When last we left Paula & Ron on their "Weekend In Chicago" they were tired, hungry, and on their way to pick their car from a valet parking garage. Let's check back in with them as they head for...
Navy Pier
After waiting nervously in the front of the parking garage for about 10 minutes, our car was finally brought to us by a valet. First thing I did was check the mileage. (I've seen Ferris Bueller too many times) It hadn't changed.We programmed the GPS to head southeast toward our next destination. Navy Pier is a combination of a seashore boardwalk, marina, and a performing arts center. It's located on the east side of the city on the shore of Lake Michigan.
Once again while driving I got a bit confused with the directions our GPS gave us. I ended up driving past Navy Pier and into the museum campus area a bit further south. This is where 3 of the city's most popular museums and Soldier Field, home field of it's NFL franchise "Da Bears."
Visiting this area was in our plans for the next day so getting a navigational perspective of on it's location actually proved beneficial.
We doubled back and finally arrived at Navy Pier. Because it was Saturday night and a fireworks show was scheduled there was quite a bit of traffic.
We followed the signs to the parking garage and found a space, on ground level, not too far away from the pier.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post we were both very hungry by this time in the day. So before venturing out onto the pier we had our own little private dinning experience in the car.
Now there were plenty of places to eat there. I'll mention a few of them a bit later. But with all we had paid in parking during the day we needed to look for a way to save some money. The carryout box from Giordano's that was in the backseat provided the answer.
Using paper towels as both plates and napkins, we ate another slice of our deep dish pizza for our dinner.
While it might not seem like it; this was the most romantic meal we had on the entire trip. Sitting there in the car rather isolated in such a busy area gave us a bit of a feeling like we were the only two people in the world at that time.
In the future when Paula and I talk about our trip to Chicago we will more than likely mention our pizza dinner in the parking garage at Navy Pier as one of the best memories.
The pier was divided up into several sections. There was: the marina where dinner cruises and sight seeing tour boats departed; the Pepsi theater where a Cirque Du Soleil type show was currently showing, the Shakespeare Theater where Disney's Beauty and the Beast was being presented, an IMAX movie theater, an amusement park, and an indoor shopping area.
The shopping area had your typical tourist type shops and kiosks as well as a food court and several restaurants. Three of them, Harry Carey's, (named after the infamous Chicago Cubs play-by-play announcer), the Billy Goat Tavern (the inspiration for the "cheezborger cheezborger" sketches on Saturday Night Live in the late 70's) and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (inspired by the movie "Forrest Gump") were the most popular places to eat.
Homemade soaps, refrigerator magnets, sunglasses, handmade confections, flavored popcorn and the ubiquitous "homemade" fudge were just some of the items available in the specialty shops. We walked through a lot of the shopping area before walking out onto the pier by way of the doors in the food court.
It was a beautiful night and the place was very crowded with locals having a night out and tourists waiting for the fire works.
The view of Downtown Chicago at night from the pier was beautiful. I attempted to take a couple of pictures but my camera's flash didn't provide enough light to get a good one. However here's a shot I found on Google.
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| Downtown @ Night From Navy Pier |
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| Navy Pier Carousel |
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| Swings and Ferris Wheel |
As more and more people began to crowd onto the pier we realized that we needed to find a place to watch the fireworks.
We staked out our spot on a 2 foot high wall along a walk way near the carousel. We shared a small cup of Ben and Jerry's ice cream as we waited for the show to start.
The fireworks started at 10:15 PM and lasted about 15 minutes. The most unique aspect of the show was a round shaped burst that started out white and then condensed, turning red. The result was a stunning 3D visual effect making the burst look like a sphere moving toward us. It was something I'd never seen in a fireworks display before and thought it was really cool.
After the finale of the show in the sky we walked back to the indoor shopping area. We were both thirsty so we stopped in the food court to sit down and have a beverage. Paula got a Starbucks iced coffee and I had a soda from McDonald's.
It had been a long day to say the least. (It took 3 blog posts to write about it) So we decided to call it a night and head for the car.
On our way back past the shops, we bought some salt water taffy for my sister-in-law. Paula stopped at one of the jewelry kiosks and bought a butterfly ring and a silver band to wear until she gets her wedding ring sized again.
One last thing we had to do was pay for our parking. There were no attendants at the exits so we had to find a payment kiosk to pay our fee.
To get to the kiosk we had to walk past the doors we needed to use to get back to our car and walk into part of the shopping area we hadn't been to.
I paid the $25 for parking. This brought our parking fees total for the day to nearly $75. It was a very expensive lesson but we never paid more than $30 in a single day the rest of the trip.
Our walk to the parking payment kiosk took us past the Billy Goat Tavern and a Fun House. While Paula used the rest room I walked inside the Billy Goat Tavern just to look around. I had wanted to eat there but that didn't work out.
Also I posed in the old fashioned concave mirrors that were outside the fun house attraction. Not very flattering is it?
Once our parking fees were paid it was time to the car and back to our hotel. We had done all we could do in one day.
We parked in front of the hotel about 1AM. Our first day in Chicago was over. We had a good time and were exhausted.
Our plans for the next day included going to the museum campus and exploring the Field Museum. But it was time to take some Tylenol PM and get some rest. We fell asleep about 2AM.
After the finale of the show in the sky we walked back to the indoor shopping area. We were both thirsty so we stopped in the food court to sit down and have a beverage. Paula got a Starbucks iced coffee and I had a soda from McDonald's.
It had been a long day to say the least. (It took 3 blog posts to write about it) So we decided to call it a night and head for the car.
On our way back past the shops, we bought some salt water taffy for my sister-in-law. Paula stopped at one of the jewelry kiosks and bought a butterfly ring and a silver band to wear until she gets her wedding ring sized again.
One last thing we had to do was pay for our parking. There were no attendants at the exits so we had to find a payment kiosk to pay our fee.
To get to the kiosk we had to walk past the doors we needed to use to get back to our car and walk into part of the shopping area we hadn't been to.
I paid the $25 for parking. This brought our parking fees total for the day to nearly $75. It was a very expensive lesson but we never paid more than $30 in a single day the rest of the trip.
Our walk to the parking payment kiosk took us past the Billy Goat Tavern and a Fun House. While Paula used the rest room I walked inside the Billy Goat Tavern just to look around. I had wanted to eat there but that didn't work out.
Also I posed in the old fashioned concave mirrors that were outside the fun house attraction. Not very flattering is it?
Once our parking fees were paid it was time to the car and back to our hotel. We had done all we could do in one day.
We parked in front of the hotel about 1AM. Our first day in Chicago was over. We had a good time and were exhausted.
Our plans for the next day included going to the museum campus and exploring the Field Museum. But it was time to take some Tylenol PM and get some rest. We fell asleep about 2AM.
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