Chicago-One of the Greatest Cities in America

Chicago-Chicago...sing it! What a great-great city. Our guided tours of Wrigley Field and our Architecture Boat ride down the Chicago River were awesomely phenomenal! And, we have pictures of both to back it up.

Other wonderful and worthy Chicago visits were to Millennial Park, the Riverwalk and we had some cool and interesting local eats that were fun and flavorful. We also stepped out of the city for a day and went to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It was a nice change of pace to all our city slicking.

We only had four full days in Chi-town so we made them action packed. Our first visit was to the West Loop, Fulton Market, and Willis Tower. We passed on going up to the Skydeck at Willis Tower and getting tilted to 45 degrees overlooking the city. We're too old for a $35 amusement ride. Then, our daughter Chelsie and a friend of ours separately recommended Lou Malnati's deep dish Chicago Pizza. We get two separate recommendations from people we respect and we're automatically in. We did it and it was fun, and a cool experience.

Next stops, Millenial Park, Michigan Ave and a drive-thru at Navy Pier.

In the late afternoon, we did our first of three visits to The Riverwalk. We also stopped by the magnificent Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain by Lake Michigan and did a drive-by to Soldier Field which is home of the Chicago Bear, but on this night (and two more nights after) home of Taylor Swift.

Wrigley Field is the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball. It is truly an American National Landmark so that's why we toured it. It was very cool. Kathy even enjoyed it. Our tour guide was awesome, informed, passionate and entertaining. We went into the broadcast booth, a luxury box, the dugout, the rooftop bleachers and onto the field to get a close-up look and the story behind the ivy.

We asked one of the tour guides where the best place nearby to get a Chicago hotdog was. He recommended Wrigleysville Dogs. It was right down the street so we hit it right after our tour was over. Brad got his "run through the garden" dog and Kathy the same, hold the tomato.

After, we went back to the Riverwalk, and had a beer at City Winery and a second at Tiny Tapp.

Our daughter Chelsie and our friend Bob Terry, also both recommended we take the Architectural Tour down the Chicago River. So we did. It was wonderful. Come along for the ride and see for yourself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ykt6Ezg9NA

The tour itself was much better than that video but it will give you an idea of the event and the tour guide probably talked about 20-25 magnificent buildings and skyscrapers. He provided the history, the behind-the-scene events, and additional insight along the route. Okay, maybe you had to be there but It was fun for us! If you didn't make the time to check out the YouTube clip here is a slideshow below. If you do both then thank you very much.

Here comes Indiana Dunes National Park. It seems like all the midwestern states are only a hop-step-and a jump away from each other's state lines. Our Rv park was 40 minutes out of Chicago which of course is in Illinois and was an hour away from the Indian Dunes. It was worth the drive.

It was a different NP experience. The Visitor Center was our first stop so we got our Passport stamp. It started off a little weird that all the road(s) surrounding it were under construction. Many National Park Visitor Centers have trails contiguios to it. So, we took a short but pretty walk/boardwalk through an adjoining trail.

The drive to where the park action was was kind of ugly. It was industrial areas all tied to the Great Lake but once we got there it was beautiful. We made five-six stops along the way. Most were short trails to a wonderful beach. The trails were similar to what Dorothy felt in the Land of Oz. When you get to the beach it was like Dorothy when she got to the wizard's castle. Oh and yes those are 4 little heads in the sand in one of the last pics. One of the guys asked Brad to take a picture of them. Then he jumped in one of the holes and started covering himself with sand. Brad took over, covered the dude and snapped away.

One of the points of differences in this National Park was an area they called the 1913 Century of Progress. Which included a small handful of what was "at the time" new wave house being sold on the lakefront. Only a few are still there for historical purpose.

We wanted to see what the Riverfront looked like at nighttime so we booked a dinner spot. We had an excellent meal at The Kitchen an American Bistro, we thoroughly enjoyed the nightlife ambiance and then finished with a nightcap at RPM Seafood. Great date night!

We got home safely a week ago but we're going to blog our trip to the very end. We had a wonderful stop in Mackinaw Island, MI. We really dug Detroit although we did have a pretty shitty mishap there. We visited with some friends in Ann Arbor and got to Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and to Canton for the NFL Hall of Fame. We had a beautiful stay on Lake Erie and then our last stop we got to visit with Trooper Lou in Easton Pa. It's wonderful to be home! Thanks for reading down this far and thanks for following our journey. Please stick with us for the last couple of blogs that are coming to you soon.

Kathy and Brad