Well .. this is our last long day in Chicago. Today we devote it mainly to the Navy Pier. It was originally called Municipal Pier. That was back in 1916. I was the only pier to combine the business of shipping with the pleasure of public entertainment. During WW I, it housed several regiments of soldiers, Red Cross, Home Defense, and recruits.

In 1927 it was renamed Navy Pier as a tribute to those Navy personnel who served in WW I. But enough of the history, you want to see pictures. Well, let’s get going.

Here’s the entrance to Navy Pier.

We hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we found some place to eat immediately. Trevor picked this place.

Would you like to see what we had? Well .. here it is.

Notice anything different about the burger? You might see that the bun looks a little different, but do you know what it is? Well, it’s a pretzel bun. It’s a little chewier that regular buns. However, it is really good. We both enjoyed our burgers. Trevor and blue cheese on his and I had american.

After breakfast we sojourned on. Here is something I saw at the end of the pier.

My aunt up in Racine would call this a derrick. Looks a bit like a lighthouse to me. Who knows. I should look that up some time as well. Here is the Chicago skyline from that perspective.

Remember the Adler Planetarium I mentioned in Chicago — Day 2? Well .. here is the planetarium from the Navy Pier. Now, you have to understand that it is quite a ways away. But here’s what I got.

Here’s another skyline shot.

Ok .. back to the actual pier. They have a place for rides up top of the pier. They have a 140 foot Ferris wheel.

They also had miniature golf. Trevor and I played a game. I don’t want to talk about it! :O(

It was quite hot on Saturday .. we needed to get into some air conditioning. This is where we went.

It was really nice in there. We didn’t want to leave. But leave we had to. Oh, by the way .. this is where we were .. and we’d be back.

Ok .. these next two .. don’t ask .. just don’t ask.

We then went on an Architectural Cruise down the Chicago River. Did you know that Chicago is Algonquin for “garlic field”? What we were told was more like “stinky onion place”. Apparently, wild onions grew here when the Algonquin Indians were here.

Just thought I’d throw in a picture before we start our cruise. This picture comes from straight down our little boat.

This is the Onion building. Don’t remember what it’s really called. But here it is.

Now, this next picture might look familiar to you. It has been featured on more than one movie.

Do you see the cars there? Only twice have cars driven off that building. Once in a Steve McQueen movie and the other in another movie.

I won’t bore you with all of the pictures I took. You’ll have to come over when I get them printed. I don’t know the names of all the buildings, but here are my favorites.

After the hour long tour in the blazing sun without a whole lot of cooling breeze, we went back inside the Crystal Garden and found a place to eat.

This is what I had.

And a particular piece of artwork I liked.

After we left the Navy Pier, we took a walk around Chicago. Part of the walk took us here.

No .. we didn’t buy anything .. but …

The next two pictures are the only two buildings to survive the fire that destroyed Chicago back in 1872. They survived because they are made of limestone.

The first is the water tower.

And the pump house.

Here is a picture that I just liked.

Here’s one last shot of the river.

That does it for Day 3 of our tour of Chicago. Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave for the actual tour of Route 66.

See you then.