Here we go again and again travel blog

Neat Balconys huh?

River Walk

The street is being blocked off for Oprah

Beautiful

Don't park here after a party night

Many movies made on this street

Guess what we found?

Look at the handles on these window mops

The fog is rolling in

Soldier Field... Home of the Chicago Bears

The black building with two white antennas is the Sears Tower(Willis). The...

Awesome even in the fog

Check these window washers on the right out

NBC Studios

 

Navy Pier

 

 

One of only two light houses in Illinois

Bill having a chat with Bob Newhart

 

Must have been a hard day

Beautiful

Awesome

What can I say?

Chicago Tax Dollars at work

Too much money- not enough time

At the John Hancock Center

 

 

 

Let's eat here

Inside the restaurant

Fun place

Tomatoes, peppers, mustard, pickle, onions, poppy seeds and NO Ketchup

Lunch Spot of the Day

Across the street

Trump's newest

Merchantile Building- Awesome

 

Sears Tower

 

 

Art on the Street

 

 

CBS

Twin Condo's above those cool parking places I showed you earlier

I just love this view

 

Hoards of people waiting for Oprah

We're really close to the stage

I think I know these people

Rascal Flatts are on stage

 

 

Fight broke out and the police had a hard time getting in

Can you believe this is right in the middle of downtown?


Yesterday was one of those days that we will never forget… We headed out before 8am to catch the train back to Chicago. From our boarding area it is a two hour train ride along the south shores of Lake Michigan.. I can’t say that it is a very pretty ride because as most of you know, train tracks are usually not in the new homes district.. We saw mostly the industrial areas with the majority of them relating to the Steel Industry.. This time we knew just what we wanted to see and do so we headed to the ticket office for the double decker bus ride around the City… For a senior price of $24.00 ($29 for the younger adults) each we could ride all day long; getting off as many times as we wanted..

There are 18 stops along the route but we stayed on the first 9 before getting off at the Navy Pier…. Some of the highlights of the first part were the Michigan Ave Bridge where you can walk the Riverwalk or catch a tour boat or hail a water taxi. This is where we first saw the blocked off street where a crowd had been gathering since about midnight for the filming of the beginning show of Oprah 24th year on TV…Next was the Theater District, Palmer House, Art Institute, Hilton Chicago and other areas of Chicago where many movies have been made.. Next we drove toward Lake Michigan passing Grant Park with its beautiful fountains , Shedd Aquarium and Soldier Field where I have watched the Vikings beat the Bears many times on TV. It is a beautiful stadium that overlooks the lake… How lucky can they be?

We got off the bus at Navy Pier and had planned it so we could eat lunch there and try a

Chicago Hot Dog but as we walked by a tour boat that advertised they had started the year we were born I mentioned that to the fellow urging people on the tour… He said “wait a minute” and came back a bit later and said that if I could show proof of that I could ride free.. They didn’t know that Bill was born the same year as me but they honored what they said and we both got to go for not a penny… Well we sure couldn’t pass that up so we grabbed a bag of fries from McDonalds and hopped aboard… At this time the fog had rolled in a bit and gave the skyline view of Chicago a very mystic look… It really was quite beautiful…. When we got off the boat we walked the pier for awhile and met up with the tribute to Bob Newhart.. Bob was from Chicago and they have a nice statue of him sitting in a chair with a sofa along side.. Neat.

We were still full from the fries and a drink so we got back on another bus and continued the tour… Next was a tour of the Magnificent Mile where all the upscale shops are… We took a slight detour because so much of the street was blocked off for the Oprah taping but we still got to see plenty. The new Trump Tower is located there and when finished it will be taller than the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower). It is an awesome building but for much of the day it had its head in the clouds.. You can explore the world under Michigan Ave also… But more about that in a minute.

The Water Tower was our next exit.. This had to be one of my favorite stops because of the beautiful churches that are in the area.. It is also where the Hershey Store is and with our tour came a free Hershey candy bar. We walked to the next stop which was only a few blocks away and came to the John Hancock that has an Open Air Observatory. We had planned on going up to the Observatory but the cost was more than we wanted to pay for the short time we could spend there. $15.00 each and we could only stay about 10 minutes.. We want more for our money than that… When Michael lived here just a few years ago he told us to go up and just have a drink while the Sears Tower charged a lot to go up that one… How fast things change. There is not a heck of a lot that is free in this town; or any town for that matter.

Next stop was in the night club district with lots of upscale restaurants and fun times… We chose this area to have our Chicago Hot Dog…. What a fun place. We went to a place kitty corner to the Hard Rock Café called Portillo’s where the gal taking our money treated us to a ton of laughs as she welcomed us and put chef’s hats on our heads.. She then grabbed my camera and took a picture of us…. We are still chuckling over this. Bill asked her if she ever had any fun when she came to work and got quite a laugh from the whole crew on that remark… The hot dog was awesome.. We were glad that we missed having one at the Navy Pier…

The bus then took us to Union Station… You know how much I love train stations and this one was just beautiful but time was running out so we did not get off and explore… One of the things we saved for Next Time. Finishing up the tour we went by Ogilvie Station, Skydeck Chicago and Macy’s on State Street…

We returned to our starting point at Millennium just in time to take the train back to Michigan City so we wouldn’t be exhausted but you know us… We hadn’t done enough yet…. All we had been hearing about all day was the Oprah taping and how it was impossible to get in there… Well that’s all I needed to hear and away we went… We walked back down Michigan Avenue until we came to the road blocks and that is when we learned about the underground… Down the stairs we went and up the other side to join the thousands of people… Everyone was pushing and shoving so I pushed too.. We finally got up pretty close to the stage but the heat and crowd was getting to me so we elbowed our way to the side that was all fenced off. Everyone said that we could not get out but I told them we either did or they could pick me up off the ground….One of the cops heard me and opened a section for us to get out… By then we had a nice open view of the stage and all the pre-tape events.. We watched Rascal Flatts entertain and Black Eye Peas before security told us we had to keep walking.. We walked very slow but had to leave before Oprah came on stage.. I did talk to one woman that said she was on the bridge earlier in the day talking to all the fans..

We practically ran back to the depot and got boarded our later train just four minutes before it departed. We got back home much later than we had planned but it was so much fun. We would do it all over again in a minute.. But give my poor feet a couple of days to catch up. Now I have to choose some of the 200+ pictures to share with you.

Today has been a cleaning day and last minute things like a truck wash, fuel up and things that we needed to do to go on our next big trip… That will be one of those nice easy ones about 60 miles away from here to Elkhart, Indiana.. Can’t wait to get all that Amish cooking again…. Later……………

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