After a bit of early morning research, Jen managed to present a few close options for breakfast without resorting to a chain – we settled on ‘Yolk’. Jen had a French toasted cinnamon roll, Joe had eggs benedict that had been drowned in Hollandaise sauce, Greg a French toast combo and Wyn toast with cinnamon apple pancakes he couldn’t finish! Allan and his grandson Austin were waiting for us in the hotel lobby (and waited while Jen went to grab a fleece – its not called the Windy city for nothing!).
Allan took us on a meandering walk through the Loop, pointing out all the 1920s/30s/60s/70s architecture, taking us into the lobbies of buildings to see décor and mosaics, into the Cook County and State of Illinois buildings, past interesting and unintelligible sculptures, fountains that had been Tangoed for Halloween, along the river, through the theatre and shopping districts and down to the underground driving level to a dive of café called Billy Goats Tavern for some awesome burgers and ham and cheese toasties. We saw part of a piano recital at the Chicago Cultural Centre, learnt about the Chicago fire, Greg showed Austin how to ‘appreciate art’ in the water tower and we discovered the water pumps were called Old Kane, Old DePaul and Old Pouliot in the old pumping station and we saw a giant spider on the outside of a fabulously restored old mansion around the corner from the Catholic and Anglican cathedrals.
We were sorry to leave Allan and Austin at 3.45pm but were left with tips for the John Hancock Building, breakfast and Chicago deep dish pizza pie. After Wyn bought a phone, we took a lift – not to the 94th floor observatory for an $18 per person view but to the Signature room on the 96th floor for drinks that cost about $10 per person and enjoyed the same views in comfort and style. The most intimidating thing was the express lift ride which stopped at no other floors and speeds its way to 96, not even bothering to count the other floors. After photographing the view out of every single window, including those in the restrooms (even better than the stained glass windows in the restrooms of Bloomingdales that Allan made us go in and look at!), we decided to make the 50min walk back to the hotel (after debating Cheesecake factory cheesecake and deciding to leave it for another day) to regroup in preparation for pizza hunt.
After much deliberation and googling of the three pizza places Allan recommended, we settled on Giodano’s – just opposite from the Willis/Sears Tower. Apparently this place was 0.72km from the hotel according to Bing but felt much longer – probably due to the cold! Joe, Greg and Jen decided to share a medium pizza with BBQ chicken, meatballs and bacon, Wyn had a small meat pizza. Pizza is not an accurate description – Greg rather more aptly described it as being like a quiche, with pie crust rather than pizza dough, then lots of thick gooey cheese, then the toppings and finally a layer of tomato sauce. It was huge – Jen managed 2 slices, Greg and Joe did 3 slices each and Wyn managed half of his two person pizza before admitting defeat – he is slowly learning American portions are not the same as British portions. Slow walk back to the hotel underneath the ‘L’ for Greg to take many more pictures of the train and muse where Spiderman 2 was filmed!