Today started the real journey. Today we explored Chicago, the first of two entire days in the city. We have 9 days, including today, before we start the drive back home. 9 days and just over 300 miles of Route 66 in Illinois and another 80 or so in Missouri.
We had a really great hotel, with a shuttle that took you back and forth to Midway Airport, which gave us access to the train into downtown. It was cool having this option, since we had spent so much time in the car the day before and we really didn't want to have to worry about driving around downtown Chicago or looking for parking. We were able to grab a pass for the train, and ride on into downtown and get off the train just a block from the sign on Adams St. After a quick bathroom break, we walked down to the sign to take some photos. While there, we met and chatted with a couple from Germany getting ready to drive the length of Route 66, all the way to LA. We chatted a little after we took our selfie and I even took a photo of them in front of the sign for them. We wished them a safe trip, and they headed their way and we headed ours.
Our next destination was Buckingham Fountain. This was high on Tony's to-see list, and another reason we postponed this trip until summer, since the fountain wouldn't have been on in March because of temperatures. We walked along the lake for a little bit before we headed up to the fountain. Many may recognize it from the Opening Credits of Married With Children. I made sure to sing a few lines of the Sinatra song, Love and Marriage, as we walked up to it.
We grabbed a few cold drinks from the little food stand and sat and enjoyed the fountain for a little while. Surprisingly, since Chicago is known as the windy city, it wasn't very windy at all, in fact we barely felt a mist from the fountain while standing at the fence around it. It was pretty humid out, and the temperature wasn't too far from what it was at home in Tennessee. This made our time walking around town a little uncomfortable, since the humidity was so high. I jumped on my phone and looked up the Millennium Park, because I remembered it had an area to play in the water, and Jon was really complaining at this point. We headed on over, and believe me when I say, it looks a LOT closer on the map on my phone than it felt to walk it. Down near the lake, the blocks are actually about twice the size of the blocks by the train. We were all ready for a break by the time we made it to the Crown Fountain.
Jon was so happy to get a chance to cool off, and we were happy to rest our feet for a little bit and feel the mist from these structures. We stayed for quite a while, until Jon had had his fill and was ready to move on. We were all getting hungry for lunch, but decided since we were right here at "The Bean", that we better go see that before we head on towards the train to find something to eat, and find a pharmacy for mom since she was getting a little bit of a headache from the heat.
We did our little touristy thing, along with about a million Japanese tour groups. We got our photos, checked out the underside, and Jon even got a little touch in before we headed on to grab something to eat.
We ended up right back by the train stop we had gotten off at, because I knew I had seen some restaurants there. Jon was begging to go in the McDonald's that he had taken his bathroom break in earlier, but we convinced him that there would be something better than that close, we were sure. I took out my phone again, checking the map and my Road Trip 66 app, and realized we were really close to the Berghoff, so we walked over there, first to just check out the menu and snap a few photos, but we decided that German food sounded really good, and we were fading fast.
The Berghoff was a pretty good choice for lunch. Mom and Tony each got a brat, Jon got a burger and I got a Reuben. Mom didn't care too much for her Brat, but Tony loved his. The Reuben was awesome, but WAY too big, so I split it with Mom. Jon said that his burger was THE BEST burger he had ever had. That says a lot, because Jon would live on burgers if he could. Once we finished up lunch, we decided that we were done for the day. We had walked poor Mom and Jon enough for one day. We decided to jump back on the train and head back to the hotel. Jon wanted to swim, so this was a good time to get that in and while Mom and Tony rested, I took Jon down to the pool.
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