Chicago - Day Three (Part Two)

So, the evening of day three was upon us and it was our last night in Chicago. We decided to have a 'traditional' Chicago deep pan pizza, take some more break taking views of the city and lake from the John Hancock Observatory...

John Hancock Observatory

This is another tall building in the city, this time we were up 93 floors up this 100 storey building...

The elevator to the top travels at 20.5 mph and the building is the 33rd tallest in the world.

View of the Hancock Centre from the bottom

View of the Chicago skyline

View of the skyline, including Navy Pier

Close up of Navy Pier

Me with the skyline, including the Willis Tower in the background

Same shot as above but with Dave in my place

Chicago Deep Pan Pizza

Later in the evening, we visited Pizzeria Due, which is part of chain which invented the iconic Chicago deep pan...

The deep pan pizza

 

And Finally...

In tribute to Dave and Joel's interchange at work, I present the 'ERIE St' sign - ERIES ('Here he is')

Chicago - Day Three (Part One)

Day three came about and we went to visit the Field Museum, a museum about dinosaurs and animal fossils.

Dave prepares his shirt for the day

View of the outside of the Field Museum

Dinosaur model located outside the Field Museum

The lads next to the model

A huge T-rex fossil

The head from the above fossil

Here he is! A scientist at work in the fossil museum

Day three will also see us visit the Hancock Observatory, which gives views over the city at a 30 degree angle, and have a Chicago style pizza...

Chicago - Day Two

So, day two in Chicago saw us take a trip up to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), visit Navy Pier and take a boat tour on the Chicago River which spans the city...

Willis Tower

View of the Chicago skyline. The Willis Tower is the dark building in the centre of the above picture with the masts

The Willis Tower is 108 storeys high and is taller than the Empire State Building in New York

View from the Willis Tower showing how the city grew up around the river

View of Chicago's business district from the Willis Tower

 


Further view of the business district from the Willis Tower

The Willis Tower also features The Ledges, which are 4 glass boxes that protrude from the tower:

View of the boxes from the bottom of the tower

In the glass box

In the glass box

Navy Pier

Navy Pier is somewhat of a tourist attraction, featuring a Ferris wheel, museum and several bars & restaurants. The pier was undergoing somewhat of a refurbishment during our stay.

Me and Dave on Navy Pier

The entrance to Navy Pier

Boat Tour

View of the skyline from the boat tour



Chicago - Day One

So, day thirteen saw us take our first proper trip around Chicago...

On todays agenda was the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium.

Views of Chicago

Selfie taken on Northerly Island (which houses both the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium) overlooking the Chicago skyline

The above shot without me and Dave

View of the skyline from the Adler Planetarium

View of the skyline from the Adler Planetarium

View of the Navy Pier taken from the Adler Planetarium

Shedd Aquarium

The outside of the John G. Shedd Aquarium

The dolphin performance area where we saw a show involving several animals (dolphins, penguins and a dog)

View of a dolphin in one of the tanks

The penguin area

Close up of three penguins in the above area

Adler Planetarium

The view from the outside of the Adler Planetarium, not the most impressive of buildings but inside it held some real treats...

The theatre that held one of the two shows about the solar system we visited, the Samuel C Johnson Family Star Theatre

The duo inside the Johnson theatre wearing the old style 3D glasses provided

Italian Ice Lemon Cake, which is literally Lemon flavoured ice. It is fair to say I was somewhat disappointed when presented with this - I had been expecting some form of lemon cake with icing...

Drive to Chicago

Day twelve of the trip was upon us and it was the drive from Cedar Point to Chicago, the "Windy City"....

The preparation

Dave prepares for the long drive ahead

The drive

A view of the Ohio countryside

Two bikers riding Harley Davidson's

A slogan on the back of an HGV

ALDI is even in America...

The blockage

No, the Reads' urinal hasn't been blocked again by tissue, two trucks block the motorway here going an identical speed for about 10 minutes restricting the highway speed to 60mph...

The view

View of the Chicago skyline on the drive to the hotel

The finale

A big hello to the David family who we met in Cedar Point - we hope you had a good trip out and a safe journey home...

We also saw our first change in time zone here in the US, as we moved from Eastern time (UK time - 5 hours) to Central time (UK time - 6 hours)