More news from Chicago

Thursday 9th April

Yesterday we went to catch the bus to the Museum of Science & Industry, but just missed it, so we caught the bus to Union Station instead. What a fantastic building, fortunately no prams falling down the steps! Double checked that our train will be running ok next week, and walked out to try and find the sign Tony spotted about Route 66, missed it completely and ended up by the Sears Tower, so decided to go view the city from a different perspective.

After passing another security check, we were eventually ushered up to the 99th floor as the 103rd is undergoing maintenance. We did not bother with the audio option here as that was an extra $6! We had to wait awhile for the lift, and the only good thing we can say about the Sears Tower is we had an excellent view of the trains from Union Street Station. It is nowhere near as well presented as John Hancock, and there were way too many people up there, it was hard to get to the windows to see the views. Had a chat with a lady from Newcastle whose son lives in London, sound familiar?

After the Sears Tower we found a pub for lunch, had a very nice omelette each, then we rode the El. The noise is incredible, both inside and out, it's no wonder they used it as a point of evidence in 12 Angry Men! We went round one way on the Pink line, then changed to the Brown line and went round the other way, riding right down to Roosevelt, so that we could look at the Freight yard there. Our information was a bit out of date as the Freight yard is no more, it looks like it will be developed shortly. Still we saw a lot of other trains, and had a security guard come along to look at us.

We then came back and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, it was heaving with screaming children so we left and went to find the Tapas bar we had been told about, after yet another long walk, we ended up in an Italian Restaurant just down from the Hotel, it was not very special but neither was it very expensive!

Today we tried again for the Museum of Science and Industry - waited and waited for the bus, only to find out it does not start until mid-morning. A very helpful lady told us to get the 146 to Wacker, then change on to a 6. We did this and made it to the Museum, which is a long way from the centre of the city. We found the model railroad, the reason for the visit, enjoyed that very much. However, the museum was a bit of a disappointment, as some of the exhibits are out of date, they have Craig Breedlove's car which was the first to break 500mph, and claim it is the fastest car in the world. It was at that time, but there is no mention that the speed record has since been broken by Richard Noble and Andy Green. The display of racing cars was very brief, but they were mostly British!

When we left we were lucky to get a bus straight away and came back to the Cheescake Factory again. This time it was not quite so noisy, so we had a small lunch! No wonder so many Americans are obese, and yes we know we are not the slimmest people in the world, but the lunch time menu offers smaller portions, so heaven knows what the normal size is!

Must tell you about the Cheesecake Factory, their speciality is Cheesecake of all sorts, but they serve everything! The one we have been going to is under the John Hancock Tower, it is over two floors, has three huge seating areas, and around 500 staff - we asked! Not all of the staff are there at a time, when we were first there, they had 13 staff in the kitchen and 24 servers etc just in the area we were sat in. We tried to count again today, and gave up!

We went on the subway to Wrigley Field after lunch, but there is a game tonight and we could only look at the outside, so we came back and looked for the Route 66 sign again. We walked right past it yesterday! Then we made our way back to the hotel via Millenium Park and the Bean. This is a sculpture make from steel in the shape of a bean, it reflects the light and the city whatever the weather and is quite amazing.