Here we are for our second day in Chicago. As usual, I was the early riser and got dressed. As I was going to leave to get coffee, Laela stirred and asked what I was doing. To my surprise, she hopped up and got dressed to join me. I wasn't going to do anything fancy, just run down to the Starbucks that is in the lobby. So that's what we did. We got coffee, a hot chocolate, and a starbucks milkshake for Miranda. I think she calls it a "cream based caramel frappuccino." I guess it's not as hip to say milkshake. We also grabbed a blueberry muffin, apple fritter, and a cinnamon roll which we all shared. Now that we were all nourished, we were able to get our day started.
Our first stop of the day was the Navy Pier. We decided to walk from the hotel because it's pretty easy to get to. Walk to the Lake Michigan, take a left and follow the path to the Pier. We decided to take the "alternative route" and walk down Michigan Avenue. Well we ended up overshooting the Navy Pier by about 3/4 of a mile and ended up on Northwestern University's campus. After getting ourselves turned around, we finally made it to the Pier. Our friends the Brannaman family relocated to Chicago about a week or two ago and we were meeting them at the pier. They had taken the Metra train into the city. So we up with Brad, Ann, Ellie, Ginnie, and Marty on the pier and started walking. I'd liken Navy Pier to a "cleaned up" smaller version of the Coney Island Board Walk. There are lots of simialar things to do but it's just not as dirty. The first thing we did was walk to the end of the pier and get some photos and after all of the walking, everyone decided they were hungry. We had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern. Apparently there was a Saturday Night Live sketch in the 70's that made fun of it, but I don't remember it. Something about someone yelling "Cheezborger, Cheezborger,Cheezborger!" and that's exactly what they do as you walk in. It was okay, but it wasn't fantastic. That's alright though, I washed it down with a couple of margaritas to get my afternoon going. On the pier there are also a bunch of lake tours available by boat. They looked interesting and it was beautiful weather so we decided to take one of the boat tours. The tour that we decided to take was cash only so we needed to get some money. While Brad and I went to go knock over an ATM the women and children bought some ride tickets at Pier Park went to the giant Navy Pier Ferris wheel. Miranda and Ginnie rode in their own car while Laela, Ann, Ellie and Mary rode in another. We met back up at the end of the ride and went to board our boat. I somehow managed to turn myself around (which became a recurring theme for the entire trip to Chicago) and started walking the wrong way toward the boat. It was about 1:15 and the boat departed at 1:30. Once we realized that we needed to turn around we hastened our pace to get to the boat and made it with just a couple of minutes to spare.
The boat tour was about 45 minutes long and went out on Lake Michigan and strafed the city so that you could get a view of the Chicago skyline. The tour guide was decent but you could tell he'd done it a million times. He provided lots of factual information about the city and the pier but nothing that you couldn't pick up by reading the City of Chicago or the Navy Pier Wikipedia page. It was a real nice boat ride though.
The kids still had some ride tickets left after we did the boat tour, so we went back to Pier Park and the kids rode the Wave Swinger. That had pretty much exhausted the quick things to do at Navy Pier. So with the afternoon still being young the group decided that we'd walk over to Millennium Park and then stop to get something to drink. Turns out that Millennium Park is about 1.75 miles from the Navy Pier. I had underestimated how long the walk was. I got us turned around (again...remember the theme) and had to resort to my GPS to get my bearings. I guess that's the lousy part about visiting a city that you aren't familiar with. We finally made it to Millennium Park and there was a little fountain that you could dip your feet in so everyone sat down to take five. We hung out there for a few minutes but it was pretty crowded and the park rangers made it anything but stress free. Feet only! Sit down! You can't be in the fountain! Relax grandpa, it's just people putting their feet in the water. It's not like they were performing some kind of precision task like open hear surgery.
We still hadn't gotten those drinks yet and after the death march that I led everyone on, the gang was thirsty. So we got back up, crossed Michigan Avenue and went to the Jamba Juice. I had never been in one of these establishments before so i didn't know what to expect. The place was packed. It stands to reason since it was a hot August afternoon in the middle of downtown. the staff was quite boisterous and there was a pretty sizable line. I had just planned on getting a water or a Coke. Well, no dice on the Coke in a Jamba Juice. I'm not really the adventurous type when it comes to fruit drinks or smoothie type things so I figured that I'd just stick with the tried and true orange juice. Little did I know that they'd pulverize a fresh bag of oranges to get me a 32oz OJ and I've got to admit, it was one of the best cups of juice I'd ever had and it wasn't even crazy pulpy. We managed to get a table and "collected" enough chairs so that most of us could sit. So we enjoyed our juices, the air conditioning, and and each other's company.
It had been a pretty long afternoon and as most of you who have been following the blog know, around 3:00 or 4:00 o'clock, I tend to get tired enough to need a nap. I was past due at this point so we all went back to the Palmer House for a bit so that the Brannaman's could look up how to get back to the Metra from where we were at and so that I could lay down. By the time we got back to the hotel we'd walked a solid five miles and I was plum tuckered out. The train left a little later in the afternoon so there was some time to kill. Most everyone went back over to Millennium Park to play in the Crown Fountain but I stayed behind to get some shut eye.
The Brannamans and Behlers parted ways at about 6:00 so that they could catch their train on time. It was great to see them and we're honored to have been their first guests in Chicago. Saturday was a really fun day and it was nice to be able to catch up.
All of that walking makes one hungry, so now that I was rested up we decided to find something to eat. We walked around downtown for a bit but really didn't see anything that caught our fancy that all three of us would eat. We finally happened upon and Italian restaurant called Pizano's. It was a pretty long wait to get a table but the food sounded delicious and the family was finished walking for the day. So while we were waiting we went to the bar. The place was wall to wall people and very loud. They finally called us to get our table and to our surprise they led us to a downstairs portion of the restaurant and it was MUCH quieter. Not only was it quieter, but we got a nice secluded table that was bordered by 2 1/2 walls. Chicago sports memorabilia covered the walls and the Chicago Bears pre-season football game was on television so it was kind of fun. All of us ended up having pasta. How I managed to not eat another Chicago style pizza is beyond me, but we were warned when we walked in that a pizza would take 45 minutes to make and I just didn't feel like waiting that long. I chose the fettuccine alfredo with chicken and it was out of this world. In fact, it was so good and the portion so large that both of my girls ended up sharing it with me. As the meal concluded we decided that we'd like to get a piece of cheesecake for dessert, but our lackwit waiter (terrible service and zero personality) informed us about 10 minutes later that they were out for the day. So sweet tooth unsatisfied we set off back to the hotel.
We went back to our room and started watching television when one of us and I don't remember who (it was probably Laela because she's always full of good ideas) decided that we should go to the hotel's restaurant to get our sweet on. The Lockwood Restaurant is the name of the hotel eatery and it is S-W-A-N-K-Y. I felt like a complete dirtbag walking in wearing my camo shorts and my Thrasher t-shirt, but hey...my money spends just as well as anyone else's. They sat us in a round booth that had a mesh divider right next to the hotel lobby. It was awesome because it gave us the opportunity to do some people watching while we had our dessert. Laela and Miranda each got tea to drink. Laela ordered Kahlua cheesecake and Miranda had some kind of apple and ice cream concoction. I ordered three freshly baked cookies. The were in ascending order of awesome: chocolate chip, macadamia nut, and oatmeal raisin and I washed them down with an icy cold glass of milk. We must've sat for nearly an hour people watching and enjoying each other's company. It was one of those perfect, spur of the moment, unplanned activities that ended up being my favorite non-baseball related experience of the trip. And with that, we made our way back to our room and called it a night.
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