In the morning we booked a Chicago Architectural Boat tour. This turned out to be one of the highlights of our visit to Chicago. The boat took us along the rivers that go through Chicago and the guide provided fun and educational commentary about the various buildings and types of architecture. We learned a lot about classical, modern and other styles of architecture and learned some stories behind many of the iconic Chicago buildings.
Holly wanted to have some more Chicago deep dish pizza so we decided to try the other main Chicago pizza chain, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria to see how it compared to Giordano’s. We went to the nearest branch and it was packed full. Malnati’s did not have a four meat only option like Giordano’s so we ordered a medium Malnati Classic deep dish pizza which normally only comes with cheese, sausage and tomato sauce and added pepperoni at extra cost. We also ordered a Malnati salad.
The salad came first and it was a perfectly acceptable salad but nothing special to it. When the pizza arrived we could immediately see the difference. The Malnati pizza was not as thick as Giordano’s and the tomato sauce was much more watery. Taking our first bite we found that the cheese was chewier, almost like chewing gum and the bread was hard almost like a cracker. Picking up a slice would cause tomato juice to drip down our hands. It is safe to say we like Giordano’s pizza much more than Malnati’s. We were happy to understand that not all Chicago deep dish pizza’s were the same and in particular our favorite is Giordano’s.
Our new ASTC museum membership included entrance to the Chicago planetarium but it was closed due to the pandemic so we went to the Field Natural History museum instead. It was a warm, humid day so it would be a good museum day. By the time we finished lunch and got to the museum it was almost 3:30pm so we knew it we were not going to be able to see the entire museum but that was OK since the tickets were included in our ASTC pass. The Field Museum featured a huge brontosaurus skeleton and two life sized elephant models in its lobby. We managed to view the early human exhibit before the museum closed at 5:00 and the staff shooed everyone out.
We stepped out of the museum to find a thunderstorm but after a few minutes later the rain stopped. It was still hot and humid so we went to a Stan’s Donuts and Coffee where we had a snack and did some homeschooling. Leora and her kids arrived just as Stan’s Donuts was closing. We were planning to leave Chicago the next day so it was nice that the kids got to say goodbye before we left.
We had planned on going back to Rover but we had to transfer rail lines downtown and on the spur of the moment since it was Saturday night we decided to have one last walk on Michigan Avenue along what is known as the Magnificent Mile. The Magnificent mile is basically a downtown shopping area with high end stores like Nordstrom and Coach, none of which was of much interest to us since we have very limited storage space anyway. One thing we did find of interest was the world’s largest Starbucks. This is a huge five story Starbucks and on each floor they had different drinks and food. The top floor even had a bar which featured coffee infused alcoholic cocktails. Unlike a regular Starbucks this one was quite fancy with a trendy nightclub bar vibe and huge floor to ceiling windows with great views of Michigan Avenue. The place was pretty full with a line out the door but they had someone controlling capacity so it was not hard to find a seat and we had a drink while enjoying the city evening vibe. It was almost 9:00 pm by the time we left the Starbucks and we had not had dinner yet so we stopped by the Chick-fil-A in the Wrigley building. There was a long line and we were behind a group of men who were clearly having a lot of fun. One of their group was entertaining everyone by balancing hats on his head. It was the kind of late night city energy that you just don’t get in the suburbs and was the perfect cap for our evening before returning to Rover for the night.