Chicago... Day 4

Day 4 highlights: July 4th!!!, more shopping, the beach, The Chicago Zoo (a free attraction).
This is my last post of the evening and I'm tired.
It's July 4th today and tomorrow is our last day. We have done a lot during the last several days. Today our goal was to check out the Chicago Zoo which is free. Yup! You heard me right. It's free.
But before we talk about that let's talk about how we deviated from the schedule and went shopping again. Aiyah... Amanda and I both walked into a Pandora store and you can imagine what happened right?




My wrist is happy but my wallet is not. Amanda bought something too but I won't advertise what that is.
Ok... Back on track now. After shopping we headed to the Aquarium. It's near the beach. We now know what everyone does here for the 4th of July. They go to the parks and the beach. They find their spot and start BBQ'ing. The beach was packed!!!




Old folks were playing chess




These benches had chess boards designed into them. So cool!




The river even looked blue today. It's really nice out there.




The Chicago Zoo was awesome. For a free zoo the animals were lively and the place was busy busy. I did see two animals throw up throw. That was weird.








My camera wasnt strong enough to take decent pics at the zoo. But there were giraffes, lions, gorillas, seals... So many animals. It was mating season too I think because the exotic zoo was turning into an erotic zoo. We saw a lot of action.

Tonight there are fireworks and a July 4th celebration at the Pier but we are just too tired to go. It's 11pm right now and I noticed a lot of commotion outside. The streets are busy with traffic. I guess everyone is trying to get home.




I'll leave you with some more random art from today.

Chicago... Day 3

Day 3 highlights: Millenium Park Part Duex!, the city of parks and fountains, more public art, The Shedd Aquarium, Monsoon Rain, The Skydeck and The purple Pig.
I blog for myself and as a hobby. However, on this trip I had completely forgotten about blogging and now I'm blogging on all 4 amazing days in 1 night. Day 3 was yesterday and I have almost forgotten what we had done. It's not because what we did was not memorable. It's because we do soooo much in a day it seems like yesteryear. Good thing I have photos that remind me of the order of our activities.

So we get a lot of things done in a day and we check out a lot of attractions because we got a city pass and we tried to hit everything. The citypass is only 80 dollars and you get entrance and skip the line at 5 city attractions. Totally worth it.
Day 3 was all about going to the aquarium but we had to walk past Millenium Park to get there. We wanted to see the bean one more time and we ended up exploring the park and the neighboring parks a little more. The park is very close to the entrance of the Art Gallery. We didn't notice how many art sculptures were in the surrounding area.

Large painted stones.




An awesome fountain. The faces continuously change and they don't always "spit".








Kids were running through it so we did too heehee.







I love being on vacation with Amanda. Both if us aren't afraid of taking our shoes off and running through spewing water on a day that is expected to rain. We had sooo much fun but squishy shoes. It was worth it.
Here are some neighboring parks.







There are fountains everywhere.








Shedd Aquarium: This Aquarium was part if the city pass. We weren't thinking much of it because we have an aquarium in Vancouver. When we finally got there we were so happy we had that city pass. The line up was sooo long and it didn't look like it was moving either. When you redeem your ticket you get scheduled to watch two shows: one 4D show and a marine show with animals.
















Those were just some of my favourite shots from the aquarium.

Next on our list was the Skydeck. It is another citypass attraction. The Skydeck is the tallest building in western America. The elevator ride up there is only 60 seconds. When we had first arrived to the Skydeck it was right after the freakish monsoon rain that had gone on for about 30 minutes. Viability was 0 because is the fog. We returned a little bit later and visibility was about 1-3 miles so we decided we'd go up there.




That is the glass ledge that you can walk on. Amanda was really scared to go on it.




But she made it afterall.

For dinner we went to the Purple Pig. I walked past the restaurant on the first day. A plaque above the entrance read "Cheese, Swine and Wine". I knew from that moment we had to go there. We were able to get in on the Wednesday at 9pm. It is THAT busy there.








Pork plate and cheese plate: the pork plate had a little bit of every type of cured pork they had. We didn't think it would be that big. We loved all the different types of meat. Wish we knew what they were. Same with the cheese. The server talked to us about the cheese but when we got it we didn't know which was which. They were all tasty though. It's my favourite kind of meal.




Razor clams: I really wanted to order these because I never see them on the west coast and every time I tried to order them in New York they were unavailable. These clams were cooked on a grilled with garlic and lemon juice. They were tender and chewy at the same time. The long clams have a lot of meat and taste quite savoury.




We ordered bone marrow schmear. It's roasted bone Marrow with a salsa that you smear on bread. Really really rich. You are basically eating a lump of fat on your bread. It's delicious. The salsa was nice because it was acidic and fresh due to the cilantro and lime. The salsa really helped to cut the fat.


That commenced Day 3. Once again I'll leave you with neat public art.

Chicago... Day 2

Day 2 Highlights: the Riviera Architecture Tour, Millenium Park and the Bean, Art Institute of Chicago and Catch 35.


As our time in Chicago continues we notice a few things. First of all, people in Chicago seem pretty friendly. Secondly, we are walking over a sewage system. Every once in a while you turn the street corner in downtown and it smells strongly of sewage. Once in a while I'd look down and see if there was a reason why and one time I saw a man hole that explained it all. Chicago is a marriage between old and new. You see it in the buildings, in the cuisine and you can smell it too.
The first things we did on day 2 was head to the Riviera Tour. This tour takes you along the river and gives you a history run down on why Chicago looks the way it does. It is 90 minutes long! Along the way you are asked to pay attention to certain buildings and you were taught the historical significance of their structures. You also learn a lot about architects that designed the buildings and their preferences. If you love art you might find it very interesting. I found it interesting for about a half hour then I started getting a little sea sick. Just some buildings we saw on the tour.








Modern Classical skyscraper




The old post office








Old warehouses converted into condos




One of the major reasons we wanted to go to Chicago was to visit Millenium Park and see the Bean. I don't know if that is the official name but it just looks like a huge silver bean. It did not disappoint. A must see if you go to Chicago. It really takes your breathe away and sort of mesmerizes you.




This amazing bean is sooo reflective you can see all the buildings it faces in it's shiny surface.
Underneath the bean is an optical illusion. You don't know how deep it goes.




We also saw this metallic monstrosity. Isn't it wonderful?? This is concert venue. How awesome would it be to attend a show here.




We went to the Art Institute. It's a huge art gallery with a diverse collection. They had a special exhibit on Impressionism. I didn't take any pictures except for this Japanese sculpture of a god that has three eyes. His role is to enforce your beliefs in Buddhism so you can always stay conscious. He looks angry but he's on your side. :)




We had dinner at Catch 35. It's a seafood restuarant in the business/theatre district.
Here is our meal.




Lobster bisque: soooo good. I wish I could have it now.




Steamed muscles with garlic wi e sauce: meh. I have had better. Something was missing in this dish but I can't put my finger on it.




Thai inspired scallops: I've never had scallops with a Thai flair but this was really good!!! A little sweet but still savoury with just a touch of Asian flavour. Really nice.




Halibut and mushroom risotto: they did a good job with cooking this fish. The risotto was nice as well. The only weird thing about this dish was the dressing that hugged the rim of the dish. It was super sour and I had to avoid it.
I like that downtown Chicago is so walkable. Along our walk that day we saw some neat public art. I'll leave you with these.