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| Hawaiian pizza Giordano's style! One of the best pizzas we've had, yum! |
DID SOMEONE SAY PIZZA?
Okay, okay, I think what Dave really said was, let's go to Chicago and check out the sights...what my mind was hearing was, "Let's go to Chicago and find the deepest and juiciest deep dish pizza on the planet!"... Hit the gas pedal Dave, and let's set our sights on the city that knows what to do with tomatoes & cheese.
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| Downtown, (Sears/Williams Tower is the tall rectangle that Dave's head is pushing over)! |
I have heard great things about Chicago but never had visited it before. I did get an opportunity recently when a good friend moved there but unfortunately we could not co-ordinate our schedules and before we knew it, they moved back to Texas.
We found a campsite called Hollywood Casino in Joliet, (40 miles West of Chicago). The campground had spacious lots for just $27 a night, (maybe they were hoping we'd spend our savings at the casino?!?). It was interesting to find out the law for casinos was that all gambling had to be on the water. A few years ago, the customers started complaining they didn't like being held "captive" on the boat and preferred to come and go when they pleased. So to rectify this, the casino built an enclosed floating barge (roof & all) and connected it to the "mainland". From the outside, you can't see it's on the water, and from the inside you can't feel it floating on the water!
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| Casino & RV campground (campground is at top/middle of picture) |
Throughout our trip I text friends quick updates as to our status and when I texted we were heading to Chicago for 3 days, within 30 minutes I received multiple texts saying either to eat pizza or eat at Giordano's Pizzeria. Okay but it's 8am, we have to do something beforehand...so armed with water packs on our backs we took to the streets and did our own walking tour of Chicago. We saw a tour group on segways and considered doing it (for the fun of it) but considered our caloric lunch in just a few hours and decided to burn as much as we could on foot!
Chicago was hot, our water packs were great to have, it's amazing how much water you consume, especially when hot outside. We walked through Millennium park in the heart of the downtown area. Lots of sculptures and modern architecture for the eye to see. Here are some of the sights:
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| Teardrop sculpture but more informally known as The Bean! |
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| Millennium Park, fountains & giant led images that spit water out at you! |
PIZZA DE LA RESISTANCE!
By the time we worked our way up through the main shopping drag we were close to our lunchtime destination. Upon arriving at Giordano's Pizzeria, we were seated promptly and we told the waiter exactly what we wanted before the drool from our lips could hit the table (because it smelled so good in there!). Little did we know it takes over 45 min to make one of these masterpieces...oh the torture....so we waited, and waited and 43 minutes and 22 seconds later, our beloved newborn pizza pie arrived. We ate in silence, savoring every morsel, only to have our food-gasmic experience broken with Avril saying, "Are you going to finish that last piece?"...
We were entertained with a family that arrived a little later than us who sat beside our table and constantly taxed their waiter's time by changing their order multiple times. Turns out the husband could only eat gluten free foods with no tomatoes..."why are you in an Italian restaurant????" They wanted pizza and hoped the restaurant could custom make one to which was a stern no, but to Giordano's credit their only non-tomato based pizza is a spinach alfredo one, to which the husband responded that he didn't like spinach...ugh, I sure hope the waiter's tip was worth it that day!
When we travel to major cities we usually like to take open top bus tours to get a feel for the area first and then explore the places we like most in more detail later. After leaving the restaurant we came across just such a tour operator. After examining their brochure, we discovered we had already walked to most of their sights listed. We decided to continue by foot to the last destination, the Navy Pier. The Navy Pier is like a boardwalk area, full of restaurants, rides, sights & seagulls...
TAXI ! I MEAN WATER TAXI !!!
By the time we arrived at the Pier, the heat of the day was getting to us. A great alternative for getting back to the train station (how we arrived into Chicago), was by water taxi.
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| Post pizza after glow.... When Dave said I looked hot, I was thinking of something other than what he saw here... |
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| Navy Pier, looking back at Chicago's downtown skyline |
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| Waiting for our water taxi |
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| One bonus of water taxis... no traffic jams! |
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY:
The next day we toured the museum. Dave had been here once before while in Chicago for work. One exhibit that he did not see was of a World War II, German U-505 submarine that the Americans captured off the coast of Africa in 1944.
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| A real submarine, complete with bullet holes from the the American fleet forcing it's surrender... |
We spent about 6 hours at the museum, learning about cutting edge technologies, environmental developments, space exploration, interacting with mother nature models, and just generally having a peruse through the 14 acres of exhibits & models.
TICKED OFF!
Our last day in the Chicago area was spent hiking in the Starved Rock State Park. Being a state park meant Catalina could join us. As we set off, she led the way, excited to lead us through the trails, often leaping up 2 steps at a time, happy to be back out on squirrel patrol. By the end of our hike, we had to stop a couple of times since Catalina would just lie in the middle of the trail, with the only thing she caught was her breath...(the squirrels could rest easy for another day!). I had noticed a sign when we left the park warning people about ticks. "Better check the dog before we get home", I said. Fortunately she was clear. The next day I was running my fingers through my hair and felt what I thought was a scab behind my ear...after pulling said scab out, I soon discovered it had 6 legs!!!! Eeewwwwwww. Well that was a first for me!
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| Shores of the Illinois River in Starved Rock State Park |
NEXT?
We will be heading East to Dayton, Ohio to see the Wright Brother's museum and then scoot down South to Cincinnati to visit Dave's cousin for the day.
