Chicago the windy City

We love Chicago! What a great place with lovely people and a relaxed attitude.  By far our favourite US city so far.  We spent much of our time wandering along the Magnificent Mile or downtown soaking up the atmosphere and eating lovely food. We started the stay in style with a deep filled pizza (see below) - we only managed 1 piece each and had to take the rest back to the hotel!  

The original deep fill pizza

River view from downtown

 The view from the John Hancock Centre is phenomenal and the audio tour narrated by David Schwimmer was a bonus.  We spent ages up there!

North Chicago from the top of the John Hancock Center

Downtown Chicago from the top of the John Hancock Center

 We were lucky with our timing as a lot of things in the city were having free admission.  We went to the Planetarium, Aquarium and Field Museum (National History Museum containing the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton - "Sue"!  We also went to the Chicago Cultural Centre where we saw some pretty awesome glass domes.  The picture does not do it justice!

Glass Tiffany dome at the Chicago Cultural Center

 We took a ride on the "el" train (has anyone seen French Connection?)

The el (elevated 'subway' system)

 We also braved the icy wind and took a walk along the Navy Pier - brrrrrr....  The original Ferris Wheel was designed to stand on this pier for the World's Fair of 1893.  We didn't fancy a ride in sub-zero temperatures.  However, the wind isn't the reason Chicago is labelled "The Windy City".  It gets it's name from the amount of whinging the politicians did to get the Word's fair hosted in Chicago. 

Replica of the world's first Ferris wheel

 We'd just come out from watching Tron IMAX 3D and we saw the view below - David thought he was still watching the film!  Also, did you know Batman the Dark Knight was filmed here - you can tell.

View of Chicago from the waterfront

We're now in Las Vegas and we'll update the blog again once we taken some pictures.