Taylor, Days Two & Three: Chicago And All That Jazz

Actual picture taken from the actual Sears (Willis) Tower Skydeck
(click any and all pictures to embiggen!)

What can I say about the Windy City? It was so much fun that we were too tired to blog about all its glory!

We cruised our way through Indiana yesterday morning and went to Navy Pier where we stashed the car and set out into America's Second City. The pier was cool, a lot like Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco, some fun touristy stuff and good food including a great truck selling sweet roasted nuts (which Morgan enjoyed) and fresh lemonade (more my speed):

Then we walked all the way over to the Sears Tower. Technically it's called the Willis Tower now after the Willis group obtained renaming rights, but really, it's the Sears Tower. It was about a 30 minute walk and we got to see some classic Chicago sights including walking under some L tracks:

I felt like I was in a scene from ER,
expected to see County General right around the corner

We made it to the tower and up we went. Way, way, way up. 103 floors up. The elevator was quick, and slightly scary (bit shaky near the top) but we made it with only a few minor ear pops. Then we did something much scarier, stood on the glass observation platform 103 stories above Wacker Drive. I don't do heights and I don't like tempting fate so I hopped out of that bad boy and back onto the more traditional opaque flooring as soon as we took our obligatory pictures.

See how close my feet are to the carpet in the back?
I jumped off that thing as soon as I could

Things that happened next:

• I found a Mold-O-Rama machine in the basement gift shop and had to try it out. I've never seen one in person before and wanted to see it in action. Definitely awesome, and now I have my own little plastic Sears Tower molded just for me!

Retro fun for the whole family!

• We got some amazing popcorn at Garrett Popcorn. The Chicago Mix has cheese and caramel popcorn mixed together. Best. Combination. Ever. It's a miracle we didn't eat all of it on the way back to the car. 
• Walked through Millenium Park and got to see The Bean! 

ooo Shiny

ooo Smudgy

• Walked back to the car with little help from our phones. They kept giving us horrible directions and we ended up going in a few circles, but that's part of the fun right?
• Drove to the hotel and checked ourselves on in. 
• Procured some long pants for the mildly nippy Chicago evening and then....

We went to a Chicago Cubs game at none other than Wrigley Field!

The one and only, since 1914

We got some nosebleed seats which turned out to have a pretty good view and I bought a Cubs hat that I'm going to have to keep away from my Red Sox hat at home if I want to avoid hat fights.

It was fun to go to a Major League game, I hadn't been to one in over 10 years. The Cubs weren't doing too hot against the Miami Marlins though and ended up losing, but it's the thought that counts!

We ended the night at Giordano's for some famous deep dish, stuffed Chicago Pizza. Gotta say, and maybe it's the New Yorker in me, but pizza just should not be that tall. I wasn't a big fan, but we had some Goose Island beer (local to Chicago) which was pretty good so it kind of evened out.

We found our way back to the hotel and got some much needed sleep before heading out this morning. We made it from Chicago to Kearney, Nebraska today, lots of driving and not a lot of sights to see besides a whole heck of a lot of corn.

We did make a small detour in Brayton, Iowa to see the tree in the middle of the road. "What's that?" you ask? Well, it's a tree. In the middle of the road.

Looks a lot like this. Tree. Road. Middle.

 Now by this point we had already been on the road for hours and we got a little silly. There were a few points were we started speaking for this majestic tree in the middle of the road. For those wondering, he's British and very very distinguished.

You'd be distinguished too if you looked like this.

Tree (we're on a first name basis now, obviously) was surrounded by some beautiful Iowa countryside including some wildflowers and this nice "weathered" stop sign!

We were parked there for about 15 minutes and didn't encounter another car/soul/animal so I'm thinking Tree is one of Iowa's best kept secrets, just the way I like my Big Old Road Trees. 

Then it was back on the highway into Nebraska which has a highway speed limit of 75. 75! This was very exciting. We watched the sun go down from the car and then settled in here for the night. 

Tomorrow we head back out and try to make it to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado which is still 700ish miles away. 

And remember, if you're ever in Iowa, go see the tree in the middle of the road, he's very proper and will welcome you with open branches.