Friends we have had quite a day. Having now been to New York City and Chicago I can say without reservation that Chicago is cleaner, friendlier, better run and prettier. It just is. How about taking a quick tour with me? We begin with an architectural boat tour through the Illinois Sanitary Canal which used to carry sewage out of the city and dump it into Lake Michigan. Now it is clean and clear. We could have done this aboard our own boat, perhaps, but opted to pay someone else to drive us so that we could relax and look and learn from our tourguide. It was money well spent. We learned that Cbay would never have cleared most bridges which DO NOT OPEN for recreational boats and we would have probably been run over by commercial traffic which you will see in one of the pictures.
City Hall above and the Chicago Times below.
Our tour guide above and four masted schooner below.
The Trump Tower above and the Corncob Buildings below. Wonder why they are called that? Steve McQueen once made a movie where they ran a Chrysler out the side of one and into the river below. I remember the movie but cannot remember the title.
The Commodities Exchange above. The statue on top is Circe, Greek goddess of grain, but she has no face. The architect figured no-one would ever build anything high enough to see it so why spend money on a face. Below we see the Willis Tower f/k/a Sears Tower fom the water up.
Above and below are examples of fast moving barges in a narrow space that would have been dangerous for Cbay to encounter. You can see the bow wake which rocked this large tour boat. The expression on the boy’s face below says it all.
Chicago Opera House above and below is an ivy covered building that sits on the sight where Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President.
Above, I am not sure what it is but the reflection of the buildings across the river looked nice. Below, Marshall Field built the world’s largest building for a warehouse until the Pentagon was built with more square feet. Who today would spent that much on architecture for a warehouse?
Above, the top was made to resemble the Parthenon and below is what to do with old metal canoes.
Above and below the famous Navy Pier. It goes well over a mile out into the lake.
This goofball wears this hat every day of the year according to his stupid mother who was with him. I say “stupid” because she is out in public with him and is paying for everything. He is NOT handicapped because I spoke to him at length. Of course what does it say about me to waste time talking to him? The things I do for my readers. I am glad he did not smile because every tooth in his head was rotten. I will let you decide what caused that. Wonder if he will ever reporoduce?
A four masted schooner, which you saw earlier, takes tourists around the harbor.
Put your John Hancock on this one. That is the famous John Hancock Insurance Building, except it is owned by foriegn interests now. We are truly mortgaging our souls America.
A statue of Benito Juarez who led a Mexican revolt overthrowing Maximillian and became El Presidente. Just what it is doing in downtown Chicago is anybody’s guess.
NBC Building made to resemble 30 Rock in NYC.
It is truly magnificent here.
I finally made it to WGN where they broadcast from a booth right on the street. It is one of the few 50,000 watt blowtorch stations left. WSB in Atlanta is another.
The Chicago Times Building has gathered stones from every famous place in the world and stuck them on their building. Shows if you have enough money and own a big newspaper you can get anything. Here are just a few.
A street musician.
Inside the Hard Rock Hotel which used to be the Union Carbide Building.
Are you tired yet? Well we are and will close for now. Tomorrow will be another spectacular day.
