Navy and the Pier

Monday I headed downtown with some friends to show some new friends more of the city of Chicago. We headed to Navy Pier and walked all the way to the end. Navy Pier used to be actually used by the Navy, but now it's more like a mall on the water. You can take boat rides out into Lake Michigan and into the city on the river. It's easy to forget and call Lake Michigan the ocean because it's so big. It's more than big, it's GREAT. The weather was perfect, but since it was early in the day and a weekday, the Pier wasn't super busy. We just hung out at the end for a while, perfect for a photo opportunity.

Inside is a children's museum and an IMAX theater. Upstairs is a large greenhouse with palm trees and tropical flowers. There's also a ferris wheel and a carousel. Nearer the end is the Shakespear Theatre, where they were advertizing Aladdin. We walked around singing "A Whole New World' for a while after that.
At one point we headed inside to a stained glass museum to see the one with the Tetragrammaton in one of the peices. Pretty cool. On our way back to the entrance of the pier we went inside to the food court. Chad enjoyed what I believe to be the best hotdog in the world: A chicago style hotdog, complete with tomato slices and celery salt. I think he'd agree to that. Nina and I had sub-par mexican food. Boo.

After eating it was time to go. We had lots of fun, at least I did, and hope to see my new friends soon. I have to mention that Sierra made sure those who hadn't yet were exposed to Garrett's Popcorn. Haven't had it yet? Shame on you.
A big shout out goes to Atit and Tyler who walked all the way back to the cars at one point to add money to the meter so we wouldn't get tickets. THANKS GUYS!