Posted March 15, 201213 yr Hey again, Here is the second part of my first day (Monday, February 20) visiting Chicago, including exploring more of the city, taking in the Sears Tower skydeck views, some night shots, and even a Blues show to go with it. Here we go, with Part 2 of Day One of my Chicago trip! Back on ground level in the Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue... Holy Name Cathedral Church and Condominium/Apartment buildings in the North Loop area... Holy Name Cathedral Church, on State Street, was built in 1874... Scenes along State Street... Where I am, on an traffic light electrical box... Historic Old Chicago Historical Society Building, built in 1892 by Henry Ives Cobb, a Romanesque Rivival Building. It is now home to Excalibur Nightclub, which opened in 1989. Chicago Chop House Restaurant Huge old school McDonald's in around North Clark Street, which I like to call "Restaurant Chain Alley". BTW, the Chicago area is where the world headquarters for McDonald's Corporation is Hard Rock Cafe Rainforest Cafe, with the Trump Tower and Marina City and other North Shore buildings sticking out... Portillo's Hot Dogs at the Corner of Ontario and North Clark Streets. Portillo's is famous for its Chicago-style Hot Dog... Front Entrance... Inside Portillo's Here's an authentic Chicago-style Hot Dog with Tomatoes, Pickles, Mustard, Peppers, and Onions on a poppy-seed bun… delicious... Pizzeria Uno, this is where Chicago Deep Dish Pizza was invented back in 1943, the same year it opened. It is located at East Ohio and North Wabash streets Pizzeria Due, the second restaurant to offer Chicago-style pizza, opened in 1955. Located up the street from Pizzeria Uno, on North Wabash and East Ontario streets. Medinah Temple built in 1912 by Shriners architects Huell and Schmidt, converted into a Bloomingdale's Store in 2000. Looking south on Michigan Avenue... View from my room again... Early evening views of the Magnificent Mile, the lights in the trees are gorgeous… NBC Building Gorgeous picture of the Chicago River and historic North Loop buildings… Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower from the Riverwalk... Looking up at the Trump Tower... Marina City... Chicago Theatre at night... Chicago ABC Channel 7 Newsroom, on State Street across from the Chicago Theatre, in the State Street Studio building, btw, this station was where Oprah Winfrey began her legendary talk show career, originally the show was called A.M. Chicago, which premiered in 1984, and later became the Oprah Winfrey show and eventually moved to Harpo Studios (didn't take a picture of that, sorry) ESPN Chicago, why doesn't Detroit have one of these, knowing how great of a sports city Detroit is… Looking south at the Marshall Fields Building and the Gorgeous night streetscape of State Street... Was going to the Sears Tower this evening to get some shots, and figured I would take it in style! Using the L train loop from State/Lake station to Quincy, the closest L station to the Sears Tower... Inside an L train, I call it the Detroit People Mover on STEROIDS, and serves a much greater perimeter in the city than just downtown… plus another major difference, this is a heavy rail train, the DPM is light rail. This, btw, is a Purple Line train, the Chicago Transit Authority use different color codes for their routes Looking up at the Sears Tower, considering I did not have a tripod with me, these turned out not too bad... Sears Tower (Willis Tower) Skydeck, 103 storeys high, opened on June 22, 1974, at the time, was the highest observation deck in the world until a year later… offers some of the best views of all Chicagoland… on clear days, you can also see the states of Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, in addition to Illinois, can't see Detroit, though, that lies 280 miles to the east Skyboxes... John Hancock Center... lights on! AON Center My shoes looking down from the skyboxes, 103 stories high... United Center... Now on the 99th floor... Back on street level… looking up at 311 South Wacker Drive... Sears Tower with Franklin Building and AT&T Building behind... Loop scenes at night... Harold Washington Chicago Public Library, post-modern architecture, built in 1991, named after the popular Chicago mayor who served from 1983-1987 and tragically passed away shortly into his second term as mayor from a heart attack. Washington was also the first African-American to become mayor of the Windy City. Congress Parkway looking west towards the Chicago Stock Exchange, apologize for the blurriness... The iconic Sears Tower at night, lit up, from State Street... Inside Buddy Guy's, cool atmosphere, nice soul food and had a great beer called, "Fat Tire", a Belgian beer... Guitars of performers who performed here in the past, interesting names, Tom Petty, Robert Gray, Keith Richards... Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Gatemouth Brown, among others... Bar... It was open band night, but the bands were great, Blues music at some of its finest! That guitarist was really good… maybe another Neil Young... Here's a blues artist I have a lot of respect and love for, B.B. King. He, along with Buddy Guy, may be the two biggest Blues artists ever in the music industry... Can't forget Bo Diddley on the left either! Green Line train, good pic considering I was half-drunk at the time, this was taken at the L's S-curve on the Green Line just before getting into the loop. I also saw a scene in the movie, "Child's Play" with the infamous Chucky Doll where the little kid Andy was riding that featured the Green Line train travelling in this exact same spot... Harrison CTA Red Line Station on the State Street Subway… took it back to my hotel... The Red Line is open 24 hours a day and serves the North and South sides of the city, as well as baseball fans, because the Red Line has stops adjacent to Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Park, home of the city's baseball teams… Inside the red line train... Took the State Street Subway to the Chicago station, closest to my hotel and the Magnificent Mile... I love this shot, Water Tower with John Hancock Center and Water Tower Place... My hotel, the Allerton, back on Michigan Avenue, as you can tell, the activity on the Magnificent Mile has died considerably, but there are some stores open 24/7... View from my room at night... Good night, Chicago... Hope you enjoyed the rest of my first day in the Windy City! The other three days are coming soon!
March 15, 201213 yr Those night shots are killer!!!! I've never been up in Sears at night, so I'm quite impressed!! "Inside an L train, I call it the Detroit People Mover on STEROIDS, and serves a much greater perimeter in the city than just downtown… plus another major difference, this is a heavy rail train, the DPM is light rail." Though the CTA system is larger, the people mover is actually more advanced by rolling stock...heck at least the DPM operates in alternating current, though by the end of this year, I believe most cars will be AC. Newer CTA trains and DPM are made by Bombardier, though I'm not sure if the CTA trains can run automated (I seriously doubt it) since most switching is manual. The AG system in Detroit is technically (by construction only) heavy rail. But operates like LRT since the system was never completed, and moves at slower speeds to navigate winding turns downtown. Twin track construction of DPM + stations runs around $75 million / mile.....relatively comparable to new EL train construction in Chicago.
March 15, 201213 yr Great stuff. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
Create an account or sign in to comment