Cross-country trip DAY 3: Chicago, IL

I am not a big fan of metropolitan areas. I have lived on Long island for 8 years, and rarely had the urge to go to NYC, even though it was within an hour driving distance. Yet the windy city was on my list to see, at least once. My AirBnb location was outside the city, in Evanston, IL. That choice provided me with ample parking and only a 25 minute drive to Chicago.

Using Viator, I pre-booked a Chicago Architecture River Cruise remembering a similar type of excursion of NYC that I was on a few years ago. The tour was very good. I saw everything I wanted to see in just over 75 minutes. The weather was sunny, but it was freezing, so in most of my pictures I wear a jacket.

My next stop was Navy Pier since the tour left from there:

By now I was really freezing, so Yelp came to assistance once again. I found Adagio tea shop that offered a free cup of tea. It came close to lunch time, so I decided to visit a local cafe, which was ok, not great.

Finally, I went to visit the famous Millennium Park where "the bean" is located:

Beautiful structure

"The bean"

 To end my day I visited "The Signature Lounge" to view Chicago from the top and had some local soup for dinner at Soupbox. Nothing too special though, Panera Bread makes better broccoli and cheddar soup.