Chicago!! Day 2

Brian and I got up early and headed downstairs and hit the street looking for Starbucks coffee. We did not have to go very far at all. I got an ice coffee and he got hot chocolate. We met up with everyone else back at the hotel about fourty five minutes later and our Chicago adventure began!!

We rode the red line out to Wrigley Field. We took a few pictures of the Harry Caray statue and stopped by a Chicago Cubs gift shop and then it was back on the train again.

We got off the train at Fullerton station and made our five block walk to the Lincoln Zoo. The zoo is free but the parking is $30.00 for the entire day. I'm glad we walked.  The day was overcast and we had a few rain showers. The first thing you see is the Lion exhibit.

Very nice!! We picked and choosed what we wanted to see. We saw lions, leopards, monkeys, gorrilla's, bears, snakes, bats, bears, rhinos, and zebras. There are a few that i'm forgetting. Over all it was nice and I would love to back on a sunny day. We ate lunch at the Park Place Cafe. Lunch was good and they had many different types of food to choose from. Lunch was between $10.00 and $15.00 dollars. That was the norm for lunch in Chicago.  We left the zoo heading towards Lake Michigan, we crossed over Lake Shore Drive and on to the North Avenue Beach. Chicago has everything. The beach was really nice for the city on a lake. Volleyball nets where set up everywhere and eneryone was having a great time. We stopped at Castaway's. The building looks like a ship. They had a live band playing, restrooms, and a cafe. We rented bikes and rode from Castaway's to the Navy Pier along the waterfront. This was one of my favorite things!! It was a nice ride and the view was superb!!

We headed back to our hotel, freshened up, and it was back out for dinner. We headed to Gino's East Pizzeria. We had about a fourty minute wait before we could eat. We waited in line outside along the sidewalk.  They took us to the second floor and our seats where along the railing looking down on the first floor. We ordered a thin crust which took fourty five minutes to get that and we ordered a deep dish which took an hour to get that. For the amount of time we had to wait, the pizza was not worth it. It was good, but I would not go back there again. We all still enjoyed ourselves anyway.

After dinner the night was still young so we walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe.  I bought guitar magnets for me and my sister who collects them. Everyone else bought the classic Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts.

That was the end of our second day in the windy city.