The day started out with two more loads of laundry. I know, how could I waste precious time in Chicago doing laundry – it had been 13 days since I had last done any, though, so it had to be done.

By 11 we were ready to do some sightseeing, so we headed off to see if we could get tickets on the architecture river tour. We got lucky and were able to get tickets for the noon boat – the perfect time of day to get a sunburn while sitting on the top deck. It’s so amazing to see all the buildings from the river and hear the stories behind them. So many of them have statues and domes on the top that you can’t see from the street. It’s very interesting how competitive some of the architects were in trying to create something taller or more unique than the building next door.

Trump Tower as seen from our seats on the boat while tied up waiting for everyone to board and the Wrigley building. Did you know that Wrigley originally sold soap powders and included samples of their chewing gum in each package? People were buying their soap just to get the chewing gum so they started selling the gum separately.

In 2007 Rich and I bought a condo in this building which is called River City. Our daughter and her husband rented it from us for 2 years, then moved back to Indiana. We’ve rented it out since then. It was designed by the same man who designed Marina Towers, the two tall round condo buildings you see in so many movie scenes filmed in downtown Chicago. It was fun to see it from the water! In the second photo the tall building with the two white towers is the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower to newcomers to Chicago).

I zoomed in on the Sears Tower to show the glass boxes you can stand in and look down at the street below. I don’t think there’s enough money in the world to get me to stand in one of those – I get queasy just thinking about it! The photo on the right shows a map of the river on the side of a building facing the river and has a red box showing where you are on the river as you pass by – how clever is this!

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We walked through Millenium Park on our way back to the boat for the obligatory photo of the bean. And most importantly, we found a Garrett popcorn shop – after all, we needed something to share at the docktail hour tonight. (Garrett popcorn is known throughout Chicago – they’ve added stores but the one on Michigan Avenue would have lines out the door with people buying their popcorn.)

We got back to the marina in time for docktails. There are at least 8 looper boats here so we got a chance to meet several of them tonight. Most of us are leaving tomorrow morning to start the journey down the rivers. It will be a totally different experience from Lake Michigan.