We arrived in Chicago about 10:30am and by the time we collected our luggage and had something to eat, the hotel let us check in so we got rid of the luggage, freshened up and headed out for the afternoon.

We caught a bus to Navy Pier, admiring all the different buildings along the way. Whilst Navy Pier is not the bustling centre I'm sure it is in the summer (all the cruise boats were frozen in along the wharf in Lake Michigan), there were still things to do and see. We then walked to the Theatre along the edge of Lake Michigan where we saw Wicked! It was fantastic! So funny and puts a different spin on the Wizard of Oz story. And the actual Oriental Theatre is enormous but gorgeous!

We then headed to House of Blues. It was pretty quiet but the band wasn't too bad and in the end there wasn't many people left and the band was checking where eveyone was from and we were the only 'out of towners'. We were getting ready to leave (Emma got the map out to check where we were) and they heckled us from the stage, so we stayed and they bought us a drink...

The next day, we had a late start as we hadn't slept too much on the train (well, other than Tara!). We headed to Sears Tower which was the tallest building in the world for a number of years. The architecture in Chicago is so varied and different. Each building seems to try to outdo the other in 'quirkiness'. On top of the fact it had been snowing, the view from Sears was really great.

We then caught the L (elevated train) around the loop and got off at the top of State Street and walked down State St, stopping to look in the shops and other interesting buildings before heading to the train station for the long ride to Washington DC. We are catching a train at 7pm tonight and not due in DC until 7pm tomorrow!