There was no free brekky this morning and so we headed across the road to a 2 story McDonalds for some nourishing, fast food - actually the scrambled eggs I had and Mumsie's pancakes were pretty good!
From there it was back to Michigan Avenue to use our tour tickets again for a look at the west side of the city including, Chinatown, Little Italy and the Greek area. While we waited for the bus we had a closer look at the river area and lovely walkway along the rivers edge.
The bus took us to the older parts of town and we saw where the devastating fire of 1871 started (it burnt 17,000 buildings and left 100,000 people homeless) and lots of the old gangster areas - it was all very interesting.
Once we returned to the city centre it was very humid and oppressive, Greg and Jasmin went off to get a specialty gangster tour they wanted to do, while Mumsie and I set out to do a spot of shopping. We got a belated birthday present for Katie (that she had requested) and then Mumsie went off to do browsing while I found a AT&T shop to sort out a couple of questions I had about our iPad sims. Within seconds of me entering the store the heavens opened and the rain poured down for about three quarters of an hour, clearing the air somewhat at least.
It had just about stopped when I met Mumsie again and we decided to head back to the motel - shopping on the "Magnificent Mile" is very expensive - and we got as far as an Irish Pub before thirst and hunger got the better of us and we had to pause for refreshment.
Later we had a great dinner just nearby us, and then caught the 7.45pm Lake and River Cruise, which took us out into Lake Michigan through the lock and then up and down the lake to see the city lights. It was a balmy calm evening and the views were superb, making for an unforgettable tour!
We learnt that in the 1800's the Chicago River was so badly polluted by industrial waste and general rubbish that the Government forced the city to stop the flow into the fresh waters of Lake Michigan. Locks were built at the mouth and further upstream and coupled with a series of man made canals the flow of the river was actually reversed and now joins the Mississippi a few hundred kilometres away and discharges into the Gulf of Mexico!!!! Some feat of engineering!
With the level of the lake up to a metre higher than the river, each time the locks are opened and closed, a large volume of clean lake water enters the river system and keeps it fresh as it flows away from Chicago!