Monday, September 27, 2010

Chicago Advice

A little piece of advice when visiting Chicago...the first day in town you should take an architectural boat tour of the Chicago River. There are several companies that offer them and they are AWESOME! They give you a little history of the city and tell you the names and architectural style and name of the architect that designed the buildings. Now, if you are a visual learner it could be a little difficult to remember the details (that's me...I need to read along...the tour we went on did have a pamphlet) but I did manage to absorb some info that's very helpful as you walk the city. It's, also, an awesome photo opportunity.



The clock tower in this photo is a part of my favorite building...The Wrigley Building. There are 2 parts to this building and in one of the buildings the Wrigley gum was once manufactured.



This is a view from Hotel 71 the 30th floor. The round buildings have parking on the bottom floors and condos on the top floors. There is an elevator that brings your car up to the parking and a valet parks it, you aren't allowed to park your own car. The valet backs the cars in and it is very scary looking at cars backed up to the edge over the river.


This is one of 2 buildings that survived the great fire in 1871. It was Chicago's water pumping station. The architect wanted it to look castle like. It is beautiful!!! You can find this building on Michigan Ave.


Remember the first season of Donald Trump's Apprenntice show? The winner of that show was in charge of the construction of this building, The Trump Tower. His name is Bill Rancic, he heard the words, "You're Fired" when he took a Chicago morning talk show gig while he was working for Trump. Inside part of this building is enclosed parking, there is, also, room for commercial stores, condos and there is a hotel.


 The tallest building in this photo is Willis Tower once known as the Sears Tower. You can go up inside this building and there is a see through step out you can walk on and look all the way down...Ummm...NO THANK YOU!


This is the NBC building. See the NBC peacock at the top?


A night time view from the boardwalk on the Chicago River. It is sooo beautiful! You should see the Wrigley Building at night...amazing!

Hope you enjoyed your tour of Chicago! This is the tour we took hubby's sister on this past week. There is so much to see and do here! We haven't even scratched the surface! I'll give you more mini tours as the days and months go on.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!!!
Hugs!
Kim

3 comments:

Linda ★ Parker's General said...

It is a beautiful city--the hub of the Midwest. There really is so much history there. The museums and the lakes and the cemeteries.....
thanks for sharing some awesome pictures!
★Linda★

myletterstoemily said...

i just love chicago, and my next opportunity
to visit, i will take your boat tour. what a
great idea! thanks for the sweet tour.

Wendy @ Ramblings from the Sunshine State said...

They are all lovely! But the water pumping tower is my favorite!