Monday, May 28, 2018

Today was our last day in Chicago, and we still had 2 attractions left on our City Pass.  So far, the pass already paid for itself with our visit to the Adler Planetarium, riding the HOHO bus, and taking the architectural river boat tour, so these last 2 attractions would just be icing on the cake!  We wanted to go to the observation deck at the top of the Willis Tower for our first stop of the day.  They opened at 9am, so our plan was to wake up at 8am, get dressed quickly and walk the 3 blocks over from our hotel bright and early to be one of the first on line.  There was a Dunkin Donuts on the way, so we planned to stop there for breakfast to eat while we waited in line.  Everything was going according to plan until we got to the Dunkin Donuts and saw a huge line of people waiting to order!  That would have wasted a lot of time so we decided to keep walking to Willis Tower and we would get breakfast afterwards.  When we got to Willis Tower, we were hit with another surprise… the line was already so long that it wrapped around the corner from the front entrance and then down the entire city block!  I was definitely not expecting so many people to be here so early, so we quickly got on the end of the line.  DH decided that he would go back to Dunkin Donuts and buy something for breakfast because it looked like we would be in this line for a long time.  

While I waited for him to return, I looked up to see the top of the tower and noticed the ledges jutting out of the observation deck all the way at the top!  In just a few minute, we would be standing on those ledges!!

We were in for another hot day today.  This photo was taken at 8:48am and it was already 86 degrees.

DH returned just as the line started to move.  I knew we had to go through security before going upstairs in the elevators, so I expected the line to creep slowly, but it actually moved pretty fast and we got inside the lobby within 10 minutes.  Maybe this big crowd wasn’t such a big deal after all!

We counted our chickens too soon because we quickly realized why the line was moving so fast.  They have corals set up inside the lobby which end at an escalator which goes down 2 stories.  They made us walk through all the corals even though there weren’t enough people to be backed up, so basically it was just a way to get people inside.  Once we got to the bottom of the escalator, we had to walk through a bunch of long hallways, and then there was another set of corals that we had to wind through before finally reaching the metal detectors.  The hallways were decorated with facts and history about Chicago, but we didn’t stop to read it since the flow of traffic just kept moving forward.  DH and I were two of the last people to get through the security checkpoint without having to wait in line, so I guess all of that walking through the corals did help to spread people out enough that the metal detectors didn’t cause a bottle neck.  Since we were using our City Pass, we didn’t need to buy tickets, so we walked passed the ticket booths to a lady at the back of the room who scanned our vouchers and printed us real tickets to go to the observation deck.  This is where we finally ran into a bottleneck, and it was caused by the elevators.  They have 2 elevators that go up to the observation deck, and each one holds about 20 people, so it took a while get in one of the elevators.  Once inside, it took just a minute or two to zoom up to the top floor.  As we ascended, there was a tv screen which announced other iconic buildings that were the same height as the floor we were passing.  As we exited the elevator, we could see the balconies to our right, but the guides directed us to the left.  They knew that everyone wanted to go to the balconies, but they forced us to walk the entire perimeter of the building before getting on line for the balcony.  All in all, it took 30 minutes from the time we entered the front doors of Willis Tower until we took our photo on the famous clear floor balconies.  The guides are willing to take photos on your personal camera before they take their photos that they will try to sell to you.  Of course, DH and I had no interest in the paid photos so we just posed for a bunch of photos with my camera.  There is a timer for how long each party can take photos which helps a lot to keep the lines moving.

The balconies are on the side of the building which faces west.  I purposely planned to come here in the morning to have the best lighting in that direction to optimize our photos.  After our time was up, we walked around the perimeter again to look at the views that we passed when we first arrived.  It was fun to look out over the city and identify all the places we have been over the last 3 days.

We stayed at the Willis Tower until around 10:30, including the time it took to wait in line for the elevator back downstairs. On the walk back to our hotel, I stopped to buy something for breakfast, then we went back to our hotel room to gather up our bags.  We had to check out by 12 noon, so we brought our bags downstairs and left them with the front desk to hold until we were ready to go to the airport later this afternoon.  

We still had one last attraction left on our City Pass, so we decided to spend the afternoon inside the air conditioning of the Art Institute of Chicago.  This museum houses one of the largest collections of art in the world, and has the added bonus of being the closest museum to our hotel!  When we got to the museum, we entered through the center door which was clearly labeled for City Pass holders and allowed us to bypass the long line of people waiting to buy tickets.  There was just one person ahead of us finishing up her transaction, and then the employee helped to exchange our City Pass voucher for a real ticket to the museum.  This museum is so huge that there is no way we could thoroughly see everything in the few hours we had to spend here, so we took a map and found a few exhibits which interested us.  

We started downstairs with an exhibit of glass paperweights, then a photography exhibit depicting lesser known areas of Chicago, and finally the Thorne Miniature Rooms. The best way for me to describe these extremely detailed works are professional dioramas, but I think the Art Institute’s website has a better description:

The 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms enable one to glimpse elements of European interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s and American furnishings from the 17th century to the 1930s. Painstakingly constructed on a scale of one inch to one foot, these fascinating models were conceived by Mrs. James Ward Thorne of Chicago and constructed between 1932 and 1940 by master craftsmen according to her specifications.

It was really interesting and incredibly detailed, so we spent some time looking at each of the rooms. They were giving a free tour in the Modern Wing that we wanted to check out, so we walked over in that direction. I have never been a big fan of modern art, but somehow the docent was able to explain things in a way that made me understand and appreciate the works on display.  The tour took one hour and I thought it was time well spent and that the docent was very interesting.  By the time the tour was over, we were starting to get hungry, so we spent a few more minutes seeing some of the most famous works in the museum like the Chagall stained glass windows and Serat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and then left the museum in search of a snack.

We didn’t want to eat too much because we planned to have an early dinner at around 4pm before going to the airport.  We had yet to redeem our vouchers for the free bag of popcorn from the HOHO bus tour, so we walked a few blocks north on Michigan Avenue to find the nearest location of Garrett’s Popcorn.  It took a bit of searching to find the store because the street numbers in that area are out of order.  The lady behind the counter explained that they sell several flavors of popcorn, but the voucher we had from the HOHO bus tour entitles us to a small sample size of popcorn- half cheddar cheese and half caramel flavor.  They also handed us a wet nap to clean up after our snack, which was very useful because the cheddar flavor left orange stains on our hands. It was just the right size for a little snack, and a great excuse to get out of the heat for a few minutes.

Walking back down Michigan Avenue, we went into the souvenir store below the Bean to pick up our free drawstring backpacks with the other voucher from the HOHO bus tour.  They are pretty cheap and would probably fall apart after one use, but you can’t complain when it’s free!  We still had an hour or two before we needed to go for dinner, so we decided to grab a drink at the outdoor patio at the Plaza at Millennium Park.  Shaded by the giant, colorful umbrellas, and in a prime location for people watching on Michigan Avenue, The Plaza was a great find!  Sure, the drinks are overpriced, but it was worth it for the setting.

We wanted to get a train to the airport at around 5pm, so we needed to eat an early dinner.  Two consecutive nights of Giordano’s pizza was not sufficient, so there was no question that we wanted to return to the
restaurant near our hotel for dinner tonight. When we left The Plaza, we went back to our hotel to pick up our luggage since it was on the way to Giordano’s and then we wouldn’t need to double back later.  Luckily, we only had carry-on sized rolling bags and a backpack each, so it was easy to tow everything the 3 block walk to Giordano’s.  We arrived at 3:30pm and the restaurant was only half-full so there was no wait for a table.  They seated us at a table in the back of the restaurant with enough space under the table to stow our bags.  Since it takes 45 minutes to cook the pizza, we ordered right away to give us enough time to finish eating before we needed to leave for the airport.  I didn’t take any photos at dinner because we ordered the same thing that we had on Saturday: a small deep dish pizza with meatballs, mushrooms, and black olives.  And just like Saturday, the pizza arrived promptly and tasted delicious. I really miss all of that Chicago pizza!

After dinner, we walked back one block to the L train.  I really liked how easy it was to get around on public transit in Chicago, and it was very convenient that the line that goes to the airport also went close to our hotel.  The ride took about 30 minutes, but we had seats and the train was air conditioned, so it was a comfortable ride.  I wish I could say the rest of the weekend went as planned… you know, we got to the airport, breezed through security, and flew home with no delays. Unfortunately, we were not that lucky.

Everything was going as planned and the plane was on time, but after they finished boarding the A boarding group, they closed the door to the gangway.  The flight attendant kept going in and out of the plane and running over to the check in desk, and it was clear that there was a big problem. After 20 minutes, they resumed boarding and we got on the plane, but we noticed that only a few people boarded after us and then they must have stopped the boarding process again.  After several minutes of confusion and not knowing what was happening, one of the flight attendants on the plane came on the overhead to explain the problem.  Apparently it was so hot here in Chicago and it would also be extremely hot in San Jose, and we were flying on one of the new bigger planes which are too heavy to safely take off or land in this heat. They needed 15 people to volunteer to fly tomorrow instead to get some weight off the plane, and they were offering $1200 per person, plus a night in a hotel and a flight credit for the cost of tomorrow’s flight.  That was an extremely generous offer and we were so tempted to jump on it, but we both had to work on Tuesday and could not take the day off, so we needed to stay on this plane.  It ended up taking a full hour for them to sort out the details and get the 15 volunteers off the plane before we could finally leave.  I really did not understand why they waited until after half of us had boarded the plane before dealing with this issue.  It was no surprise that it was extremely hot in Chicago today, as it had been all weekend.  And they knew long in advance that the plane was fully booked and would be too heavy to fly, especially considering it was a 7pm flight at the peak heat of the day.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they had the same problem on last night’s flight too!  So why couldn’t they ask for volunteers to be bumped in the hour or two before the flight when we are all sitting in the terminal, twiddling our thumbs?? That would have been a much better se of everyone’s time and it would have avoided delaying our flight by an hour!

Once we finally did take off, the rest of the flight was uneventful.  I passed the time by taking some note in my trip journal and looking through my photos, and DH watched a movie on his tablet.  Soon enough, we landed back in San Jose and took an Uber home to return to reality.  Thank you to the city of Chicago for showing us a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Despite the extreme heat, Chicago was a beautiful city and we really enjoyed every minute of our time there.  I leave you with this photo of the flag of Chicago that hung on the wall of Giordano’s Pizza.

Step Tracker Daily Total: 13,830 steps; 5.61 miles