The way best to start the day is with a grilled cheese. We were up at 6 am this morning which is midday in the UK and out to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast by about 8 am just around the corner from the hotel, I do like my grilled cheese. From there we headed on across the road and caught the number 22 bus downtown then got on the 66 to take us across town towards the Mag Mile which is the main shopping area of the city with all the high-end shops on, the plan was to buy a cheap mobile because EE is crap, even though they keep texting me to buy a roaming data bundle I can't because it fails to connect every time I try to complete the purchase. Adios EE when my contract is up.
Something we did learn today is that nowhere opens until about 10 am so we hit the coffee shop as it was a bit chilly to be sat outside.
It turned out that Best Buy was exactly the opposite for buying a new phone as they where all on contract so gave up on the idea, the main reason for getting one was so we could use the transport app to save ourselves some time but there's plenty of places with free wi-fi in the city so it wasn't going to be too much of a problem.
From there we headed along the Mag Mile from the 360 Chicago building via Hershey's and Ghirardelli chocolate shops where they were giving away free samples on the way out, I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to put sea salt in chocolate but they were disgusting to eat after about 2 minutes of chewing, I think that's why you got them on the way out so you didn't spit them onto the floor near the shop. A good thing to see along here was life-size models of past police horses that had served with the CPD.
We carried on along Michigan Avenue until we got to the Michigan Bridge then dropped down onto the Chicago River Walk towards Lake Michigan, it was nice being down here away from the crowds. By now the sun was out and the temperature was around 30c, with no wind down here it felt a lot hotter than it was, as luck would have it there is a very nice Irish bar down here called Lizzie's so dived in there for a beer. At first, I thought I had been charged the wrong amount but $6 (£3.60) was the right price for a pint of Blue Moon ale and a coke, but who am to argue about the price even if the Blue Moon did come with a slice of orange in it.
Just outside here is the Centennial Fountain and water arch which is a fantastic sight to see and watch the driver of the police boat give it a wash, this water arch switches off when the tour boats go by, you wouldn't want to be on the top deck if it came back on again. The water pressure must be really high to fire the jet out that far, the downside is that a lot spray blows back on to the pathway so it seems like it's raining but on a hot day like today it was a blessing.
What a glorious day this was now and this is only the first full day so it was time take a stroll back along the river and down to Grant Park which is a bit like Central Park in New York but with some really strange stuff dotted around.
Here are some of the odd sights that are there with a brief description of what is.
With two 50 foot tall towers Crown Fountain is an interactive artwork built in 2004 that plays videos or displays local residents faces on both towers from top to bottom. Every few minutes or so water cascades from the top down the faces and occasionally spurts water from the mouths of the people displayed on there down into a splash pool at the bottom.
The Bean otherwise known as Cloud Gate was opened in 2006 after many years of design and construction. It's amazing to stand under it and try to spot yourself in the contorted reflections.
So if you think that Crown Fountain would give you night terrors then you haven't seen anything yet.
Behold whatever this could be, its probably going to give me night terrors, it just makes me think it's going to open its eyes any second and take over the world.
So now it was getting late and time to go to Pippins Tavern for a beer a beer and something to eat. This place is another Irish sports bar that I found on the web and although it can be a bit of a locals sort of place the food is good with 30 different beers on tap at the time.
The total price for 2 turkeys burgers, 1 large fries,2 bags of chips (crisps) 2 large pint and a coke all for the grand price of $24 (£18). The only thing we didn't like here was the music was really loud and you couldn't really talk to each other, I'm not sure why it was like because there was hardly anyone in there.
By now it was time to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
