Day Two in Chicago

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 154 - September 1, 2017

First off, happy 50th anniversary to us! We are loving Chicago, and really glad we are here to celebrate it rather than somewhere farther along the river system, which is where we would have been if we had not been stuck in New Buffalo for so long! A silver lining to an otherwise dark cloud on our Loop!

Today our major adventure was the Architectural River Cruise, which took up most of our morning! We pedaled our bikes over to the Navy Pier to the tour boat landing, and boarded the boat with our e-Vouchers on my iPhone. Being our anniversary, the first thing I did was head back to the bar on the tour boat before it departed and got two Bloody Marys, with which we toasted the FIRST toast of our day!  

Our tour guide Kevin was great! He has been on the river for 17 years and is a font of knowledge about the history of the City of Chicago and each building, its architect, owner, style, uses over the years, and every other fact, all imparted with great humor. The first fact he explained was that Chicago had reversed the flow of the Chicago River, so that instead of flowing to Lake Michigan, it now flows from Lake Michigan down the inland river system toward the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. That greatly upset the surrounding states that depend on the Great Lakes for water. The dispute was settled by regulating the amount of water that could flow to the Chicago River from Lake Michigan, which is regulated by the Chicago River Lock, which is the first lock we will have to navigate when we leave here. It is all of a two foot drop!

Here are some highlight photos!

Heading down Chicago River at start of Architectural River Tour

Wrigley Building with clock tower

Chicago Tribune Building

Riverfront Condos

Looking behind us at end of tour

Pat and Patty on tour boat with Willis Tower in background

Kevin assured us that "Willis" is pronounced "Sears" in English! Some other interesting buildings that I did not photograph are the "air rights" buildings. These are built on very small footprints and get larger with cantilevering as the buildings go up. Some of Chicago’s most famous buildings exist because of air rights. Examples are the Merchandise Mart, the Prudential Building and the old Main Post Office. The basic concept is that a property owner, for example a railroad, retains the right to use the ground, but sells or leases the right to use the air above the tracks!

As we returned to the tour boat landing, Kevin amazed us all with some pretty darn good blues harmonica playing! If you ever visit Chicago, the Architectural River Tour should be on your "must do" list!

When the tour was over, we decided to pedal right on past DuSable Marina on the Lake Shore Bicycle Trail, which runs for eight miles, to see if we would be able to ride our bikes to our hotel, The Blackstone, this afternoon. As it turns out, it was very easy - we just pedaled up the bike trail to Balbo Avenue, took a right, and pedaled about three more blocks on the sidewalk on Balbo. The doorman told us it would be no problem to bring our bikes in, and that other guests have done that. I also went in to get a Chicago street map from the front desk, and told the lady at the front desk that we would be checking in later and that it was our 50th anniversary. She offered to block out our room for us right away and arrange a complimentary bottle of champagne! Although check-in time was not until 4:00 p.m., she told us we could check in any time, as our room was already made up for us! 

We then pedaled back to DuSable Marina for lunch and to wait for Pet Care Plus to pick up Baxter for his overnight stay and a grooming while we are at the hotel. Lunch was the other half of last night's Bella Bucinos pizza nuked in our microwave. The pet taxi arrived to pick Baxter up, and I was amazed at how willingly and trustingly he went with the Pet Care Plus gal!  

We packed up computers, Kindles, Verizon Jetpack, chargers, and iPhone charging cords in the backpack, and clothes, toiletries, gin (!) and a few other things in the duffel bag. These were both a bit heavier than we would have liked, but Patty managed the backpack, and I managed the duffel bag with a shoulder strap so that the duffel was around my back, and we pedaled off to the Blackstone! We checked our bikes at the front desk and went up to our room, 2121 on the 21st floor (the hotel has 23 floors, so this was pretty high up). Putting it simply, we were amazed and thrilled with our room. A view room costs considerably more than we paid when we made our reservation. We think the gal at the front desk upgraded us for our anniversary. This room looks right out to Lake Michigan over the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park to Monroe Harbor. The view is just stupendous, and we have really been enjoying it!

Every president from Taft through Carter has stayed at the Blackstone. Kennedy learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis while he was staying here. Warren G. Harding was chosen as the Republican presidential nominee on the ninth floor in what a reporter called "a smoke filled room," which is where we are told that term originated to signify power brokers making decisions out of the public eye. We really like this place!

View out our window of Room 2121 at The Blackstone.
Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park and Monroe Harbor!

The fountain sends a water plume up 150 feet every hour on the hour!

Buckingham Fountain shooting up its water plume!

We had our pre-dinner cocktails and our SECOND toast to our anniversary in the room - a big glass of gin over ice, not a G&T, just this one time! We will not return to our prior immoderate habit! We had dinner in the Mercat Restaurant in the hotel, and it was wonderful. Patty had, as is her usual habit, two appetizers or tapas plates as they are called at the Mercat: a charcuterie platter and a scallop plate. I had a rib steak, cooked rare to perfection, and it was one of the best steaks I have ever had!

Our complimentary champagne had arrived before we went to dinner, and it was waiting for us on ice when we returned! We had our THIRD and final toast to our anniversary as we watched a bit of TV before going to bed!

This was a great day and a great 50th anniversary! It was fabulous to be celebrating it in Chicago, in a great historic hotel. Tomorrow we are looking forward to The Second City Comedy Club. We have extended at DuSable for Sunday, and I am thinking an Uber to Costco to buy three more three pound bags of San Francisco Bay French Roast coffee and a bike trip to Mariano's Market are in order for Sunday!