Day 8 - Chicago, Day 2

Miles Driven: about 385

 

I had really been hoping to find some great city tour that we could go on that would teach us more about Chicago in the short time we had left. I had read on the TripAdvisor app about a highly recommended company called Chicago's Best Tours (catchy, no?) and they did a series of walking tours. Lucky for us, they just happened to have openings in their "Pedway Lovers" tour this morning at 10am. The next day they had openings was on May 24th! I went ahead and booked the tour and was pretty excited about it. It was a 2 1/2 hour tour that would have us walking about 1 3/4 miles of the Pedway.

 

Unfortunately, on the way back to the hotel from Ed Debevic's last night, I missed seeing a driveway in the dark and fell off a curb, rolling my ankle. When I did it, I instantly knew I had hurt myself pretty badly and it took several minutes before I was even sure I could stand at all. This morning it looked like this, with a giant lump where my ankle was supposed to be.

 

 

I could hardly put any weight on it at all it hurt so badly, but I really wanted to go on the tour! So we packed the car up as quickly as we could, checked out of the hotel, drove the 1 mile to the beginning of the tour site (which took us almost 15 minutes :P) and I limped along with the rest of the group and used the rails on the stairs like crutches "ouch"-ing all the way. I am SO glad we didn't miss the tour, though. It was awesome!

 

For anyone (like me) who doesn't know what the Pedway is, it's a series of connected hallways and rooms that come together to make an underground walkway that spans much of the city. Each section is owned and maintained by the restaurants, shops, and hotels that it is near so sections of the Pedway are closed when those businesses close it (most often on the weekends). And each time a new hotel is built, its lobby is somehow connected to the existing Pedway. Much of it is underground, but some of the Pedway is actually above street level. It's all marked with the symbol of the compass which locals can learn how to read because it's really easy to get turned around and lost down there. Besides tunnels and covered walkways, the Pedway goes through most of the hotels in the city, the old Chicago library, City Hall and the court buildings, the food court at the mall, and even Macy's. The whole purpose of it is that it allows the people of Chicago to make their way around the city completely protected from the wind, rain, and even snow. So, for example, You could get off the train, and instead of heading straight up the stairs to the city street, you could continue through the Pedway system to buy some breakfast or a paper, have your shoes shined, relax while you answer an email in a hotel lobby, buy a new briefcase in Macy's, and then head to the section underneath your office using the stairs or elevator to come up right inside, never having spent a moment outside of the Pedway. Pretty cool.

 

Along our tour, 'Uncle Dan' told us fascinating history of the city and how it came to be. He described legends and lore about the mafia and their associations in the tunnels and told stories of the designs of all the buildings in the area. He talked about the World's Fair and the addition of two new neighborhoods in the past 7 years. I got the idea that you could take his tour every day for a week and not hear the same information twice. He took us to the old Chicago library (which is now the cultural center) where the world's largest Tiffany dome is located. The surrounding room is made of marble with mosaics done in handmade and hand-placed Tiffany glass. The sun glittered off each piece making the whole room sparkle. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the pictures don't give you any of the beauty of the place, but they do show the size well.

 

 Tiffany glass ceiling dome through the arch - people are seated waiting for a concert to begin (photo by C)

Inset mosaics made of Tiffany glass (photo by C)

 

We saw more Tiffany glass when we went to Macy's. Apparently they have the world's largest Tiffany ceiling - one that took 50 artists 1 1/2 years to make as they lie on their backs placing the pieces of glass one by one.

 

Tiffany glass ceiling (photo by C)

 

We learned so much on that tour. I am so glad we went on it! It was the perfect way to spend the morning and it was a great way to learn a lot about the city so quickly. After the tour, we headed to go get some lunch. We kept hearing the same restaurant names over and over so we had an idea of where to go. Potbelly is a sandwich place that reminded me a lot of our Erik's back home. Portillo's is a Chicago hot dog place, and was Jessey's vote, but we decided instead to go to Giordano's for some deep-dish Chicago pizza. It was amazing! Knife and fork pizza that was to-die-for. Super-cheesy but not greasy with delicious sausage. Everyone was happy with this choice! We couldn't possibly finish it all so we packed up a couple of pieces to go. I just couldn't stand wasting them, but I wasn't sure how we would transport them or how we would heat them later, so when a homeless guy on our way back to our car asked for some pizza, I gave it to him. I was glad to know someone would enjoy it. :)

 

 

 

After lunch it was time to go hit a laundromat. We were running low on clothes and some of us were out completely. We knew we wouldn't have another chance before DC, so we hunkered down at a laundromat on Halsted for a few hours and then repacked the car. I know- exciting, right? C took a picture of the place, but I figure that you all can use your imaginations here.

 

When we left the laundromat it was already after 5pm. We had scoped out another KOA in Batesville, Indiana that was our target stop for the night, and we were headed for another 10pm tent setup. But then I showed the girls Lake Michigan out the window and the begging started again to go to the beach. I told them I'd get off at the next exit and see if I could find a way out there, but I didn't see any way to get to that side of the freeway, or anywhere to park. It looked to me like the beaches of Lake Michigan were meant as a reward for those who bike ride or jog for miles, so I got back on the freeway going the other way, and voila - a parking lot! It only cost $1 to park for an hour so we went ahead and parked and let the girls run around in the sand and wade in the water. It was sunny but not exactly warm, but we checked it off our Chicago list nonetheless.

 

 

 

The directions for our campground told us to go basically back where we had just come from all this time, back north on this freeway, then west, and then south on another freeway. I remembered passing traffic on that freeway (and I thought now would be a good time to grab some coffee for tonight's drive), so I decided to cut through the city streets straight across to the freeway that headed south. We drove through the old Hyde neighborhood and Washington Park (which was huge!) and then just before we got on the freeway, we made a left turn and it seemed like we were somewhere else altogether. The buildings were in shambles and every third or fourth car was a police car. It kinda came out of nowhere.

 

The freeway was another toll road that collected more money from us all the way into Indiana. One of the weirdest things I saw along the way was something they called The Oasis, and was actually a McDonald's right in the middle of the road. It was literally between the two directions of traffic in the center of the freeway, like you would get in the left hand lane and then pull into the parking lot and park. That was a new one for me.

 

We made our way through Indianapolis in the dark and exited at Batesville, but we couldn't find the KOA anywhere. We drove up and down the streets searching for it but it simply didn't exist. Defeated, we decided to book a hotel instead at the next freeway exit which ended up being exit 1 in Harrisburg, Ohio. I couldn't even take advantage of my hotels.com buy-10 and get-1 free membership because it was after 1am at this point and we couldn't book a hotel for "yesterday".  Oh well, at least the hotel was a nice one. :)