The Windy City...

All lies - it wasn't windy at all.

We spent a couple of days sightseeing in Chicago but before we got there we stopped at Lake Geneva for a game of mini golf in the pouring rain!  Rob won of course, I had to let him or there would have been tears ;-))

I think he was confused, see why I had to let him win!

She'd gone a bit mad!

Chicago was actually much better than we had expected!  Based on some of the news reports (364 murders this year so far!) and things we had seen, we were expecting it to be a bit shady, but it wasn't - well not the places we went to anyway.

We did a load of the touristy things....

• Rode the double decker train into downtown
• Visited the Willis Tower, previously known as the Sears Tower - Mrs Stephenson you would have loved it!  Stood on the glass floor and looked down 103 floors - scary (for Lisa, not Rob!)

Us on the glass balcony 103 floors up

The Willis Tower!

• Had a tour of Millennium Park by Maureen the English guide.  She talked/verbally gushed about the architecture, gardens, how everything was 'unique' and how fantastic Chicago is.  She needed a bit of a slap really.  The park was good though - we especially liked the Cloudgate sculpture which was designed by an Indian guy based in London!

We're in the reflection!

The "cloud"

• Walked the magnificent mile.  Magnificent? Ish I guess.  As Americans have no history I understand why they rave about it as it has a load of buildings that were built before 1980!  It was a pleasant wander though with the highlight being the old water tower.

• Buckingham fountain was visited and that just had to be done. Very grand it was too just like Rob ;-)
• Navy pier was just dreadful.  It had the most comprehensive collection of tacky shops and cheesy "attractions" this side of Great Yarmouth!  A dream holiday destination for a chav.

Hell!

So how would we sum up Chicago.  Well as cities go it was nice enough, has a surprisingly safe feel about it, but it doesn't have a "must see"tourist attraction.  Even so, we really enjoyed our time here and it was also nice not to drive a long distance for a couple of days.

The next update will cover our adventures back in Canada - Niagara Falls, Ottawa and Montreal.