End of Summer Vacation - Quick Trip to Chicago!

We decided to visit family in the suburbs and to do some site seeing in the city. 

So we took the train and arrived downtown in Chicago - very cool - a real train station - my first time in years - Never been to Chicago - but I have ridden the Metro in Paris, the Tube (Underground) in London, the Uban in Munich, and the MRT in Singapore!  And BART in San Francisco, and the Subway in New York!  (I'm pretty lucky!)

This is the lobby of the Holiday Inn that is located in the Mart, downtown, beginning on the 15th floor.  The emblem on the wall puzzled us until we realized that it was a special projection for the University of Alabama football lunchean that was occuring at the hotel in addition to the 4 or 5 wedding receptions!

This is the view from the Holiday Inn - inside the Mart (like the Pacific Design Center aka the Big Blue Whale in downtown L.A. (went there a few times while in Interior Design school!)

This is the view from the top floor (23rd)  AWESOME! (yes, those are my shorts in the reflection... try not to look at it)...

We headed for Navy Pier - where we took a boat road - after many stops to eat and drink - This was after walking all day - for miles - it was quite humid, an the boat ride - harbor cruise, was PERFECT... wind in our hair..... wonderful.....

Here she is!  Marilyn - all 26 feet of her - gorgeous!  We, of course had our picture taken with her - she is very popular!

Here she is with one of many tour buses that pulls up just for the photo op!  Too funny!

We ate at Lou Malnaty's (hope I spelled that right) - SO good!  Pizza - of course!  Deep dish - of course!  We also had some sangria while we watched a band, (just before the boat ride), and just walked and walked.  We had such a good time - and enjoyed the last day with family again, before returning to the real world.