Chicago

We spent 3 fantastic days in Chicago.

The first day we went to "Navy Pier" where there were shops, rides, places to eat, and the Stained Glass Window Museum. We saw that everyone was walking quite a distance to get there and figured the parking was far away. However, we were quite excited to see that there was plenty of parking in the garage at the pier. As we were commenting on our luck, we soon realized why everyone else was parking elsewhere. It cost $20 to park in their garage. Oh well, it was well worth it. Thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

The next day, we unloaded our bikes and took to the streets. Went through several parks, rode down by the waterfront, and then it was off to the downtown area for some true -Chicago style deep-dish pizza for lunch. It was a little nerve-wracking riding on the streets of downtown. Like riding in crowded downtown New York.

Had lunch and decided to find a less crowded way home. Somehow we ended up in the underground of Chicago, and couldn't get out. We rode in the dark maze among cars, ramps, delivery trucks, garbage trucks, and who knows what else. Finally found our way to the parking garage where our car was. What a relief. You couldn't have paid me to go on that tour!!

On our final day, we saw 2 homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The first one was called the Robie House and was built at the turn of the 19th century. Quite a different design from the victorian-style house they were used to. They had a pit in the 3-car garage to do maintenance, an automatic gardening system and a central vac.

The next one was called Oak Park. This was his personal house and design studio.