The end of our fun times in Chicago

Monday was our last full day in Chicago and our last City Pass activity.  The pass we bought gave us 5 activities.  The aquarium and Sears tower were definite activities with the pass, and I picked the architectural tour and Hancock building.  Camden picked the Griffin Museum of Science over the planetarium, natural history or art museum.  It was a good choice!

We did go back to Stan's donuts again for breakfast and then took the bus to the museum.  We each bought a $5 all day pass for the bus and trains.  

We were super successful in taking the bus to the Science museum.  

We were able to walk into the museum through the original doors.

 

There were lots of hands on exhibits and some extra exhibits.  We paid for one, the Spiderman Exhibit.  It was interesting to learn about the origins of Spidey!

Other exhibits involved weather, electricity, planes and space.

Standing in a tornado

It's electric!

More wind experiments

We also saw a real German U-boat.

After the museum, we were ready for lunch so we took a bus and train combination to Chinatown for dim sum.  We got super yummy Chinese food at Triple Crown.  

Waiting on the train

We had several plan options for the evening, but we ended up going to the beach and the Navy Pier.  This was about a mile from the hotel, but we tried to take the bus.  We were unsuccessful, however, in getting the bus we needed.  So we walked.  We started our evening with a swim in Lake Michigan.  The water was very cold and there was a lot of plant debris in the water, but we can say we swam in a great lake!

After our swim, we changed into somewhat dry clothes and went to the Navy Pier.  Lots of things to see there!  I finally had a Chicago hot dog...no ketchup!!  I didn't do it totally Chicago style. but did have the pickle and celery salt.  It was good, and more of a skinny hot dog instead of the sausage dogs we saw other places.  We ate at America's Dog and Burger.

We then rode on Flyover.  This is like the Soarin ride at Disney.  It was really cool!

Because we had done the architectural boat tour, we were able to do a Lake Michigan boat tour for $6.  So we bought tickets for that and walked to the end of the pier while we were waiting.  There were several fun looking rides on the pier like a Ferris wheel and swings.  There was also a hotel.  Those rooms would have great views!

The boat tour was fun even though there was just an audio tape telling you about what you were seeing.  

We timed this boat ride at sunset too!  So pretty!

They hope to turn this into a museum one day.

We had had a long day and were ready for our walk back to the hotel to get some rest.  But we did make a JoyRide stop at Target!  

Our flight home left around 4 on Tuesday, so we had some time to explore and get lunch before we had to head to the airport.  Poor Dave had to go to class that morning.  

We decided to look around at stores on the way to our lunch.  Our first stop was Macy's, which was originally a store called Marshall Fields.  The Macy's now is a 7 story store, with the top story being a mini museum about the store's history.  It still has the old department store charm with a restaurant and employees eager to help you find the right size sports coat.  

The clock outside Macy's

There was a Toys R Us inside Macy's and a Lego Chicago dog in that section.

Lots of floors in this store

Camden found one more store, Primark, and bought some cheap shorts and a t-shirt.  Then off to lunch!  We found an old speakeasy that Al Capone used to hang out in.  Their website said that you could still see the trapdoor in the middle of the dining room where they would go down for hiding.  We never saw it, but we did get some good pizza!  The name was Exchequer Restaurant and Pub. 

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and take the train back to the airport.  It was an interesting ride, but worth it to not pay about $100 to Uber.  It was only $2.50 each, and Camden and I still had our 24 pass so we didn't have to pay again.  It was kind of strange walking to the train with our luggage!  But we made it to O'Hara and back home without any problems.  Another fun trip with 2 of my favorite guys!