Chicago - part 1

The road from Greenville, Illinois to Chicago is a continuous stretch of field and farmland, all of it flat. If there are towns along the way, they are a ways from the road because I didn't see them. There is fast food and gas at the exits. That's all. There are no billboards, but I did notice 3 or 4 "Burma-shave-like" series of small signs from a group advocating the safety of a society that allowed gun ownership. As in: Violent killing - does not happen - where there are guns - and then the URL of a website which I have forgotten. This is Illinois, or at least the highway side of it.

Then there is Chicago. A beautiful city with magnificent skyscrapers, tree shaded streets, parks and museums, people from everywhere, and a big blue lake.

We stayed with our cousins, Robert and Mary Lou, who are a bit west of Chicago in the town of Plainfield. On Friday night we celebrated Aunt Mil's 93rd birthday. Saturday morning we headed into Chicago. Driving in you can see and feel something special about the city rising on the edge of the Lake Michigan.

We parked at Navy Pier, a kind of lakefront amusement park, dominated by a large ferris wheel.
As we were headed over to a boat that would take us on an "architecture tour", who did we run into but Bob Newhart!? John sat down on the couch for a little therapy before we proceeded on.

Then we got on the boat and headed up the Chicago River to see the sites: