Weather has turned cold, damp and breezy for our 1.5 mile walk to breakfast and a museum. Nice hearty breakfast at Goddess and the Baker. Then a walk through town crossing one of the many bridges over the river and a stroll down the high end shopping district called the Magnificent Mile before reaching the museum.
Chicago River going through downtown on its way to forming the Illinois River
On our original itinerary for Chicago, we planned to tour the Art Institute of Chicago. Founded in 1879 it's one of the oldest and largest art museums in the U.S. We never got to go there when doing the Loop so figured this would be an ideal opportunity. They were hosting a special showing of Monet artwork during our time here which was going to be a nice added bonus. Unfortunately, Covid is still impacting a lot of the museums and parks here which are just in the early stages of reopening to normal days and hours. Despite most of our research showing the museum would be open, it was actually still on reduced days and closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So we opted for the only other museum in town which seemed to be open today - the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was "different". Thankfully they posted pretty extensive descriptions by each piece helping explain and interpret the artists expression. Without them I would have been lost.
Tulips in bloom throughout the city adding a splash of color even Monet would appreciate
After getting our culture for the day it was time for some tourist fun. So off we headed to the Navy Pier. No longer used by the Navy, it's now a shopping, restaurant, entertainment district stretching out into Lake Michigan. Big landmark is the Centennial Ferris Wheel - a 200 foot tall unit installed in 2016 and commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Pier.
Ferris Wheel with Lake Michigan tour boats waiting for tourists to return
Pretty big wheel. Those enclosed gondolas at the top each seat 8 people.
View of Chicago from the top of the Ferris Wheel
Todays history lesson starts with yesterdays blog post where we talked about the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 (nothing to do with Columbia - it was celebrating the 400 year founding of North America by Columbus). Daniel Burnham called a meeting of the engineers associated with the Expo and challenged them to design a signature structure - wanting an engineering marvel to rival the Eiffel Tower which was unveiled the prior year at the Paris Worlds Fair. A 33 year old engineer named George Ferris designed and built the first large scale steel "Observation Wheel" which came to bear his name. The structure was 264' high with 36 cars each holding 60 standing people and illuminated with over 2500 of Thomas Edison's new incandescent light bulbs. It was a huge success with over 1.4 million people riding Ferris's wheel during the expo. A wrecking company bought the wheel after the expo and sold it for use at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis after which it was ultimately dynamited into scrap. A bankrupt George Ferris died from Typhoid in 1896 at age 37.
Final activity for the day was dinner at Giordano's for a Chicago style deep dish pizza. We got "The Classic" with sausage, mushrooms, onions, and loads of cheese. Even a small pie was too big for us to finish. Just too much food. But it sure was yummy!! Followed dinner with a much needed final walk around the gardens in Millennium Park to work off the pizza.
Quintessential Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
City view from the park
We'll start day one on the historical Route 66 tomorrow.
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