Chicago & St.Louis Trip - Day 1

For this Memorial Day long weekend, we have preferred to go Chicago, St.Louis and on Friday (05/23/2008) early evening, we have started from Little Rock and reached to Memphis, TN @7:00 P.M. Diwakar has already picked up 15 sheet passenger vehicle for us.

We had quick visit to Bala & Jayamuragan houses. Since Bala sister had visited him, he was not able to join with us. Jayamurugan had other plans. So only Param family, Diwakar Family, my mom and myself are found our seats and started vehicle towards Chicago, IL.

With few breaks, we have reached to Manteno, IL @4:35A.M. We woke the Hotel manager (Indian) to finish the hotel check in formalities. He told us that he waited up to 3:00 A.M for us and went to bed. We have started morning around 8:50 A.M and directly went to Chicago downtown Wacker Dr and left our car for full day parking. By Five minutes walking, we went to “HOP ON HOP OFF” Tour – Pickup place and we have collected our tickets & got into Double Decker bus. It took us to Sears tower, Millennium Park, Water tower, Navy pier, in and out of Chicago downtown, which is around 13 miles. Since next day is Memorial Day, some of the roads are blocked for parade. Tour guide was explaining about each & every sight seeing places and all are enjoyed well. I was busy with clicking pictures. We didn’t get down any of the sight seeing places from the bus. If we did, we could not cover many places and also we have to wait for another bus that will come and pick us for each 25- 30 minutes.

After the ride went to McDonalds and had our lunch & all got energized. With the few minutes walking, we have reached Millennium Park. And cool thing is “Cloud Gate”. This is inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33 feet high. It is 12-foot high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see our image reflected back from a variety of perspectives. Inside this park there is lot to see like Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Lurie Garden, Boeing Galleries, Crown Fountain etc…

By the time we done with Millennium park, Kiran has reached Chicago with his family and friends. Made quick visit to grant park and the main attraction in of this Park is the “Buckingham Fountain”.

After this park, all were gone to Chicago River Architecture Boat Tour (Wendella). It traveled through the heart of the city, the docents will provide an in-depth perspective on why Chicago's architectural heritage is known and studied around the world.

Final visit of the day is Hancock Observatory. We were allowed to go to 94th floor and Nighttime view from 94th floor was breath taking.

Today night Param friend Ramdass family has prepared delicious dinner for all of us. From his house, Went to Naperville city and stayed in Baymont Inn hotel.