[Rick] As we had purchased a 3-day ticket on the tour bus, we decided to take the neighborhood tour or Chicago’s South Side. The South Side is predominately African-American. It is very affluent, including the homes of President Barack Obama, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson, and many others. The South side was the site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and only one building from that Exposition remains. That building currently houses the Museum of Science and Industry. We decided to jump off the bus and went into the museum. It is huge, including a three car train, the Zephyr, which set a speed record from Denver to Chicago in 1934. The basement houses a captured German U-boat. Tours are given on the U-boat and the Zephyr. There is huge room filled with model trains, running around a fantastic model of the City of Chicago. Betsy spent about an hour watching a baby chick pecking itself out of its shell.
For supper, we returned to the Navy Pier. We visited more exhibits that we had missed yesterday. All in all, the Navy Pier is a wonderful destination. We noticed an abundance of foreign speaking tourists. Not sure why so many. Also, since we had no pictures of the Navy pier last night, here are some from today.Since this is a short blog, permit me to make an observation from Chicago. There is no recession in Chicago. The tour buses are full. The line at the museum was about 300 people to purchase tickets, 2 hours after the museum opened. The Navy Pier is shoulder to shoulder. The wait at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for dinner was over one and one-half hours. The marinas are full, and there are over 8,000 slips and mooring balls. We saw a dinner cruise loading at the pier, the boat was full and the price was $98 PER PERSON. Every cruise boat was full.
Hey rick and betsy,
ReplyDeleteHave been away awhile started a new business selling poker and trivia to bars....(no gambling Betsy) but in case you did not know 42 years ago after we were married in Texas I took Charlotte to Chicago. We lived on the North Side near Loyola Univresity and I took the L and subway downtown where I worked acroos the street from those round buildings called Marina Towers. I worked in the Sun Times building now gone where Ann Landers worked and my boss's office looked out over the Chicago River.
We were in the chicago area this summer and found it to be the bustling city of Carl Sandberg's "Big Shoulders" and agree it hard to see the recession there. In fact our daughter in law's father has a job waiting in DC in the Obaama administration....social services.
Have enjoyed catching up on the blog...you are doing a great job. Bill is going by.... big waves maybe 6 ft early and a bit of a surge but no beach erosion and no rain. It is hot muggy August as usual...you are better but you can slow down now if you want to enjoy good weather down the Missisippi.
About to cook some steaks and enjoy a day off after seven straight days of poker....
Harvey Bradshaw died...too bad we were trying to get him to tell some stories about Sneads Ferry on video tape for the Topsail Island historical society in conjunction with the Sneads ferry Community Theater but he was just too ill a couple of Sundays ago when the filming was scheduled.
Dick