Chicago Day One is day 3 of my trip to Springfield and Chicago. The first two days are Springfield Part One and Springfield Part Two.
Monday morning I woke up at 6am thanks to the alarm on my watch that I forgot to turn off. After picking up Tim’s friend Joe, the three of us headed to Downtown Chicago to spend the day. Our first stop after eating breakfast was Millennium Park to shoot Cloud Gate aka the Bean. It was rather warm but I still managed to take tons of photos from many different angles. I was also told by a friend when I took a selfie of my reflection that I looked like a midget. If you have a chance to visit Chicago, I definitely suggest you visit the Bean.
We then headed down to the James Thompson Center AKA the Atrium to take some photos of the lobby. You come in on the 2nd floor, food court is on the ground floor. What I thought was odd was the security check point was not at the front doors but near the elevators on the 2nd floor. We ended up grabbing lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
First we checked out the Clark Street Bridge (surprisingly it didn’t bother my fear of heights but it did make me a little nervous on how much the metal plates were shaking). We then headed down to the Riverwalk. We certainly got our exercise and took MANY photos which is par for the course with me when I travel some place I’ve never been to though I’ve been known to do that even when going someplace I have been to many times. (cough Surfside pier cough). I LOVE taking photos. We stopped along the Riverwalk for refreshments, the guys had beer and I had lemonade. We also took photos from the Lake Shore Drive bridge.
We ate dinner at the world famous Billy Goat tavern before heading to the John Hancock building for the sunset and night shots of downtown Chicago. What is cool about the building is the John Hancock Observatory which is on the 94th floor and has a 360 view of the city. Tim and Joe also did the Tilt which tilt’s outward 1,000 feet over the magnificent mile which according to the website "offers visitors unique, downward facing views from 1,000 feet up". There is not enough money on the planet to get me to do it but Tim and Joe had fun.
The story continues with Chicago Day Two