Chicago Diary - Pt 6

Wednesday 5/30
5:20 p.m.

Yesterday we did Chicago!!!
We got up and headed down to the train station where we took the 66 minutes train ride down to Union Station in Chicago. Great way to get into the city and see some of the landscapes along the way.
Once we got to Union Station – which itself is a awesome place – we stopped to take some pictures of the area then moved out into the city. Sprawling buildings all dwarfed by the Sears Tower. It truly felt like a big city. It was right at lunch time so there were a lot people milling about and the streets were full as we made our way down Adams Street.
We knew with the limited time so we were not going to be able to go up the Sears tower but got some good shots from up under the building looking up.
We popped into a Potbellies sub shop - which was quite busy as it was still at the tail end of lunchtime - and we each got a roast beef sub to go. The plan was to make our way to the Buckingham Fountain and eat there. It was quite a trek but we made it and stopped to rest and have our lunch. It was really nice and quiet. That fountain is the one that you see at the opening credits of Married With Children tv show. It is on the banks of Lake Michigan so it was nice and cool place to eat with the breeze coming up off of the lake.
After we ate, the Field Museum was in site and it was just a bit more of a walk to make it there. It sits right in front of Soldier Field where the Chicago Bears play there games. We made our way up to a vantage point to where I could get a picture of the stadium and then went into the museum.
The main attraction of course is Sue – the largest T rex ever found. It is a pretty amazing site. While not as large as we had pictured it would be – it’s still pretty wild to see! We spent most of out time there, but we did see some other exhibits that they had there - like an ancient Egypt one that was really awesome!
We spent several hours inside the museum then headed back towards Adams Avenue. As we were all tired and had walked a ton we tossed the idea around of catching a cab back to Union Station - but in the end we diecided to stop for dinner at a mid way point to break up the long walk back. We ended up at a Bennigans across from the Art Museum of Chicago. I got a really good Chipolte Burger and Deb got a french onion soup and a salad.
Refreshed - we headed onto Union Station where we enjoyed a nice hour ride back to the train station in Libertyville to get the car and head back to Shawn and Kims. Exhausted we all went straight to bed.
Today Kim had to go back to work so me Deb, Shawn and Nicole headed to do some shopping and hit the mall where we bought some Chicago souviners for the grandbabies.
We just hit a food court in there and Deb got some orange chicken at a China Coast and I grabbed a steak and cheese chipolte sub at Charlie's. Very good indead.
The plan tonight is to go Italian and then come back to the house where we need to pack and get ready for the ride home tomorrow.
More later...