Mystical Cloud Busters, Fish and Bars of the Windy City.

The Sears tower, the tallest building in North America.
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Chicago is the favorite so far.  It's such a clean, green city and the Chicagonians (or whatever they call themselves) big it up so much there must be something good about it - even if it's not the Chicago Town Pizzas!

We arrived bright and early on Thursday and had a bit of a kip for the morning.  After lunch we headed to the Aquarium which was awesome.  They had dolphins, Jelly Fish, Sharks and Whales.  A proper aquarium!  We then walked around the parks and saw Buckingham Fountain which is one of the biggest with a capasity of 1.5 million gallons of water.  It sits right on the edge of Lake Michigan aswell so it makes for really impressive views.

The city from lake Michigan.
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On Friday we had a busy day.  We started by going up Sears Tower which used to be the tallest building in the world.  Described as a 'mystical cloud buster' it's only claim now is that it has the largest antennea in the world at 128ft.  Can you tell it's built by men?

Up the Tower makes for pretty good views, although the building moves 18inches each way in the wind so I pitty the people who work near the top.

Next stop was a boat tour down the river a la My Best Friends Wedding, which was really interesting.  Chicago was completely rebuilt at the end of the 19th Century after a fire in Mrs O'Leary's barn started when, as rumour has it, her cow kicked over a lamp.  we saw the sight where her barn used to be and in it's place now stands the fire department academy!

lake Michigan
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There were some amazing buildings down the river front including one that is only beaten in size by the Pentagon and is so big it has it's own Zip Code!  It was bought by the Kennedy's for 16million dollars and sold for 600 million!  Scallys!

We than went to the Museum of contemporary photography which was BAD!  The exhibition was called Anticipation and envolves an ice dancer waiting for 5 minutes, kneeling on the ice and then the vidoe looped, a woman and a man with plastic bags tied around their heads and a ladies sitting room slowly filling with water.  'Contemporary Art - a form of art which takes away from the artist the need to have any skill what-so-ever'.

a Bulga Whale in chicago Aquarium.
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In the evening we went to see the Blue Man Group.  I want to be able to tell you all about it but I fear I won't do it any justice.  it was the most origional and hilarious performance I've been to in a long while.  Sensory overload featured highly in the evening.  Check out their dvd or something if you get the chance.

The last few days we've done a bit of shopping, had some lazy time and been out for a few drinks and meals.  We met a really lovely American girl, Elizabeth, who is moving here in 2 weeks so we went out in the suburb where she's moving to which was really cool.

Our Chicagonean friend Elizabeth.
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Our time in Chicago is drawing to a close.  We have a 7 hour wait in the airport tomorrow due to a stike by the imigrants, so we need to be out of the city by 10 even though our flight doesn't leave until 6pm.  A good opportunity to get though some reading.  I've also just  bought Phaic Tan, the follow up to Molvania - which is brilliant.

Next Stop:  Denver.

Much love to you all.