Day 3 in Chicago - River/Architectural Boat Tour, Lake Festival and Fireworks

This morning the day started off fine.  We went down to the riverside walk where we booked tickets to a late afternoon architectectural boat tour with the company "Chicago's First Lady". As you will see later I found it very enjoyable and fun. Once booked, we carried on along the riverwalk and over to Navy Pier.  Tip to the wise: Don't walk to the pier if you have a teenage son/daughter who isn't a massive fan of walking in high humidity.  It was actually owned by the navy back in the day. When we got their we could see the ferris wheel (almost as big as the London Eye), some other rides and the main body of the wharf which was taken up by restaurants. Around the pier are around 20 submerged planes as a result of failed training flights onto aircraft carriers that used to be parked next to the pier. Here are the photos we took. 

Looking back at the city from the pier.

The ferris wheel, chair spinny ride thingy and carousel.

Soup of the day a popular restaurant on the pier.

After the pier we went back to the hotel, rested and then at around 3:30 in the afternoon went back down alongside the river to go on our boat tour. We were lucky enough to sit up the front(open plan seating) as we could see all the buildings coming up without a whole lot of people around us as well as hearing the architectural docent perfectly. The following photos were all taken during the tour.



The new river walk outside the Renaissance Hotel is newly opened this year.  They are continuing to extend the walk so next year you'll be able to walk most of the main part of the river. 

Trump Tower/Hotel from the boat.

Party boats going up and down the river.

Looking back at the river from the river walk.

Restaurant/Bank on the side of the river.

Bridges crossing the Chicago River.

An old bridge only used once a year to make sure it is still functioning. 

Water taxi.

Wave building, created for a more sociable style of living(neighbours were supposed to talk to eachother from the different size balconies).

Clover building designed so no one looked into each other.

Art deco style NBC Building only desgned in 1989.

Corn cob buildings designed for an easier way of living to encourage people to stay in the city to live (it was designed to house shops, parking and accomodation all in one).

Champagne bottle building to celebrate end of prohibition.

Once the world's largest building by square footage.

Willis Tower sides to hold it up against the wind.

Building with a map of where it is, to put your building on the map you've got to put your map on the building(Docent's joke not mine).

Curved/Curtain mirror building, the design only works next to the chicago river a.k.a contextual.

Original mail order building so long they had to wear roller skates to get from one end to the other.

Warehouse to your house(concept), a wharehouse transformed into an apartment conversion.

Wedding cake style building, design was used in order to avoid building restrictions of the time.

Chicago skyline.

Building that resembles a champagne flute(still under construction).

After the river boat cruise/tour we were on our way to the Taste of Chicago Festival when all of a sudden we hear chanting surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and the recent Dallas police shootings. These chants consisted of things such as "Protest there's no peace! No racist police!" etc. etc., This was the third protest we had seen that day, something quite extraordianary for us New Zealanders.  This one was probably more one of the bigger ones as there were police helicopters circling, a big police presence was felt etc. etc.  They were heading away from us across the river so we didn't worry too much or change our plans for the evening.



 2nd protest about half an hour later

We eventually got to The Taste of Chicago Food Festival where there was a ticket system whereby you bought tickets and exchanged them for food.  These could be bought at stalls placed along the road hosting the festival.  There were a whole lot of different foods from different places and different backgrounds, which were all enjoyed.  I had a cheeseburger from an American stall, a frozen banana, also from an american stall and a boneless ribs sandwich from a BBQ store.  Mum had an empanada and Dad had a meatball sandwich.  we had chocolate dipped strawberries and oreo cookies.  There was music playing in the park as well, namely Billy Idol was playing his concert that night. We heard him sing White Wedding and Rebel Yell   

Bag search - no firearms allowed

Ticket booth

Food stalls

Dad with his meatball sandwich

Buckingham Fountain

After the food festival, we went to our night segway tour around Chicago which first saw us learn the basic skills of riding a segway before we moved on to the streets to go across to see important monuments at night and finally end up watching the city's fireworks which take place every Wednesday and Saturday in the Summer at 10.15pm.

We came across a wedding at the Field museum where hundreds of candles were lit up the stairs.







We then went back to the hotel ready for a day of travelling the next day. It was an enjoyable day full of learning experiences. It ws a lot of fun.