Day 29 - Chicago!

The drive today was longer than we thought. We had breakfast just off the highway. While trying to find a Denny's we noticed this diner attached to a Flying J truck stop, so we had a quick bite to eat.

It wasn't half-bad, in spite of the brash colours.

We felt welcome! The pancakes were good and the coffee was hot. 

The drive to Chicago was mainly uneventful. A few stops for bathroom breaks meant Gord was in the car for a pretty long time, and I had to pull out all the tricks in my book to keep him from going Vesuvius on us. 

We hit rain in Illionois. Nice.

And tool booths. We took an express toll route to save time, and if we hadn't driven into one of the largest cities in North America we likely would have saved lots of time. 

In 'a tent' with Gord. You put a towel over Gord's head and get under with him? He's sold!

Before we knew it we were in the city, and that great skyline looked great.

We passed the exit for Harpo; T got excited.

Crawling through downtown traffic, having been away from home for a month, we found a friend.

And then at 3:00 local time we were there. Our home for the night was The Inn of Chicago, right downtown on the mag mile. Nice!

With Gord reaching his limit I jumped out of the car and ran in to check-in while T handle the ornery little man. At the front desk I got good news and bad news. The bad news was that our room wasn't yet ready. It would be in 45 mins or so. The good news was that we'd been bumped up into a suite because they had overbooked. Sweet suite! So, with the bags stowed at the front desk and the car left with Valet, we headed out.

The wriggles building is all angles and all impressive.

Gord likes water of all kind, including the Chicago River. 

In an hour we had oriented ourselves to downtown and went back to the room to check in. We didn't have a long time in the Windy City, so we moved quickly. A change of clothes and we headed out for dinner.

Only one real option of food with one night in town - deep dish. Gino's East is our fav spot, not sure if it's the best, but it's an iconic place for T and I, and it never disappoints. Does Gord look disappointed?

After the pizza we made a quick stop for something sweet. Ever have Chicago style popcorn? Don't do it, not if you like your active lifestyle. 

This popcorn place was packed! Gord is such a ham.

A super aspect to Chicago are the public parks/spaces right downtown. Here are a few of the fam clowning around in Millennium park.

Careful.

The infamous bean.

Here's some art I can get behind.

And then we turned a corner and stumbled upon this, the Grant Park orchestra and chorus playing a free concert in the park! How can you not love this place?!

Everyone was relaxing to the music...

even the Canadians.

After a while at the park we thought we'd move on to see if we could see more of our fav US city before bed. We headed to the water, got lost, walked through some great neighbourhoods and headed home. It was a great day in paradise, but we had a big night tomorrow and a date with the border patrol, so we hit the hay.

I'll admit that Chicago has some sentimental value for us - it was the first trip T and i went on together so many years ago and we have a lot of memories here, but it was just as nice to go with Gord. Go to Chicago, we've only been in the summer, but I've heard it's great anytime of year. Go! What a you waiting for?

TOTAL FUEL FILL UPS: 11

DAILY WILDLIFE: dogs, pigeons, swallows