July 11-16
I know, how can there be more Chicago, we've already done so much....but there is more.
Before I go on though, I feel as if I have neglected what brought us to Chicago in the first place and that is the pets that we were caring for. I know it may seem like we were not home all that much but each night we were home by dinner time and spent a lot of time with them walking and giving them lots of love. We were taking care of Pepper, a two-year old pit bull and two cats - Misty and Houdini. It took two days before Houdini came out of hiding but once he did he was as sweet as Misty and Pepper. We took Pepper out for a walk three times each day....needless to say that this trip really kept us moving, in fact for most days our step count was beyond the daily goal.
Wilson and I are on our own now with several days left to explore. We go at a much slower pace because there is time to finish the CityPass attractions and we want to enjoy spending time at home.
As an aside: You may have noticed I call the places that we stay home and wondered about that. Wilson and I both agree that wherever we are we are home...it's always been that way even when we had our own home. I know for some that concept is foreign but for us it works.
For the next several days our adventures continue.
We went to a White Sox baseball game. Tickets were only $7. We didn't stay for the whole game but while there it was quite enjoyable...we did stay long enough to see the Sox score in the 4th inning which gave us the added bonus of getting a free iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. With consideration of the coffee the tickets really only cost us $4 a piece which was a real bargain if you didn't figure in the costs of the $10 beers...No domestic beer is worth that much and I was sure as heck not going to spend $3 on a Diet Coke...instead I got a free cup of ice and had that. I'm not so cheap that I didn't spend money, I just chose to spend it on nachos and flavoured popcorn (of course that's after I scoped out the best bargains, lol)
(I love Robinson Cano, despite his former Yankee status.... he has a nice smile and nice eyes. He also just came back from hitting a game winning HR in the All-Star game)
We visited the Field Museum of Natural History. When you first arrive you are greeted with the largest, most extensive, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur ever found (approximately 90% by bulk was recovered). The T-Rex was found in the Black Hills of South Dakota and is named Sue, after the woman who first discovered it. We also took a docent lead tour through the North American Indian area of the museum where we learned about life and traditions of various tribes. One area that was highlighted and peaked our interest was the Cahokia Mounds which is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico. The mounds are located in Illinois, not far from the Minnesota border....um...I think a visit is in order.
We also visited the Shedd Aquarium, which is in the same area as the Field Museum (two separate days), not far from Grant Park. While at the aquarium we visited the stingray pool. People actually can touch the fish, but Wilson and I opted not to do that. We also saw a little aquatic show featuring jumping dolphins. We saw lots of different things including baby shark eggs, a giant clam, seahorses, and exhibits on ancient Egypt and underground creepy, crawly, life.
Interesting fact: The female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male's pouch. The males fertilize the eggs and carry them in the pouch for anywhere from 9-45 days until the babies emerge fully developed.
Lastly, we went to the fifth and final attraction in our booklet which was 360° Chicago, the viewing area atop the John Hancock building. 360° Chicago offers full views and as an added bonus they added a tilting feature wall that tilts people over the building in a glassed in enclosure. The John Hancock building comes in at 1,128 ft (not counting antennas) and 100 stories making it the fourth tallest building in Chicago (after Willis Tower, Trump Tower, & Aon Centre), the eighth tallest building in the U.S. and the 33rd tallest building in the world. When asked about daily visitor count we were told that they have on average about 3,000/day. Both Wilson and I enjoyed this building better than Willis Tower mostly because there weren't the crowds and there were more views of the lake.
......lastly, what am I talking about? I nearly forgot a whole day spent with my friend Sean. Sean lives in Kalamazoo, MI but grew up in the Chicago suburbs. While with Sean we also tasted another treat from Chicago, the Italian Beef Sandwich. We went to the landmark restaurant Portillio's, which was crazy busy.
Together we toured the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple. Sean had thought to go to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Museum but was a good sport when we asked to visit the temple. At some point I would love to tour Wright's designs as I have been fascinated by him since reading the book Devil in the White City. If you've never read that book you really should it's very, very, interesting....set in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. Ah, but I digress...it's so easy to do. The temple is a beautiful building that caught our attention on the very first day we were in Chicago on the walking tour. It's located near Daley Plaza, a prime piece of real estate. It's rich in history, having been built many times in the same location. The church elders were quite forward thinking and had the last building built to incorporate office space along with worship space. The ground floor is where the sanctuary is and where church services are still held every week. The second through forth floors house various other church oriented rooms. Floors five through twenty-one are rental offices and at the very top is the "Chapel in the Sky".
Interesting temple information aka descriptions of pictures on next post:
- The charred wooden cross outside of the sanctuary on the ground floor was a cross that was burned by the KKK in an intimidation move which backfired. Instead of intimidating the chaplain, who received the fiery message, it became a symbol against segregation and was brought to many demonstrations, including one in 1964 that included racial integration within the Methodist church
- The wooden alter on the ground floor sanctuary depicts Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem
- The "Chapel in the Sky" was a donation from the Walgreen family...that's in Walgreen Drugs
- The wooden alter in the chapel is a companion piece to the sanctuary alter, showing Jesus crying over Chicago instead of Jerusalem
- The stained glass windows in the chapel not only show religious symbols but also modern day symbols associated with the city of Chicago
And finally:
What about Wrigley Park you might ask...well, more about that later.
As an aside: You may have noticed I call the places that we stay home and wondered about that. Wilson and I both agree that wherever we are we are home...it's always been that way even when we had our own home. I know for some that concept is foreign but for us it works.
For the next several days our adventures continue.
We went to a White Sox baseball game. Tickets were only $7. We didn't stay for the whole game but while there it was quite enjoyable...we did stay long enough to see the Sox score in the 4th inning which gave us the added bonus of getting a free iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. With consideration of the coffee the tickets really only cost us $4 a piece which was a real bargain if you didn't figure in the costs of the $10 beers...No domestic beer is worth that much and I was sure as heck not going to spend $3 on a Diet Coke...instead I got a free cup of ice and had that. I'm not so cheap that I didn't spend money, I just chose to spend it on nachos and flavoured popcorn (of course that's after I scoped out the best bargains, lol)
(I love Robinson Cano, despite his former Yankee status.... he has a nice smile and nice eyes. He also just came back from hitting a game winning HR in the All-Star game)
We visited the Field Museum of Natural History. When you first arrive you are greeted with the largest, most extensive, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur ever found (approximately 90% by bulk was recovered). The T-Rex was found in the Black Hills of South Dakota and is named Sue, after the woman who first discovered it. We also took a docent lead tour through the North American Indian area of the museum where we learned about life and traditions of various tribes. One area that was highlighted and peaked our interest was the Cahokia Mounds which is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico. The mounds are located in Illinois, not far from the Minnesota border....um...I think a visit is in order.
We also visited the Shedd Aquarium, which is in the same area as the Field Museum (two separate days), not far from Grant Park. While at the aquarium we visited the stingray pool. People actually can touch the fish, but Wilson and I opted not to do that. We also saw a little aquatic show featuring jumping dolphins. We saw lots of different things including baby shark eggs, a giant clam, seahorses, and exhibits on ancient Egypt and underground creepy, crawly, life.
Interesting fact: The female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male's pouch. The males fertilize the eggs and carry them in the pouch for anywhere from 9-45 days until the babies emerge fully developed.
Lastly, we went to the fifth and final attraction in our booklet which was 360° Chicago, the viewing area atop the John Hancock building. 360° Chicago offers full views and as an added bonus they added a tilting feature wall that tilts people over the building in a glassed in enclosure. The John Hancock building comes in at 1,128 ft (not counting antennas) and 100 stories making it the fourth tallest building in Chicago (after Willis Tower, Trump Tower, & Aon Centre), the eighth tallest building in the U.S. and the 33rd tallest building in the world. When asked about daily visitor count we were told that they have on average about 3,000/day. Both Wilson and I enjoyed this building better than Willis Tower mostly because there weren't the crowds and there were more views of the lake.
......lastly, what am I talking about? I nearly forgot a whole day spent with my friend Sean. Sean lives in Kalamazoo, MI but grew up in the Chicago suburbs. While with Sean we also tasted another treat from Chicago, the Italian Beef Sandwich. We went to the landmark restaurant Portillio's, which was crazy busy.
Together we toured the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple. Sean had thought to go to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Museum but was a good sport when we asked to visit the temple. At some point I would love to tour Wright's designs as I have been fascinated by him since reading the book Devil in the White City. If you've never read that book you really should it's very, very, interesting....set in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. Ah, but I digress...it's so easy to do. The temple is a beautiful building that caught our attention on the very first day we were in Chicago on the walking tour. It's located near Daley Plaza, a prime piece of real estate. It's rich in history, having been built many times in the same location. The church elders were quite forward thinking and had the last building built to incorporate office space along with worship space. The ground floor is where the sanctuary is and where church services are still held every week. The second through forth floors house various other church oriented rooms. Floors five through twenty-one are rental offices and at the very top is the "Chapel in the Sky".
Interesting temple information aka descriptions of pictures on next post:
- The charred wooden cross outside of the sanctuary on the ground floor was a cross that was burned by the KKK in an intimidation move which backfired. Instead of intimidating the chaplain, who received the fiery message, it became a symbol against segregation and was brought to many demonstrations, including one in 1964 that included racial integration within the Methodist church
- The wooden alter on the ground floor sanctuary depicts Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem
- The "Chapel in the Sky" was a donation from the Walgreen family...that's in Walgreen Drugs
- The wooden alter in the chapel is a companion piece to the sanctuary alter, showing Jesus crying over Chicago instead of Jerusalem
- The stained glass windows in the chapel not only show religious symbols but also modern day symbols associated with the city of Chicago
And finally:
What about Wrigley Park you might ask...well, more about that later.
