Wednesday 16 August 2017

Aug 15th - Chicago

Hello.

Woke up soon after 6am. Decided it was too early so I went back to sleep. Woke again, and thought it must be very late now - it was 7.30am. Went back to sleep for a little longer then got up and made coffee.

We wanted to do a few things today, so we headed out just after 10am, having FaceTimed Rich, Ann, and Dad - they were in Wyoming at the time. We headed down to the river and walked east to get on a tour boat, but the 11am one had just sold out. We bought tickets for the 12pm sail, then found a Starbucks for coffee.

The boat tour was an architectural tour, by http://www.cruisechicago.com/. It was very interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable, as you'd hope he should be! It was a great way to see the city - as the guide said, you need to look up a lot, and walking along the sidewalk doesn't really give you such an easy job doing this.

After this finished we strolled and found a nice place to have lunch. After lunch we walked down to the harbour and sat there for a while. I decided an American re-make of Howard's Way must be made, called 'Chad's Passage'. One of the characters would be called Troy Masters.

Anyway, after this we walked towards Willis Tower (formally the Sears Roebuck Tower), stopping for a coffee in McDonald's.

We bought tickets and headed up 103 floors in 60 seconds (fast elevator!). The view from the Skydeck was pretty amazing - it's rather like being in a plane - that is, it doesn't 'feel' as high as something a bit lower down, where the brain can comprehend what it's seeing as something more 'real'. It's hard to really describe!

There are some glass boxes on the west wide, which you can stand in and look down 103 floors. Or rather, it seems that you should go in and then stand, or lie down, or lie on your side, or pout, or all of these, and take 1 millions selfies, rather than just looking down and thinking, 'Wow, this is high'. And then moving out of the way so other people can do the same rather than blocking it up for ever and a day. Of course, we took a few pics, but to not be hypocrites we didn't stay in there long, despite the fact I just wanted to look down for longer!

After that we headed to the railway and got on the somewhat amusingly titled 'Brown Line' and went around the famous 'loop' back to the station which is pretty much next to our hotel. We then ordered room service and ate in our room, because we have a better view than the restaurant 8 floors below us!

Other than me nursing a bit of sunburn on my arms, it has been a cracking day.


















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