Architectural River Tour & Lincoln Park Zoo
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2010
1
5
Trip End
Jun 14, 2010
Chicago, Illinois
Sunday, June 13, 2010
My travel guide suggested a walking tour that included Oak Street and now I understand why. It was a charming street lined with oak trees on both sides and high-end shops and boutiques. Andy loves cars so we stopped to admire a dealership with Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Bugattis on their showroom floor. I wish we could have walked up Oak Street to Gold Coast Beach, but we were heading back toward the Chicago River.
If you can’t tell by my pictures, everyone in Chicago was celebrating the Blackhawks’ Cup win. We had seen helmets on lions at the Art Institute, a jersey on a dinosaur at the Field Museum, posters at Gibsons, and on the side of skyscrapers and now we were seeing jerseys at Tiffany & Co. and the Peninsula hotel (named the finest hotel in North America). Imagine what Chicago would be like if the Cubs won the World Series!
We made our way back to the River and purchased our tickets for the architectural river tour scheduled to leave at noon. We grabbed some lunch at The Corner Bakery and before long we were on Chicago’s First Lady. There were so many buildings, all so very unique in their architecture and history. Our guide told us interesting facts about each building she pointed out to us (and that I took a picture of). I was unable to document or remember every name or detail, so I welcome any information you have on the buildings as you view the pictures on this blog.
It was a chilly day that day, especially on the river. After the architectural tour, we headed back to the hotel to put on some warmer layers so we could visit the Lincoln Park Zoo. Millienium Park was on our way back so we got some pictures of our reflection in the bean!
We took a 10 to 12 minute cab ride from the Loop to Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park Zoo is the oldest free admission zoo in the country and is a world leader in wildlife conservation. Their collection of lowland gorillas is one of the largest in the U.S. I have to say I’ve never seen a silverback gorilla up close and so LARGE until I saw JoJo. Weighing 550 pounds, JoJo is 30 years old and was born at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
We were so impressed with the exhibits and the quality of the habitats. The animals seemed well taken care of and most were visible to us. In fact, you could stand only inches from some of the animals with a barrier in between of course. As we were leaving the zoo we had an awesome experience! The lion stood on his rock and roared several times before laying down for the evening. www.lpzoo.org
We had originally planned to have fondue at Geja's Cafe, a subterranean fondue restaurant that is supposedly one of Chicago's most romantic restaurants. The ambiance is described in my travel guide as dimly lit with low ceilings and live flamenco guitar. I hope we visit Chicago again so we can try Geja's, but I was pretty tired and wanted to get something relatively quick near the hotel so we could pack and rest for our travels back to Birmingham the next morning. www.gejascafe.com
Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant on Adams Street was connected to our hotel so we decided to try it out. It was perfect for what we wanted! Andy had the special, Roast Beef Stuffed Yorkshire, and I had the Fish & Chips.
www.elephantcastle.com/content/locations/chicago_adams_st
