On State Street that great street

The second verse of Sinatra's Chicago seems a fitting title for today's post, lyrics here, as we spent half of the day on the famed State Street.

But more of that later, first a bit of catch-up on previous posts.

Ohio to Illinois

Not sure why but I forgot to include the map of Friday's journey, one of the regular readers pointed it out so here it is:

Travelling to Alinea

In the same spirit I got so excited by the experience of eating at Alinea that I forgot to mention the journey there. The taxi took us on the left hand version of the routes shown here:



But the 13 minute drive took 35 minutes due to the Friday evening rush hour taking. This was not problematic as the driver, a young man from Nepal, was a great conversationalist. We found out he had won a 'Green Card' lottery to come to the USA and after four years was due to make his first return visit to Nepal this December. When asked where we were from we mentioned Wales so were engaged in a conversation about Gareth Bale, though while he went to School only two miles from where we live, is not someone I know lots about. Drew managed to engage in the conversation which then moved on to what Wales is like in geographic and weather terms. Given the stop start nature of the journey it was nice to have a conversation all the way along. . 

The return journey was quicker, as the traffic was lighter. It took 15 minutes, on the right hand route. The driver was speaking Swahili to his mobile phone for the whole of the journey, so we had less discussion with him. I'm not a fluent Swahili speaker but picked up enough core words on my month's work visit to Kenya in the early 80s to know the language in which he spoke.

Breakfast

Having got up at 3.30 (4.30 EST) so a 30 minute lay-in if the time-zone hadn't moved forward. I uploaded yesterday's photos and blogged about the journey. I showered and shaved and once Drew was up we went down for Breakfast at 8.00 am. These Comfort Suites have 26 floors and five suites per floor, it is no surprise then that the breakfast room was very full. Still we managed to get food and a seat.

Confession time - those of you who were paying attention will have noticed that it was Friday yesterday. Friday a day when Catholics are expected to abstain from meat as a sign of penance remembering the day that the Lord died. Well almost two months ago when I found I could only get to Alinea on the Friday evening I had a little blast of conscience about the fact it was on a Friday and I was not likely to be determining the menu, so to experience the full sensation would be eating meat. I talked this over with a priest who said in the 'special' circumstances I should plan to shift the abstinence from Friday to another day of the same week. While I don't think this is a valid answer, I should have made more of an effort, it was what I wanted to hear, so folks today is Friday on the meat stakes for me!! 

Hence I had vegetables, lightly sautéed and eggs for my breakfast, followed by a bagel with creamed cheese. Drew had sausages and eggs.

South Michigan Ave

The Rolling Stones sang of 2120 South Michigan Ave, Chicago, but it was to North Michigan Ave that we began our walk today. There is so much to see in Chicago that we decided we would walk up one of the broad Avenues, then back down another - the other of course being State Street. 

Our whole route is mapped out below:

Straight across the Chicago River from our hotel is the Tribune Tower, home for many years of the Chicago Tribune. We spent some time here as all around the building there are rocks from across the world - Drew seems to have taken 100+ photos of these as you will see on Flickr when I have chance to upload them!!
<<Co-piolet's note: ahem, under someone's direction!!>>

North Madison Ave also has a display of decorated horse statues to commemorate deceased police officers, which are very attractive. I share one now, but there are many more around the City.

North Madison Ave, from the river up to Oak Street (13 blocks) is known as the Magnificent Mile we were to walk 11 of the 13 blocks. 

We walked up to the Water Tower which is shaped a little like an imaginary castle of fairy-tales. Next to the Water Tower is Water Tower Place, a shopping Mall that houses Macy's and a wide range of other stores. It is identified in Trip Adviser as one of the 10 places to visit in Chicago, though we only found that out after coming across it. Macy's here obviously shares its wifi provider with its sister store in New York, as my wifi log-in happened automatically based on my use of it in New York on Monday. While I am no expert in architecture this Mall is very tastefully done.

Next to Water Tower Place is the John Hancock Centre, the home of what was formally the John Hancock Observatory and is now the home of 360° Chicago same thing, new name. Before getting in the lift we were shown a short video of the history of Chicago unlike some of these I have seen this was informative and educational. When we got to the lift we were told that this had been the fastest lift in the world until the building of the new World Trade Centre, having been up in that lift last Sunday I can't say I could have told the difference.

I can see for miles and miles...

Another song lyric which is fitting for the venue, it gives amazing views over the City and even more amazing views over Lake Michigan, which with the Air and Water Show this weekend was very busy. The the view is immense in all the directions you look, out to O'Hare Airport in the North and way beyond the City limits to South and West. It is amazing to me, who grew up near to the Gower with access to the best beaches in Europe with long sandy beaches and rolling sea, to see people thronging to small strands of sand next to Lake Michigan where the only waves are caused by passing boats (and the wind in less clement weather. We could see plenty of people doing just that from this height.

Once back down on the ground we crossed the road to see the Fourth Presbyterian Church, as someone used to plain, dark chapels in the Presbyterian tradition, it was amazing to see this light and airy church with not only stained glass but also statues - clearly Presbyterianism took a different route here from its strongly evangelical protestant tradition in Wales.

State Street

Next we walked along Delaware St until we came to State Street where we began our walk back towards downtown, past a wide range of old Chicago buildings of which Drew took a number of photos.

We came across the Holy Name Cathedral, an impressive building with very modern stained glass inside and a wide and airy feel. It is one of those churches where you feel you can almost smell the prayers of the generations who have marked this place as sacred over the years. 

Continuing on State Street we walked back towards downtown and re-crossed the river. Here we passed an old Movie Theatre called The Chicago Theatre, the oldest department store in Chicago, now another Macy's.

We walked down to Madison Ave Street and as 12.30 stopped for lunch in a Cafe called Panera. Drew had a smoked turkey panini with a bag of crisps while I had a Greek Salad (remember no meat!). It was delightful and made up for a few days without much vegetable in my diet.

Grant Park and the Lakeside

After lunch we crossed Michigan Avenue and went into Grant Park, this amazing 319 acres green space in the 'toddling town' has lots to do, or places to just sit and be. Perhaps its most famous use was on that amazing night in November 2008, I remember sitting up to watch it, when Barak Obama gave his victory speech in the Park and the whole of the City seemed to turn out to hear him.

We entered at Millennium Park and were amazed in particular by the Cloud Gate and the size and scale of the Jay Pritzker pavilion. We walked through the park and over the BP Bridge to come to the Lake Shore. The display of planes which had greeted our arrival in Chicago on Friday, did an even more impressive display today, plus we were better placed to see them.

By this time my legs were started to feel the strain, so we finished our walk along the Lake Shore by the Navy Pier and headed back along the Riverside Walk to Madison. 

From here we ventured into the underground part of the City that we had found, accidentally, on Friday. We came up the stairs in Madison Ave (below) to Madison Ave (above) and were four doors from the Comfort Suites arriving back at 2.30 - another long walking day, but the benefit of the exercise in New York last week is that I have far less pain this week.