A Day In Chicago

On Friday (April 18th) we were told that, for the first time since the project started back in August, we were going to have two days off in a row!

Josh and I decided to take advantage of the real weekend by spending the day in Chicago :-)

We slept in until 5:00 AM and then caught the train in Michigan City.

It took about 1.5 hours to get up to our first stop: The Museum of Science and Industry.

The museum was pretty cool but is more geared towards families and kids. It also has a bunch of "excursions" that seemed fun but we didn't plan on staying there all day and the excursions take a long time to do.

[Vortex]

[Mini Chicago with a train]

[Spirit of America]

We walked around for a while, did some experiments, and then caught a cab to Millennium Park.

[Cloud Gate]

[Crown Fountain]

It was such a beautiful day and it was fun to spend some time walking around the park and taking a lot of "selfies" in the Cloud Gate.

Next, we strolled over to the Art Institute of Chicago. This was my kind of museum! From Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Native American, and Mesoamerica Art to Contemporary, Folk, Modern, and Impressionism Artwork. I LOVED every part of it!

[Armor]

[American Gothic]

[Native American painting] 

[Monet] 

[Picasso] 

[Van Gogh]

[Obsidian Artifacts] 

[Aztec]

[Mayan] 

[Seurat] 

[Southwestern - makes me miss archaeology a little bit]

 

 [Egyptian]

[Greek]

After being cultured, we headed over to the Willis Tower. When we arrived, the line for the Sky Deck was out the door and around the corner and we were told it would be a 2.5 hour wait! We had bought our tickets ahead of time so we decided to just wait in line. It turned out to be only 82 minutes of waiting before we got to the top. The view was worth the wait but it would have been nicer if it was a clearer day and less people were there.

[View from the top]

 

[In the Sky Deck]

[Looking down]

After staring Death in the face, we left the tower and jumped on a double-decker bus for a tour of the city.

The bus ride was actually a lot of fun! We cruised around the city for an hour or so learning some fun facts from our tour guide and seeing some great Chicago landmarks. I did get a little cold towards the end so I made Josh come with me downstairs :-)

We got off the bus at Navy Pier, put in reservations at Bubba Gumps, grabbed some Starbucks, and then walked around the Pier.

[View of the City]

We ended the day with a feast at Bubba Gumps! We had garlic shrimp, snow crab, and mahi mahi. YUM!

After dinner we caught a cab to the nearest train station and then headed back to Indiana.

I'm so glad that we were FINALLY able to visit Chicago! I would have been sad if we had lived this close to the city and never got to visit!