Chicago - a mini series

Our Chicago trip come honeymoon never seemed to get started blogging wise, so I thought I'd try and create a mini series about what we got up to and the great places to visit if you ever visit the windy city. While I've already posted about our Amtrak ride in the snow, the Lincoln Park Zoo, playing with reflections on the Bean and stepping out 103 floors up on the Skydeck, there's a tonne of other goodies to reflect and share - so bare with me if you're sick of me talking about Chicago!

After arriving at rush hour on Friday numerous hours late after been delayed on the train we dragged our suitcase to our hotel, hit a seafood restaurant [Nick's Fishmarket], trying oysters for the first time and then hit the sack. Saturday morning started off with a trip to the Zoo [free!] and this is what we did for the rest of the day ....

Chicago's skyline from one of the exits of the Zoo

Sitting onboard one, if not the first Pullman cars to run in Chicago

Myself sitting inside The Pioneer - Chicago's first operating locomotive

You can just see the Chicago Water Tower over all the shoppers heads - a building built in 1869 to disguise the huge water standpipe. It's castle like architecture is what inspired the fast food chain White Castle's building designs. 

 

The Lego shop inside the Water Tower Place shopping center is home to a mini version of Chicago built out of Lego. 

We started off visiting Chicago's History Museum which was the only place I didn't really enjoy on our trip. While it was packed full of stuff [maybe too much] there seemed to be nothing linking everything but we learnt some of the story about Chicago regardless and sat in the first locomotive to operate in Chicago [an amazing thing for somewhat train geeks like us] to one of the first railroad cars. But for the price and in reflection with all the other museums we went to see - this one didn't hit the mark - probably explaining the lack of our normal snap happy photographic craze that overrides us in such places.

After heading into the Christmas shopping crowds along Michigan Avenue we headed into the Water Tower Place - a huge eight floor shopping center with over 100 stores [your typical Forever21, Lush, Victoria's Secret to Sephora] set inside a 87 story skyscraper. Visiting a couple of weekends before Christmas was perhaps not the wisest of ideas as it was insanely packed but Joe treated me to some early Christmas presents and we pressed our noses up against the Lego store and took the obligatory picture of me next to a Lego Woody. Places like this truly sum up America to me - utterly huge and manic.

What's up next - how we spent Saturday night at the Navy Pier.