Chicago Sightseeing, Part One

On Monday we took the train to the big city - Chicago!

I've been here on business several times back in the day when I was a merchandiser or buyer and I would attend the housewares show in the winter and consumer electronics in the summer. And, I've come into the city when I visited relatives in my youth: however, I've never really a true tourist. So, I rented an apartment in the Andersonville neighborhood and we are doing as many touristy things as we can.

First stop - the Willis Tower, formerly know as the Sears tower. It has an attraction known as the Skydeck on the 103rd floor where you can step out into a plexiglass box OVER the city and look down 1,353 feet below.

Jerry and cousin Diane in one of the three skydecks

 

My left foot in the skydeck and my right foot firmly planted inside the building - no way I was going our there. No way.  

A view of the city from one of the windows. Sadly, a dirty window but it had a more interesting view than the clean windows.  The whole 103rd floor is windows with fabulous views of course.

We also went to the Adler Planetarium. I didn't get a photo of it, duh, but I did get a city scape.

A giant telescope at the Adler. 

We ended the evening in Chinatown where we had a delicious dinner.

 

A happy little iris we walk by everyday on our way to the main drag with restaurants and shops. It's neighbor is a delightful smelling lilac bush. This neighborhood is also full of people walking dogs.

 

 

Vacation Day 2 - Some Sightseeing

Day two started with one of those double decker bus/trolley tours where you can jump off and on at any stop for the day. The buses have a tour guide. We got a late start and had to finish early to make it to our boat trip. We decided to make the Betsy Ross house our stop since it wasn't as busy as the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. There was no time for the museums but Philadelphia sure has a lot of them - we decided museums would be a trip of their own,.



 After spending time touring around the City and the Betsy Ross house we decided to have a slice nearby. The paper plate under it is full size but is dwarfed by the huge slice. We could have shared one.

After a short rest we headed to the Schuykill River banks so a 2 hour ride from Walnut street on the Schuykill River to Walnut street on the Delaware (Penn's Landing area). It was a very informative ride because the Schuykill used to be so polluted that planes flying overhead could smell it. The banks have been updated to a very nice recreation path for bikers, walkers, runners, etc. It's always interesting to see a city from it's rivers.

This is the old water works plant. It hasn't been used for that in a very long time and has been through several transformations since that time.

The Philly skyline from the Schuykill side. Notice that square looking area on top of the tallest building? That is filled with water to stabilize the building because it's narrow and light. The water adds weight.

The USS New Jersey on the Delaware side moored in Camden. They use it as an event venue. We saw lots of large boats in the shipyards that were in different stages of decommission. One was the USS John F Kennedy.

The Philadelphia skyline from the Delaware - had to shoot toward the sun, sorry.

When we left the boat we hailed a cab and went to Chinatown for dinner. I just love the friendship gates.

The best wonton soup noodles ever! (The first restaurant we stopped at advertised seafood and had aquariums in the window with live fish, lobsters, and FROGS! We kept moving - I am used to live lobsters waiting to be dinner but not frogs.)

Dinner was very yummy but again, we should have shared. We talked to the couple sitting next to us. They were from Hersey and she worked for Hersey's. She said she gets all the free chocolate she can eat. I asked her how much she pays to work there ;)

The menu - actually it's only half the menu. The other half was in English.

Didn't mean to upload this one but since it's here. This is me in the morning waiting to leave for the day.