Illinois: Chicago (Day 3)

Day: 74
No Travel

The weather today promised to be overcast with intermittent rain throughout the day.  That pretty much wiped out much in the way of outdoor activities but made the day an excellent choice for a trip to the Shedd Aquarium just down the waterfront from the marina.  Despite the threat of rain, we enjoyed the walk there.  Sierra enjoyed stomping in the puddles as she loves water.

On our way there we stopped and got a group photo.

Clark, Ev, Jeff, Devon, and sleeping Sierra with
Chicago in the background

Of course a long line stretched out the door and around the building when we got to the aquarium, so we had a rather long wait to get in.  Devon's brother, Brandon, and her sister-in-law, Natalyn, joined us for the outing.  They graciously agreed to stand in the long line for us, so that we could walk around the area and see some of the sites instead of just standing in line.  We headed over in the direction of the planetarium to get a different angle on our view of the city.

As we walked I realized I was famished, it was 1:30, we hadn't eaten lunch and we wouldn't be eating it any time soon.  Just about that time, as we walked towards the planetarium, a young boy approached me, maybe 10 years old, selling Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies on the sidewalk for a fundraiser.  He definitely has entrepreneur salesperson prospects for his future.  When I asked if he had change, he convinced me that I could buy more cookies for the amount of money I had in hand.  I bought twice as many cookies as I intended but was so hungry I didn't care.  Plus I love Famous Amos Chocolate chip cookies so not a serious hardship.  I scoffed down two bags immediately and saved more for later.  Those cookies turned out to be my only lunch today.

Outside the planetarium is a display of the animals of the Chinese New Year, which we all agreed looked rather "creepy" with their heads all on spikes.

Chinese New Year -
Rat, Goat, Bear, Rabbit

Chinese New Year -
Dragon, Snake, Horse, Boar

We walked around behind the planetarium, and Clark captured the below picture of Chicago.  I am sure it would have been much better on a sunny day.

View of Chicago -
taken outside planetarium

We got the call from Brandon that we needed to hurry back to the aquarium because they had almost reached the entrance, so we hightailed it back to join them in line.  Once inside we found a long, slow-moving queue in a hot, dark hallway.  I couldn't wait until we got to the ticket counter. Amazingly an aquarium employee appeared out of nowhere, asked us how many were in our party (7), and said we should follow another employee to a second ticket counter.  We followed her through a number of "employee only" doors and eventually found ourselves at a booth where tickets could be purchased.  A few other folks were tapped on the shoulder and followed us.  I'm still wondering how we got lucky to be pulled out of line, but I'm thankful for the small blessing.

The aquarium is laid out by area such as amazon, the tropics, reptiles, etc so that like creatures are on display with others from their similar habitat.  We saw numerous fish in a large variety of colors and sizes.  We also saw some of my favorites.

An Arrogant Turtle

Playful Penguins

Sea Horses

We also saw a few unpleasant looking creatures.  One such beast was the Asian Carp, which is an invasive species in the Mississippi river system.  Although Carp average 40 pounds in weight and can get as big as 110 pounds, they can jump up to 10 feet in the air when startled by motorized vessels.  We have been warned that boats of our design with a low and open cockpit have been known to have the carp jump onboard.  Boaters have been injured by being hit by "flying" carp.  We have also been told it is illegal to throw a live carp back into the water if it lands on our boat.

Asian Carp - big and ugly
I do not want this guy jumping onto my boat!

After viewing tons of fish, some sea lions, dolphins, sharks, and whales, we left the aquarium just before 5:30.  Other than my Famous Amos cookies that I ate earlier, none of us had had any "real" lunch.  One of the items on Devon's list to do in Chicago was to eat Chicago-style pizza.  The decision was made that we should have a taste-off between pizza from Lou Malnati's and Giordano's to see which each of us liked best.  Brandon placed orders for delivery by phone as we walked back to his condo in hopes that the food would arrive shortly after we did.

Both pizzas were delivered to the condo within a couple of minutes of each other.  The consensus seemed to be Giordano's as the winner.  I must admit I voted for Giordano's early on, but as I continued to eat, I vacillated between the two choices as to which I actually preferred.  In truth, I much prefer New Jersey pizza to either choice!

We hung out at Natalyn and Brandon's condo for the evening and watched the Bears vs. Bengals game on TV.  Neither Clark nor I found the game all that riveting, but it was interesting to watch the game with Bengals fans in Bears territory.  Sierra fell asleep earlier than usual.  Since she was fast asleep, I asked if I could hold her as she's not the cuddly type when she is awake.  I was able to cuddle her in my lap for a good long time before she woke up enough to realize she was in my lap and not her mother's.  It was wonderful while it lasted!

The game wasn't over, but the Bengals were winning 21 to 3 when we got up to leave to walk back to our boat.  The walk from Natalyn's condo to the boat is like a magic trick.  Using the Google maps directions it is a reasonably long walk between the two sites.  However, Natalyn showed us the trick of using the elevator in the parking garage separating the two areas.  We go in on the 6th floor on the condo side less than a block from the front door of the condo building, and we come out on the 1st floor less than a block from the entrance to the marina parking area.  Like I said, magic!  It must reduce the walk from 15 or 20 minutes down to 5 max!

Shortly after we got back to our boat, I was pulling the window curtains closed and looked out the front window to see fireworks in the distance.  Clark thought they might have been coming from Burnham Harbor.  We stood there and watched the show through the finale.  A while later, when I was working on the blog, I heard more boom, boom, boom, and we looked out the side window to see a full-blown fireworks display practically right outside our boat coming from Navy Pier.  Two great, professional shows in one night!  Awesome!