Sweet Home Chicago !
Back to old territory – well an old state anyway but quite a different area of the state – and a couple of nights in the “Windy City”
Before we left Galena, we headed to President Grant’s house not far down the road. It has a prime spot on top of the hill looking down toward the main part of town. We also ventured a little further down the hill to Grant Park which is situated near the river. It is impecably kept and refreshed from a 2017 refurbishment.
Grant’s house 
Grant’s statue in Grant Park
Leaving Galena, we began to head south and back toward the Mississippi River and the Great River Road. One thing about this time of year is that everything is so lush and green – which can make seeing the river in some areas a little difficult unless you are right on it. Such was the case with our first stop – Eagle Point park in Clinton, now back in Iowa. The park has a great spot on a hill but the surrounding vegetation gives only a glimpse of the river. But as the road runs very close in parts we generally did get a good view as we drove.
Looking back north just south of Galena 
Driving close along the Mississippi
Still in Iowa and further south, our next stop was in the little town of Le Claire – made famous by the Foxtel series “American Pickers” and their business “Antique Archeology”. If you don’t know it, the show is about two “junk collectors”, Mike & Frank, who drive around the USA buying and selling “antiques”. Judging by the number of people coming and going at the store in Le Claire, it is pretty popular !
Adrienne at the shop 
Even the van was there – maybe Mike & Frank are around ? 
Part of Mike’s collection – “Not for Sale” 
In the shop
Leaving Le Claire, after weaving in and out of it in the last few days, we were also finally leaving Iowa for the last time. So we joined I80, crossed the Mississippi and headed east toward Chicago. The traffic certainly builds up as you get closer to the larger cities. Adrienne monitors the traffic on Google Maps and if there appears to be a major holdup, she usually manages to find us a detour around it to save a bit of time. And after one short holdup where a car had rolled up an embankment, the next holdup was major so we exited the interstate to take the back roads for a while.
Corn fields ! Who’d have guessed !
The other entertainment on the interstates is the overhead message displays – we never did see the “Endangered individual, travelling in Black Jeep Cherokee, licence plate XXXXXX – call 911” ! So instead we continued on, leaving the interstate again to make our way a bit south to Joliet and the Joliet Route 66 Museum. We have seen lots of bits of Route 66 in our travels so we needed to add another little bit !
After another slight detour around Joliet as part of our “Blues Brothers Tour ” 😂😂 we again joined the traffic into Chicago to get to our hotel. Probably a 6 out of 10 on Adrienne’s “Extreme Navigating to the Hotel in a Big City” scale, we made it to the River Hotel and checked in about 3.30pm. After dropping our bags, we then set off on our walking tour for the rest of the afternoon. We started along the Riverwalk – an area of boardwalks along the river bank – very pleasant and very popular. We then went back to street level and made our way to Millennium Park & Cloud Gate .
Reflections from Cloud Gate sculpture 
More reflections 
Setting up for a free concert 
Crown Fountain
Millennium Park is a beautiful green space which has become Chicago’s largest tourist attraction. The centerpiece of Millennium Park is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bandshell designed by Frank Gehry. It was playing host tonight to the last in a series of free concerts as part of the Chicago Music Festival. It also includes the “Cloud Gate” reflective sculpture – which is known as the “bean” due to its shape. Another is the interactive art and video sculpture called Crown Fountain – a great place for the kids on a hot day ! The towers at each end emit a spray of water and the inside panel of each displays a face with changing expressions. At one point, the month actually sprays out a column of water !
Looking across town toward the river 
Theatre area
We then walked back across town to the Riverwalk which by early evening had become packed with the “Friday Drinks” crowd at the many bars and cafes/restaurants along the river. We were starting to wonder if we would have any luck finding somewhere for dinner when we came across the Chicago Brewhouse. It does a selection of “Chicago Street Food” – and beer of course ! – so we settled in there. We shared a selection of Chicago Pizza Flatbread, Taylor St Mini Italian Beef Sandwiches and Devon Ave Chicken Tikka Masala – each covering a particular area of town. Very tasty and a pleasant spot right on the river.
Not a bad view from our hotel this evening !
Tomorrow we explore Chicago some more …
Today’s Tour Trivia – Chicago’s nickname, the Windy City, has nothing to do with meteorology. The epithet—from a New York City journalist—actually referred to the boastful, long-winded politicians campaigning for the World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Before that, it may have been a phrase referring to the breezes off Lake Michigan, but it wasn’t popularly used.