Chicago - part 1

Yesterday we hopped up at 4:45am, were dropped at Rapid city and flew to Chicago! We just wandered around a bit, got our bearings, figured out how the metro worked, had some food and just got used to the place. First impressions of the place were that it is very run down, but in a character building way. Dinner consisted of free hot dogs from a bar where we got some beer and watched a football game while working out what we were going to do for the rest of the week. We had a sleep but thanks to that were ready for fun Chicago adventures! :)

Today we hopped up, caught the train downtown and went to Millennium Park. They have all sorts of cool things there, such as fountains that project pictures of people, the Frank Ghery designed music shell and a big bean shaped sculpture called 'Cloud Gate' which is flat polished stainless steel that distorts anything reflected in it. Many fun photos were taken. Next stop was a bus tour of South Chicago. We were the only foreigners on the tour and also the only people under the age of 50. Despite our tour operator trying to convince everyone to buy places to live in Chicago most of the way, we got to see 'Obamaland' as I dubbed it. Obamaland consisted of his house, favourite pizza shop, barber, place where he had his first kiss and gym.
After getting off the bus we wandered up to the Magnificent Mile as we had heard that Oprah had blocked off the street as past of her 24th Season opening night. Upon arrival we were immediately met by the sight of Oprah sitting on the top of a bus we walked past interviewing someone about something, while men in uniforms barked at us to keep moving and other people tried to take photos as well. As the men had big guns I kept moving and walked around the corner to see a stage with the Black Eyed Peas coming on to perform a song and the crowd there were practising their dance moves ready for filming in a few hours time. Everywhere was Opraville so we wandered down the Magnificent Mile. It wasn't as magnificent as the name tended to suggest, it just seemed like a giant 'everything is too expensive so don't even bother' street.
After wandering down, on the way back up we realised that Oprah's show was about to be filmed on the street, so we joined the masses and watched. Got to see the Black Eyed Peas do a few songs and also James Taylor.
With sore feet we walked to the Sears/Willis Tower and went up to it's 103rd floor to check out the view. By this time it was night and the lights stretched out as far as the eye could see. Pretty amazing. They had these clear perspex boxes on one wall where you could actually walk OUTSIDE of the building and look down at the ground below your feet! Esther loved it, while I was kinda freaking out. 103 stories is a long way up!