K. Vera’s Chicago Photoblog

The day after my graduation – we took my dad out for a Father’s Day breakfast at Le Peeps in Evanston. I picked up a Northwestern polo shirt for him.

Then we dropped off my Ate’ Gigi at Midway so that she could catch a flight back to Sin City.

For the rest of us – our flight didn’t leave until around 8ish. So, we headed downtown to take in the sights.

I suggested a boat tour on the Chicago River – a great way to see all the cool buildings and city stuff – without the headache of navigating Chicago-land traffic. That weekend – they closed down several Lake Shore Drive exits for the upcoming “Taste of Chicago.”

An hour boat tour gave us an amazing lesson about all the styles that make up the Second City – can you guess why Chicago got that nickname?

They call it the “Second City” because most of the buildings we see today were built after the great fire from the 1800′s.

“1871— The Great Chicago Fire raged from October 8 to 9th. It destroyed 3.5 square miles of the city, killing perhaps 250. The fire lasted 27 hours and destroyed 17,450 buildings.” (from http://www.corsinet.com/chicago/chicagot.html)

My dad was itching to try out his new camera – so he stayed on the upper deck with my mom. My Auntie Eveyln and Mark wanted to get out of the sun – so they went below deck….I was happy down there – they had a bar. I ordered a margarita. It tasted great.

That’s Merchandise Mart at the fork of the Chicago River.

We drank in the sites at the fore of the boat – ala “I’m King of the World”. I thought it was neat to dip under these bridges – that are used by cars and the El Train.

Sears Tower. We toyed with the idea of going up there – but the night before we had drinks and desert at the John Hancock building….so we got almost they same view of this amazing city – just a few stories down from the height of the Sears Tower.

The rival to the Chicago Tribune – the Sun-Times. The old site of the Sun-Times building is now the future spot of the next Trump real estate extravaganza – headed up by the first Apprentince winner, Bill Rancic. He’s a Chicago native and graduated from Loyola in Rogers Park.

According to the tour guide – Chicago get’s it name from the the Miami Indians.

“…the village Che-cau-gou, from the name of a small river which ran into Lake Michigan and whose source was not far from the Illinois River. Legend has it that the name derives from the odor of the wild onions that grew so prevalently in the shadow of the Great Lake.” (from http://www.chipublib.org/digital/lake/CFDChecaugou.html)

I’m surprised by how much I remembered Chicago and Evanston. Thankfully – I was able to navigate my dad – through the streets and the highways. I didn’t get us lost. Yeah! I rule.

After the tour – we wandered around Navy Pier and then walked into the sunset to the Mag Mile.

Before we left Navy Pier – my dad sat down for a counseling session with Dr. Robert Hartley. The city dedicated a statue commemorating comedian Bob Newhart’s role last July.