This post is written by Damon. He's not interested in guest posting or being an author on the blog. I asked him and welcomed it but he declined. He wrote this as a note on Facebook but gave permission for me to blog it. I added in pictures.
1. Saturday rates for taking the Metra train from Harvard to Chicago are only $7 round-trip per person. Can't beat that.
2. When we got off the train, we headed toward Wacker Dr and the Chicago Riverwalk. On the way, we met a group of young women who are in the Navy. They were looking for an address, and I was able to help them. Kinda nice to be able to pay back others who were so helpful to us on our last trip. We thanked them for serving our country. One young lady (who seemed to be the "leader" of the group) wanted to take me with them to guide them around town! :-) He had GPS! (See the group of "Navy girls" in the pic below?)
3. The Chicago Riverwalk is very nice. There are informational signs along the route which are very interesting. Lots of stairs, as you have to go back up to street level at every bridge (and there are several).
4. There are homeless people who have taken up residence along one particular point of the walk. Two of them were at their "residence," several others were away but had left their few belongings and cardboard to keep their spots. As we walked by, they kept their faces away from us. Very sad.
(We also saw the Vietnam memorial along the Riverwalk)
Brett was impressed with this and used his camera here to take several pictures. ♥
5. We had a picnic lunch at Millennium Park near the Bean (Cloud Gate). It was very nice, and the Bean is always interesting. There was also an artist who was painting 3 paintings of the park. His paintings were very nice, and he did a nice job with painting the Bean.
6. From Millennium Park, we made our way to the Buckingham Fountain. The Taste of Chicago was also going on in this area. We decided to walk around the east end of the park and approach from Lake Shore Drive. Nope, couldn't get in on that side. A very rude security guard said it was "Exit Only" and wouldn't let us in. I talked him into letting mom in so she wouldn't have to do that much more walking. The rest of us had to walk all the way around to the southwest corner of the park to finally get in. Then we were only there for 10 minutes. What a waste of time.
7. From here, we took a bus to Navy Pier. The bus routes are a little confusing sometimes, but well worth the $5 all-day pass. The bus had several Chicago Police officers aboard, they must have been going to their assignments.
8. We watched a children's entertainer at Navy Pier. He did tricks that the kids love, using hoops, frisbees, balls, and more. He even juggled 3 bowling balls. I got to try to throw a tiny stuffed tiger through a hoop he was balancing on his chin. I missed badly, my throw landed at his feet.
9. After walking around Navy Pier for a little while, we had finally had enough walking and headed back to the bus. At Navy Pier, we saw a lady who had 4 or 5 new American Girl dolls. That was an expensive trip! We saw another young girl on the bus with an American Girl doll, she was a little doll herself.
