Chicago, the windy city - Day One & Day Two (part one)

Recognise this fountain anyone? Think back to the 80's sitcom Married with Children...... This is the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park in Chicago City.

A view up Michigan Avenue.

Another view up Michigan Avenue a day earlier whilst we were waiting for our tour bus to arrive.

The city skyline poking out through rain clouds. What a day for a tour.

So after a couple of quiet and very wet days in Detroit we hit the road once again and headed West for Chicago. I have to say that Chicago is such a beautiful city and I will most definitely on my 'go back and visit again' list. We arrived pretty late in the evening on Thursday (although it was still light out) and so we ordered ourselves some very expensive room service and got to bed. The next morning it was off exploring for us. The Concierge at the Hilton (where we were staying but more on that later) told us of a great little cafe for breakfast called Eleven. It is a Jewish inspired cafe with the most delicious french toast I have ever eaten not to mention the biggest topped with fresh bananas, strawberries and fresh grated coconut! My mouth is watering and tummy grumbling just thinking about it now. After brekky we set off walking around our immediate area, we ended up taking a short round trip ride on their famous El which is the elevated railway system the trains operate above the city streets (much like the skyrail in Brisbane that goes to the airport). A spot of souvenier shopping saw us purchase a pink Chicago teddy bear for Emily that she pulled off the shelf (with the help of Daddy I believe) and became attached to and a Chicago City Police Department Sherriff's badge for Riley (which Daddy talked him into talking Grandpa into buying for him). After a long day of walking and a great bus tour we ended with a nice dinner at an Italian eatery.

Day Two we thought we would try somewhere else for brekky and decided to try another little cafe that came recommended to us by the Concierge at the Hilton. When we arrived we found approx 40 -50 people lined up outside and the inside completely packed. We thought taking a number and waiting might not be so much fun (especially with two little hungry people with us) so we gladly headed back to Eleven for some more french toast. They too had a line up but thanks to some ugly roadworks outside the cafe not nearly as many people were there. After another big and very yummy brekky we headed off on a walk through Grant Park. This is a beautiful park on Michigan Avenue. In the summer of 1968 Grant Park was filled with young people protesting the war in Vietnam. A riot broke out and the mayor at the time gave the local police the order "shoot to kill". Investigations into that night later revealed that it was a police riot and not the protesters that caused the violence to erupt.

This is our tour bus coming along.

A very famous talkshow host lives here.............

This is a little theatre house opened by David Schwimmer (otherwise known as Ross from Friends)

Riley on our walk through Grant Park.

A walk in the park is just too much for some little ones LOL. We ended up forgetting to pack either of our two prams and so had to buy this at Sears in Detroit on our way to Chicago, not bad for $17!

Riley and Emily happily sharing an ice-cream in Grant Park.


Riley just before he rolled down his second hill in Grant Park on Day Two.

I was trying (in vain) to get a nice pic of both kids in front of the fountain, seems Emily had other ideas......

Limousine American style. Stretch H2 Hummer!

The city is filled with so many beautiful flowers (apparently at the request of the mayor's wife). Here is Emily pointing out which one she wanted whilst in Grant Park.

The last two pics are of Native Americans (albeit naked!) on horseback posed as though they are about to shoot off an arrow from a bow and arrow. The fact that they do not hold a weapon is said to represent the power that has been taken away from the natives. These two statues are facing each other on Michigan Avenue at one of the entrances to Grant Park.

All that Jazz..............

Hilton @ Chicago view from Grant Park across the road. The tallest black tower behind the Hilton is Sears Tower.

Hilton @ Chicago view from Sears Tower.

After our short stay in Detroit we loaded up the kiddies and the grandparents and headed off to the windy city CHIGAGO!! Brad found a website called hotwire.com where we have managed to find some pretty good last minute deals. The way that it works is that you choose your town/area and the star rating you want and it searches their database for hotels wanting to fill empty beds for those nights. It means not having a booking too far in advance but so far that has not proven to be of any issue. We went online before leaving Detroit and booked our accommodation and found a 4 star hotel for $79 per room per night (we were looking for 3 but there were none). Good enough deal we thought. Well that was until the name of the hotel was revealed. We had booked ourselves into the very famous Chicago Hilton. This hotel has an AMAZING history starting in the 1920's.

American Presidents stay here, Barrack Obama gave one of his speeches there. The Queen of England stayed there JFK stayed there and Elvis once booked out an entire floor! We felt very honoured to be staying in such a beautiful and historical place.

Chandeliers were everywhere throughout the hotel. This is a hallway outside one of the many ballrooms.

This chandelier was in our elevator.

Our floor had a seperate set of elevators called the Executive Floors. This is our elevator foyer on the ground floor.

This is not the best shot but it is a foyer that goes out onto Michigan Avenue and the stairs go up to the ballroom that Barrack Obama gave a speech in.



The pics behind Riley are of the Obamas speeches in one of the ballrooms at the Hilton @ Chicago



The elevator foyer area on our floor.


JFK leaving the Hilton @ Chicago I think in 1960



This was our view from our room. You can see Buckingham Fountain and Navy Pier off to the left side of the photo.

We all loved our time in Chicago and will definitely go back there again some day for a longer stay.

On the road again.....

My little poser in front of the spring display in the foyer at the Motor City Casino in Detroit where Mike & Yvonne stayed.

May sees us packing up and heading off on a road trip to the North of the USA to meet up with Brad's Dad Mike and his wife Yvonne. We left home in Oakville on the morning of Tuesday the 12th and headed for Detroit. The trip South was relatively uneventful in itself.............until we reached the US border. We didn't realise that in order to travel across the border via tunnel that we would have to pay a toll. We did not have cash and they did not accept debit or credit cards. This meant that we had to re-enter Canada (even though we had not yet left the country) via customs (which involved about a 40min wait), find an ATM and get cash out and then we were once again on our way. We made it to Detroit and met up with Mike and Yvonne the next morning for brekky.

Emily and Grandpa getting re-aquainted.

Riley and Nana Yvonne teaching Emily how to step off the escalators.

We spent two days in Detroit and due to fatigue and some pretty crappy weather we chose to relax and get ready for our next big trip so we did not get out and do any sight-seeing here.