Sonya's Blog - Day 23 - Ahh, Chicago!
Sonya’s Blog - Day 23 - July 15 - Ahh, Chicago
We dropped Kizmet off at a ladies house for dog sitting. We could not find a Doggy Daycare near us with good hours, but found this site called Doggy Vacay which individuals sign up for that take care of dogs in their homes. We love this because it is a far better option for Kizmet. She did not really like all the noise at the doggy day care, just being with a few dogs is more her style. We found a lovely lady named Becky to take care of Kizmet and she is in Elgin which is just 20 mins from us and on the way to Chicago so it worked out perfect. She has a a lovely Black Lab cross named Ramona, who is 10 years old and she is also taking care of Barkley who is a Golden Retriever, 12 years old. Becky has 3 children, 13, 9 and 4 and they all love dogs. Kizmet made herself right at home and her and Ramona played really well together. Barkley got in there, but his back legs get sore so he rests a lot. We got updates about Kizmet all day and she fit in no problem, we love this new option. We will be using Doggy Vacay a lot in our year away! With Kizmet so well taken care of we continued on our way.
We wanted to get to the Rosemont station to catch the L-train into Chicago, but our GPS took us to the Cumberland Station and then wanted us to backtrack to the Rosemont station. They are doing about 20 miles of construction on the I-90, so it is possible that the Rosemont turnoff is not there. Who knows. We decided to just go to the Cumberland Station since it was right there. We have had a little party with the tolls. The one’s on the I-90 allow you to pay an attendant, but the ones on the exits are coins only. We did not have any coins and you can only pay online if you are from the State. We will have to mail in our missed tolls, so far we are at $4.40! Not very convenient for us, but what can you do. We made it to the parkade and luckily it was high enough that our truck fit in it and we made it to the train and got it all figured out. We had 13 stops till we were downtown and then we had to figure out how to get to the hop on hop off bus tour. With all our messing around and figuring things out it took 2 hours from when we dropped off Kizmet to when we were finally standing on the right street corner waiting for our double-decker tour bus. We ate our packed lunch while we were waiting for the bus.
The bus came and we found seats on the top, the tops are open air and give you a great view of everything. Our tour guide was named Faith and she was a lot of fun. I don’t remember everything because it is so much information. However on top of the Chicago Hilton there is a mini mansion that was built for Liz Taylor. It has it’s own heli-pad and everything. Liz Taylor never spent one night there because she ended up divorcing one of her husbands (the one that was having it built) before it was complete. You can stay in it for $7000 per night as long as you have the helicopter ride to get to the heli-pad. Jay-Z and Beyonce stayed there last year. When you drive along Lakeshore Drive you can totally see that it is a mini mansion sitting on top of the hotel. The building of the Hilton is called a Greystone-brownstone-greystone because it is greystone on the top, brownstone in the middle and greystone on the bottom. It is quite unique looking and then of course it has a greystone mini mansion on the top. We also saw Grant Park, named after Ulysses S. Grant - they love him in the midwest. It is 319 acres of park and has pillars that are the gateway to Chicago.
The Gateway to Chcago with Mother Nature Statue:
If you came to Chicago way back when everyone had to enter the city through those pillars or for the Grand Exhibition or something. It is guarded by two statues on horses, that have names I do not remember, with Mother Nature in the middle. It was pretty neat, we will try and explore that area while we are here. We also went by a harbour, I think it was Grand Harbour, and it is only $5000 per month to dock your boat there. Done! Some of the yachts were pretty huge!
One of our next stops was Navy Pier, which has the famous Ferris Wheel on it and we got off there. Natasha wanted to explore Navy Pier due to it’s importance in the book Divergent. It has a small amusement park and shops and eateries and a lot of Michigan Lake boat tours leave from that location. We have to go back tomorrow for Natasha to ride the Ferris Wheel because the line was really long and we needed to get on the bus again as the tours start ending at 5 PM, depending on where you are. We are also hoping that if we get there earlier the line ups won’t be so long.
Pictures from Navy Pier:
We hopped on the bus again and saw some more sights, like the John Hancock building, the famous water tower and pumphouse that did not burn down in the Chicago fire of 1871. They are made out of a particular type of limestone and everything else was wood, so they figure that is why they survived. Chicago is called the Second City because they rebuilt so successfully after the Great Fire and it is also called the Windy City, not only beause it can be very windy, but because their politicians when they were vying for the World Exposition could be so long winded. The phrase was coined by a New York journalist, as New York was also vying for the exposition at the same time. It was right after the Great Chicago Fire and Chicago won their bid over New York, New York was none too happy about it. We saw the Ritz Carleton and Michigan Avenue where all the snoot snoot shops are like Coach, Burberry (which just had a $2 Million facelift to make the outside look like their most famous perfume), Sakks 5th Avenue, etc. We got off the bus at the 14th stop because it was right by the Chicago Hotdog place, Portillo's Hotdogs. Our first tour guide told us that we had to have 3 things when we are in Chicago - their popcorn ( a mix of cheese and caramel), Chicago Pizza and a Chicago Hotdog. We went in and tried the Chicago Hotdog. It was a neat place because the inside was made to look like an old Chicago Street. They had lots of pictures on the wall and paraphenelia from Chicago’s past like news bulletins, advertisements, show posters, etc. The hotdogs had lots of fixins on them as well as a full pickle and these hot peppers. They were pretty good, for a hotdog.
Portillo's Hotdog Place:
We left the restaurant and walked around the area to see some of the architecture and explore Chicago some more. It was rush hour by this time so the streets were pretty busy. We ended up walking back to Michigan and then along that street to see what all the fuss was about. Lots of street performers on that street and people selling their wares and begging as well. We saw a trio of dancers that also had a bit of a comedy act in there. The one guy picked people out of the audience and then did a flip over them, I thought he was joking when he pulled the first lady out, but then flipped right over her head! They were really funny and entertaining. We walked around a bit more and saw some more sites and grabbed some drinks. We then saw a very entertaining magician who had some great tricks which he used the kids for. The best was his last trick at the end with our $20 bill which Isaac had drawn a moustache and fancy eyebrows on the president. He took a lemon which he put in a bag, put an elastic around and gave to Isaac to hold. he then rolled up the $20 bill into a cylinder shape and put it in a bag for Natasha to hold. Both kids were holding onto the item in their bags. Natasha then had to hold up the bag with the money in it and drop it and when she did the money was gone. Isaac had to protect his lemon the whole time. Isaac then handed over the bag with the lemon and the guy took the lemon out and cut it open and the $20 bill was rolled up in the middle of the lemon. When he unrolled the bill it was the one with the moustache and eyebrows drawn on the president. Isaac was amazed as we all were, by this time there was quite a big crowd and he earned some good tips for that one.
Isaac and Natasha with the Street Magician:
We decided that it was late enough by this time and we should try and find our train back to our truck and go and get Kizmet. We knew where we had to go, but when we got to where we thought we needed to be there was indeed a train station, but not for the line that we needed. So we were wandering around and had pulled out maps and this nice gentlemen stopped and asked us if we needed help and directed us to where we needed to go. He asked us where we were from as he was walking the same way and it turns out his mother grew up in Okotoks! Small world. We got on our train and settled in for the long ride back to the outskirts of town. It was pretty uneventful. The drive to get Kizmet went well and Kizmet was excited to see us, but clearly had a good day because she ran around to all of us, including their kids. They are super nice people. It was late so we got Kizmet in the truck and headed back for bed. We need to get up quite early tomorrow because we have to drop Kizmet off before 8:30. I will be up bright and early tomorrow so I am going to wrap this up now. More from Chicago tomorrow.
Sonya out!