No Travel
We started the day with breakfast at Wildberry Pancakes and Cafe with my son Jeff, his wife Devon, my granddaughter Sierra, and Devon's sister-in-law Natalyn. The pancakes tasted like desserts instead of breakfast food. Clark had Blueberry Glaze, Natalyn had Oreo S'mores, and I had cranberry pecan pancakes just to name a few of the choices. Absolutely yummy! Many folks in Chicago must think so too because we had an hour's wait to get a table for breakfast. We were all pretty hungry by the time we actually got to sit down and order our food.
After breakfast we decided to walk through Millenium Park directly across the street from the restaurant.
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| Millennium Park |
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| Walking through Millennium Park in Chicago, IL |
One feature of the park that Sierra particularly appreciated was the water fountain. The facial expressions on the wall change over time until finally the "mouth" spews water on unsuspecting passers by.
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| Fountain in Millennium Park for children of all ages to play in |
Sierra thought this area was great fun as she loves all things related to water. Devon took Sierra's outerwear off so Sierra could get good and wet. Despite the chill in the air, Sierra was as happy as could be running around in the water.
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| Devon and Jeff Watching Sierra play in the water at the fountain |
Eventually we decided that we needed to move on to the next point of interest in the park, so Sierra got her clothes on, and we strolled over to check out "the bean". I had no idea what this was until I got there. When constructed, the point of "the bean" was to reflect the city skyline. Quickly, however, it became a point of interest for people to look at themselves.
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| Family Photo with Bean behind us Reflecting the city skyscrapers Devon, Sierra, Jeff, Clark, and Ev |
Walking "into" or under the bean provides lots of photo opportunities. The picture below shows the reflections of some people inside the bean.
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| Sierra checking out the overhead view in 'the bean' |
After playing at the bean for a while, we decided to head back to Natalyn's home. We took the winding path shown below which goes over the highway and allows pedestrians safe passage from one side of the park to the other.
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| Winding path through Millennium Park |
The view from Natalyn's home is truly amazing. She also took us up to the roof observation areas so we could get even better views of Chicago from her building. On one side of the building we could see the marina where we have our boat. Because of the green and orange kayaks, we found our boat easily.
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| View of Navy Pier from Top of Building |
Looking down from Natalyn's living room we could see the Chicago River which looked rather green. I had heard that a fountain spews water across the Chicago River annoying boaters that happen to cross its path at the wrong time. We got to see it in operation and it clearly does spew water from one side of the river to the other. While we were there, I only saw it spraying once from 1:55 until 2:00, so I couldn't tell if the "on the hour" was the pattern or not. We'll have to pass by here after we leave our current dock space. I hope we time it correctly, so we don't get a shower as we go by!
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| Chicago River Fountain |
Another object of interest for us as boaters was the view of the lock separating the Chicago River from Lake Michigan. We are planning to travel through this lock on Monday.
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| Lock separating Chicago River from Lake Michigan |
While Clark, Jeff, Natalyn, and I were up on the roof taking pictures and gawking at Chicago skyscrapers, Sierra enjoyed her afternoon nap with Devon nearby should she be needed. When we finally returned to the condo, we found that Devon's brother, Brandon, was home from work. We sat and talked until Sierra finished her nap and then we set out to walk to the boat to get warmer clothes for both Clark and myself in preparation for going out for dinner this evening.
Clark and I both changed to long pants and grabbed our jackets. Then we all headed over to the River Walk to stroll along the Chicago River. I swear Sierra walked four times the distance the rest of us covered, except for Jeff who chased her up and down the path, as she went forwards and backwards exploring and re-exploring all aspects of the path. As we walked along, we passed by a one-man steel drum and reggae band. I like steel drum music but Clark said this one sounded like the drum was out of tune.
As we walked the path, Natalyn and Brandon kept an eye on the clock because we had a dinner invitation to dine with Natalyn's parents in Chinatown at 6:00. At the designated time we all piled into Brandon's car, and he drove us to the restaurant. We had a chance to walk around before dinner, and Clark busily added photos to our collection.
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| Welcome to Chinatown in Chicago, IL |
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| Chinatown building in Chicago, IL |
Natalyn's parents treated us to a wonderful, traditional Chinese banquet with multiple courses starting with soups and appetizers, containing more main dishes than I could count, and ending with tasty sweet treats for dessert. For our meal, we enjoyed lobster, beef, chicken, and fish dishes along with fried rice, noodles, and a number of other selections such as the Chinese equivalent of calamari. With so many selections there was something for everyone to enjoy, and we all ate more than we probably should have. The picture below shows one of the tasty treats served at the end of the meal.
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| Mango Jell-o Pudding for Dessert - Unexpectedly Delicious!!! (served in fish molded form) |
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