Chicago, Day 2

This morning we both woke up between 8:30 and 9:00 and that's with letting ourselves sleep in. 

Once we were prepared for the day, the first thing we did was go and rent some bikes! I was pretty excited about it considering the amount of walking we did yesterday. The bikes were really nice too! 

After that we had a little argument over bike travel. I guess you're not really suppose to ride on the sidewalk, but the sidewalks are huge and I'd already seen a ton of people doing it. After a few scary routes on the highway… we rode on the sidewalk and no one ever said a thing. Whew. 

Our first destination on the bikes was to a restaurant recommended by a friend: Yolk.  It was like a 45 minute wait, but it was amazingly delicious! I had a cinnamon roll that was definitely the best cinnamon roll I've ever eaten. 

After Yolk we headed down to the Shedd Aquarium. I had hesitated about going and should've have listened to that feeling more. I love all these little animals. So much! I think they're all so amazing - the fish and stingrays, the frogs and turtles, the jelly fish and sea horses, the sharks, the whales and dolphins. But, every time I looked at one I felt so bad for them. It breaks my heart that they're in these little bitty aquariums and cages (compared to their real homes - the ocean!). Even if they don't know any better. Even when they don't know what they're missing, because so many generations of them have been bred in captivity. It's still sad to me. 

Anyway, we only spent a few hours in there. After leaving we rode down to Navy Pier. That was pretty fun. We got some more popcorn, wandered through the little shops and rode on the enormous Ferris Wheel! The views were amazing from up there. You could really see the city. All of the tall buildings and traffic and people. The lake was so beautiful. The water wasn't anything close to clear like Hawaii water, but it seemed to have a slightly similar deep turquoise color to it. There was a lighthouse way out there that looked tiny from my perspective and several huge ships bobbing out in the water alongside many more sailboats.

We brought our bikes back to the hotel when we were done exploring at the Pier. I was curious as to how the hotel staff would react to us bringing in bicycles, because it's a pretty nice hotel. No one said anything to us though. A few questioning looks, but no protests. 

Then we took our first cab ride over to a Gino's pizza place. We took the cab because we knew we'd be cutting it close on time for our theatre show. The cab ride wasn't that bad at all. And, honestly, maybe it's just because a few months back I was in New York, but traffic didn't seem as bad as I'd imagined it to be either. 

We waited forever at the pizza place. Somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour just to get in and then at least that long inside waiting on our pizza! Geez! It was delicious again, and in my opinion better than Lou Malnati's; though, Cory preferred Lou over Gino. 

We took another cab ride to our theatre. The cab drive was a little more social. Though the first comment he made to us about his evening was how he'd wanted to run over some cops, but decided on another time with fewer witnesses. He was clearly being sarcastic, but it still felt pretty odd. 

I hadn't wanted to go to the show that Cory had chosen. In fact, I had not wanted to go so badly that I was considering it a personal anniversary gift to have agreed to go. We were seeing the Blue Man Group. 

We were also sitting in the center, floor seating, 3 rows back from the stage. And this required a poncho. I was nervous. 

But, I conceded immediately. The show was fantastic! It matched mine and Cory's odd sense of humor perfectly and was a very interactive show. Cory was even chosen from the audience to be a guinea pig for one of their little stunts - which really just involved sticking a camera in his mouth and it seemingly videoing his intestines. Guess, you had to be there. I'd explain the whole show, but I have a feeling I'd be repeating that last sentence a whole lot. It was great. I laughed through all of it and did get some sort of goo squirted on me a few times. 

At the end these enormous balloon/balls were bounced out into the audience for them to be bounced around. That was pretty fun. 

We took another cab ride back to the hotel and I'm glad that cab ride had been our last, because if it'd been our first we wouldn't have taken anymore! Whew. Brings back that one cab ride from New York all over again. This man was a terrible driver and a very aggressive driver too. 

We came back to the hotel and bounced around the idea of going back out to an area near the lake to get a night shot of the city… and some more about going out and finding a dessert. We decided we were too tired for that though. Lol. What can I say? We're an old married couple ;)