Captain's Choice blog: Good-bye Chicago

What a wonderful time we had in Chicago and of course the best part was having our daughter with us for a couple of days!!! Monday we met Allison at the subway station, good flight, in on time and a promise for nice weather in Chicago. Once she got settled we went on the architectural river cruise aboard The First Lady Cruises. The tour is given by Chicago Architecture Foundation Docents (extensively trained volunteer guides). It was a wonderful 90 minute trip learning about the different architectural styles. We agreed, our favorites are the historic and post-modern. Now for those of you thinking, a river cruise...they are living on a boat...it was well worth it! After dinner at a BBQ restaurant we headed up to the 96th floor of the John Hancock building where we watched the sunset in the Signature Lounge. The view of the city was amazing!!

Due to the 90 degree weather we thought Tuesday would make a great beach day. That lasted a short time, it was just too hot with a feel like temp of 102. We headed to an outdoor cafe and then back to the AC at the boat. That evening we had a little mini reunion dinner with a couple of my cousins that reside in Chicago. It was a wonderful evening.

I tend to get up early most mornings and the sunrise Wednesday morning was beautiful. I finished up one of my drawings, then it was time to head to "the Bean" again and then the Wrigley Field tour. The tour was just awesome, you don't even have to be a Cubs fan to appreciate the history of this ballpark. We were able to sit in the visitor's locker room, which at first glance was nothing to write home about...BUT...this is the original locker room where all the great ball players came and got ready for the game..the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Pete Rose, etc. The Chicago Bears played there for almost 50 years until 1970, so football legends like Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Johnnie Unitas just to name a few were also in the vistors locker room...and when you think about that the room really comes to life! Then we were able to sit in the Cubs dogout...all I can say is we were impressed!
We followed the tour up with a walk in "Wrigleyville" and some Illinois craft beer at DryHop Brewers and lunch.

All in all we got to see and experience so much of Chicago. We are sad to have to take Allison back to the subway to catch her plane, but it's time to move on and go down the river system.