Chicago!

Hi, Chris here (Haggy)! We are just leaving Chicago, and are on our way to Mt. Rushmore. We are leaving earlier than planned, so we do not have to drive all night.

Chicago is a great city! The downtown core is wonderful to walk around in and experience! I was not super enthused to stay for any length in the city to start with, but thanks to Tak's insentience, we stayed. Anyway, I am glad. We arrived at a T-Mobile store at around 11am Central Time (gaining a free hour!), we got the sim-card and now have mobile Internet! Across the street we went to Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen , which had great food! Their corn beef was excellent. It turns out that both President Obama and President Clinton have eaten there!

We then drove around the city for a bit.  We were all very tired, so we decided to find a place to stay.  Tak found us a motel room at 3pm (Carlton Inn Midway, very nice rooms with good rates!). We then took the orange line train to downtown. The train is raised above the normal city streets, so it is a great way to see the city, and, at $2.25, a great value. The Loop (the track to downtown) was down for repairs though, but it was an easy transfer from the train to the subway at Roosevelt station, which took us straight downtown, in our case, Jackson station on the red line.

After that we went to Willis tower (formally the Sears tower), to do the touristy thing. We did not go up.  In fact, at 5pm the wait was 2 hours, so we deiced not to go. After we walked to Millennium Park, but not really the most direct way, because downtown Chicago was just fun to walk around in! We followed the raised rail to Whacker Avenue. We also saw a Hotel for Men Only that looked a LOT like the one from Blues Brothers, though we did not enter because, well, it looked super shady. There was a crazy amount of limos about; we must have seen 15 to 25!

The police has a very visible presence in Chicago, and some extra fake police cars to scare people into acting/driving right. This is not fully correct; there is a cab company (Blue Ribbon) which seem to drive exclusively ex-cop cars (Ford police interceptors) which look like crown Vic's. By itself, it should not be too confusing, except that the paint job is almost identical to a cop car! I cannot tell you how many times we, or someone we saw, stopped jaywalking when they saw a cab!

When we got to Millennium park, people were wrapping up a chef contest thing, so the park was filled with tents, equipment, and people trying to get other people from getting in the way. The park is really neat, full of modern art and interesting landscaping. We did not stay long though. We went to Navy Pier,  which was also filled with things to look at.  By the time we arrived it was 7pm.

Navy Pier is, well, a tourist trap, but a very nice one though, and worth checking out. We walked around the whole thing, though we did not engage in many of the activities. There is a nice merry-go-round, a Ferris wheel, and other rides. There are some carnival games as well. There are also lots of boat tours and other booths. I think if one was on a date or with a family, it would be more fun.

After we walked toward Roosevelt Station (we decided to forgo the subway because it was nice out) and ended up at Pizano's Pizza & Pasta. It was good and fun to try Chicago-style pizza. At that point it was 10 pm, so we walked back to the station.

It was good to sleep in a bed that night. Afterwards we had breakfast at the motel! Now we are on the road.

That's all for now!