

Later that afternoon we hoped off the trolley again at Navy Pier. Navy Pier is a fun place. We saw some pretty strange performers and ate junk like popcorn, roasted, caramelized nuts, and icees while we strolled the length of the pier. Joe's Be-Bop is a great place for dinner with live jazz and blues entertainment. After Navy Pier we took a couple buses down to Buckingham Fountain to watch the light show there. We could also see the fireworks display on Navy Pier from the fountain.

Sunday we did not get up as early - at least we didn't think so at the time. It turns out we thought it was about 11am when in reality the clock was almost 2 hours fast! So we had "more Sunday" than anticipated, which was a good thing. We went to the Museum of Science & Industry to see the Body World exhibit which, using a break through technology, showed real human bodies, "frozen" in real-life positions, dissected to show the details of our anatomy. It was very interesting (and only slightly creepy). Of course you know I had a blast at the other exhibits in the science museum as well ;o)

Alas, the inevitable: Monday was check out and flight home day. We had a great weekend! And as always, it was fun getting to chill with my mom. She is a great travel buddy :o)