Chicago, Chicago…

I think I’ve used up all the titles like “my kind’a town” and “the Windy City”, so I’ll simply say that all of that applied to the city today.  At times, it was also the rainy city.

It was not what we planned.  We’d popped out to Tempo for breakfast (as usual) so that someone could have the first corned beef hash of the trip and I could have a change from the daily self-service waffles the Hampton Inns offer at breakfast time.  It was dry and overcast then, but by the time we’d returned to our hotel, gathered our stuff together and were ready to go, there was the unmistakeable drop of rain on the window.  By the time we reached the door, it was umbrella time.

We made our way to Michigan Avenue where the shops were just opening…

Guess how we spent the next hour or two?

It was dry when we re-emerged from the mall and I was amused to discover that there are other people who take strange photographs!  (Not that I’ve ever taken one of a fire hydrant, as far as I can remember)

The street was beginning to get a little more crowded.  Here, around the Water Tower, there are always small groups of girls and their families, making their way to the mother-lode of American Girl Doll stores, just along the way.  I’ve written about these before here.    We didn’t feel the need to pay a visit there this time, so walked further on up the Magnificent Mile towards the bridge.

We had a destination in mind, about half way along the Avenue: Garret’s popcorn.  When we first came to Chicago, some years ago, their shop was on the Avenue itself and every day we’d walk past wondering what could be so special that people would queue outside?  We’ve now found out.  Popcorn!!  Our choice is always the mix – cheesy and caramel, though this morning I added a small bag of the cashew caramel to the mix as well.

Adding another bag to the collection balanced my hero’s load

Our next stop was a curiosity.  We’d read of Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC, but hadn’t been interested enough to look it out.  But catching the aroma of intense sweetness from quite some distance away, we just had to take a look.  We could also recall that it was linked in some way with the child of someone famous…but couldn’t remember who, so we asked.

Ralph Lauren’s daughter.

OK.  Moving right along…

We were reaching the bridge and the area where I had my little panic last year when I thought I’d lost everyone…so I kept an eagle eye on who was where when I was taking photos.

It’s the area around the river where the great skyscrapers are, where this city is at its grandest, I think.

The bridge is a favourite place for photos – and someone was taking a slightly different approach when he snapped his selfie.

We walked over the bridge, crossed the street and came back over on the other side, spotting this plaque to Henri De Tonti as we went (remember, Tontitown, a few days ago!?)  There is something really pleasing about tying up loose ends like that!

The river is a great setting for the more modern skyscrapers and brings real character to this city.  We love just hanging out here.

Returning up Michigan Avenue, we thought we’d take a look in the Microsoft shop for a few moments.  We’d stopped in the Mall of America branch whilst there and looked at the new Surface laptop/tablets.  This time, whilst Mary worked with Zack to set up her new purchase (!) Brenton ably assisted me with my new toy

This evening, dragging ourselves away from our new purchases, we decided to give Eataly a try.

Tempting though the cheese and salami was, we opted for pasta and pizza – and yes, it really was delicious.

The gelati were good, too.

Oh my.  We never go hungry here