Chicago: Day Three

Sunday was my final day in Chicago. I tried my best to squeeze in everything I wanted to do on this trip and I did well.

The Quick Sunday Rundown:
Breakfast Buffet @ the hotel
Lincoln Park Zoo
Cloud Gate 
Virtual Fountain
The United Center/Michael Jordan Statue
Lunch @ Corner Bakery Cafe
Field Museum
Shedd Aquarium
Limo Ride!
Willis Tower
John Hancock Observatory
Dinner @ The Cheesecake Factory

PHEW!

I started the day at 8 am, which is really early for me. I couldn't believe the Lincoln Park Zoo was FREE! My favorite animals are always the gorillas. I could sit and watch them for hours.

I also got excited about these camels:

They were HUGE! And, it was my first time seeing a camel in real life.

After looking at all of the pretty animals, we decided to go to the City of Chicago Store. It's supposedly a huge souvenir shop but we never found it. The address I wrote down from a travel book took me to an information center. We looked up the address listed on Google and headed that way. That location ended up being the Chicago Cultural Center. I gave up at that point.

The cab ride to the cultural center wasn't a complete waste though. We were about to get another cab when we noticed sculptures across the street. One of them turned out to be Cloud Gate, which was on our list of things to do. 

I loved this picture.

The virtual fountain, AKA The Crown Fountain, was right next to it. The water is only turned on during the summer months so it just looked like a wall with changing photos on it. Nonetheless, it was pretty cool to see.

After visiting the United Center, I met up with my friend Emily back at the hotel. Emily is the friend who came to visit me a few weeks ago for our friend's wedding. (See post here.) She lives in Decatur, IL, and took the train into Chicago to visit with me. She came along to tour the aquarium, Field Museum, Willis Tower, and John Hancock Observatory.

The Field Museum is the home to the most preserved and complete T-Rex ever found, Sue.

Shedd Aquarium is located directly next to the Field Museum. We saw a cute dolphin show with the trainers, and we looked at all of the different Jellies. The sharks were quite a disappointment.

While waiting for a cab outside of the aquarium, a limo driver asked if we wanted him to take us instead. We thought why not? So we sipped on a beer in a limo during our ride back to the hotel. 

The Sky Deck at the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower was a lot of fun. The view of the city was amazing, and I'm so glad we waited until after dark to go. Here are a few pictures of us "out on the ledge":

We took a cab from Willis Tower to the John Hancock Observatory, which is essentially the same thing--a huge deck on top of a skyscraper. It had a slightly different view though, and it was cool to see the differences between the two.

After dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, we went back to the hotel and I packed up to go home. My flight left Chicago early Monday morning, and I arrived home around noon. I had SO much fun, but there really is no better feeling than home, sweet, home.