Chicago Part II

We're still on Day 1. After the Museum of Science and Industry, we headed to Navy Pier! At this point I was getting a little stressed because I wasn't sure if we were going to make it and be able to do everything we wanted to do on this day. Especially since we had just missed the bus that took us to Navy Pier, and we had to wait for almost an hour until the next one came!

These cool buildings were across the street from where we waited for the bus for an hour. The bottom part is for parking! See those little cars? I thought that was pretty crazy!

Anyway, the bus finally came and we were on our way to Navy Pier. Navy Pier is fun place with little rides, shops, museums, and boat rides. But the only ride open during the winter is the Ferris Wheel and there aren't any boats that go out, so everything turned out to be okay because we didn't need to spend as much time there as I had planned. We did ride the Ferris Wheel and walked around on the Pier (which was cold because of the wind!) and walked around the Stained Glass Museum.

The view from the Ferris Wheel

Trying to get a romantic kissing picture, but Nate isn't very good at kissing and taking a picture at the same time:)

On the Ferris Wheel with Nate's cheesy smile:)

Another view from the Ferris Wheel

Navy Pier!

Funny mirrors outside the fun house. So this is what we would look like if we had really short legs or really long legs!

Willis Tower, view from the street

 After Navy Pier, we had about 45 min to get to the Willis Tower! AKA the Sears Tower because we had to get there before 5:30 in order for our Go Chicago card to work. After running around the building a bit to find where we needed to go for the Skydeck, we made it to the ticket taker with 5 minutes to spare! Whew! Then we watched a movie explaining the history of the architecture of Chicago. After the huge fire, it became mandatory to build using steel. And skyscrapers naturally were born from that! And in 1973 this building was the tallest structure in the World (if you include the antenna thing on top) until they built Burj Dubai in 2010 which is an absolute giant in comparison.

After the movie, we stood in a long line, about 45 min to an hour, until we got to the elevator which only took one minute to take us from almost ground floor up to the 103rd floor, which isn't the top. And the nice thing about the Willis Tower versus the Empire State building is that you are inside, so it's not cold and windy. And they have these really awesome glass boxes that protrude out of the building so it's almost like you're standing on air!

The next few pictures are the view of Chicago from way up on the 103rd floor!

A lot of people were staying up there to see the sunset and such things, but we were exhausted and starving by this time. We had another line to wait in to go down the elevators, then it was on to Lou Malnati's for some delicious Chicago deep dish pizza!

Our first bites!

We went to Lou's because we got $5 off a large with our Go Chicago card and before we even got in, we were sure it was a good restaurant because it was packed! We had to wait for about 45 min to get seated and we pre-ordered it. So they cooked it half way, then when we finally got a table, they cooked it the rest of the way. That way we didn't have to wait too long for our pizza. And boy was it delish! The crust had that homemade taste to it and it was deep dish and buttered, the sauce was mashed up tomatoes so completely fresh, and TONS of cheese! So good! I hate to say this with all of my Italian friends out there, but this was the best pizza I have ever had! Italian pizza is good because it has such different varieties, but this was by far the best pepperoni pizza I've ever had! And since we got a large, we had enough leftovers for lunch the next day!

After that long day (leaving at 7 am and getting back after 11 pm) we were absolutely exhausted and just crashed. And that is the end of Part II. Part III will be coming shortly!