Chicago, Illinois (Day 2)

We spent our second day in Chicago walking around to see several attractions. First up, the Sears Tower, though for the last several years it has been the Willis Tower.

This building was the tallest in the world from 1973-1998. It is now the 3rd tallest in the US (One World Trade center is currently the tallest.)

We bought the ticket and took the ride…to the observation deck on the 103rd floor! It was super-fast and only took 60 seconds (Joel timed it!)

We were not there on a clear day. We did, however, get a view above the clouds. And because it was cloudy there were hardly any folks around so we got to hang out and play in the skydeck boxes for much longer.

Some other interesting information we saw around the observation deck.

After coming back down to Earth, we decided to walk over to see Lake Michigan and several of the sights near the lake. While walking along we suddenly saw this sign on the side of a building. When we looked in the window we realized there was an exhibit, so of course we walked in to check it out.

It was an interesting exhibit about the history of our monetary system and how our financial system works today.

After getting through security we stepped on to this glass walkway containing $50,000 in US coins.

After some light reading about our monetary system we walked over to the Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest fountains in the world. Also the fountain seen in the opening of the TV show Married…with children. We read that the fountain is a representation of Lake Michigan with four sets of seahorses symbolizing each of the four states on the lake (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana).

Buckingham fountain is often confused with the eastern terminus of Route 66, it isn’t.

The original eastern terminus was at the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. Later, the terminus was moved east two blocks to the intersection of Jackson Drive and Lake Shore Drive.

One of the most visited attractions in Chicago is Cloud Gate, more commonly known as the bean, in Millennium Park.

Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It measures 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).

You are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. We had fun hanging out here.

We also walked around the park.

The last thing we did for the day was to walk over to the Drake Hotel for a drink to toast our next door neighbor Hans. He worked at the Drake for many years and has told us some stories of his time there. Cheers Hans!

There are so many great sights in such a small space. Here are a few more.

We really enjoyed our time in Chicago. The buildings were amazing, the people we met were nice and there was just so much to do here. We will definitely need to go back to explore some more.