City of the Big Shoulders

Even Bob knows that line from the Carl Sandburg poem and poetry isn't his genre so I'm assuming that everyone in the universe knows that "city of the big shoulders" is Chicago.

 

Rather than zooming into Chicago on the interstate, we leisurely ambled in on little roads which took us through very pretty, very old areas like Lake Bluff and Highland Park where the homes are mansions and the yards are immaculately landscaped.  Lots of residents were out for walks with their dogs and I hope those dogs appreciated that they live in homes ridiculously better than ours.  Each of the neighborhoods still has its old shopping area and I loved seeing those too.

 

We spent the afternoon on the hop-on, hop-off tour.  We never hopped off; we stayed on for the entire loop seeing beautiful buildings, hearing useful information, and getting red noses as we were on the top deck and the sun was shining.

 

Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper and the Chicago Board of Trade building is a good example.

 

The Willis Building (formerly the Sears Tower) is Chicago's tallest building.  Some of you will remember that when we were here last, we were brave enough to step out onto a little totally glass pod on the 103rd floor of this building.  Look up, waaaaayy up, on the left hand side of this next picture to see if you can spot these pods.

Did you see them?  If not, I zoomed in on them in this next photo. You can see why "once was enough" and we only admired the building and the view from the ground this time. 

We're just a couple of blocks from the "el" the elevated tramway.

Our hotel, The Central Loop, is another good example of an old skyscraper.  We're not exactly scraping the sky though as our room is on the fifth floor.

The hotel has a couple of amenities that we aren't used to.  One is the water purifier in the hallway with bottles to fill.  It's a great idea for those who don't mind using plastic bottles.

Here's another amenity - the loan of an iPad.

Tonight we went to "Flashdance" which won't hit our "favorite five" list, but which was good nonetheless.

The Cadillac Theater is one of the most beautiful we have ever been in.

Glenda, first thing on my agenda for my second day in Chicago is a trip to the Harold Washington Library.  You'll really like the architecture and, when comparing it to the University Library, the University will lose dismally.