Chicago - Navy Pier

http://www.navypier.com/

There is a lot to see and do and Navy Pier, and we did not come close to doing all of this. The web site has a map, and if you are planning on going, consulting with the map first is a good idea.

We had two specific objectives, which were taking an architecture tour of the city and visiting the stained glass museum, so we mainly focused on those. We walked the entire pier in the process of doing that - which was something we wanted to do in itself - but did not go into everything.

There are many attractions there which seem like they would be popular with natives. They have a children's museum, IMAX theater, and carnival rides, and it seems to host a lot of events. However, it is also a central place for tourism. Tours by bus and boat book here, and there is a trolley stop, and while there are multiple spots for bike rental, this is a good place for it, with easy access to a park and paths.

We entered under the sign, and had tour booths on our right and the buildings on our left. The boats you see on the right are for tours on Lake Michigan. The boats for Chicago River tours depart from a different spot, but can be booked here. We booked our tour and had about an hour to wait, so made our first entrance into the Family Pavilion.

Specifically, we were checking out the McDonald's of the Future. We actually found that a little underwhelming. The futuristic part is that they do a laser light show every hour, but either they did not do one while we were there, or it is not that exciting. Also, there was a separate section of counter for a Dessert Bar, which was closed, but did not seem to offer anything different, or that you could not get at the regular counters. So, it would appear McDonald's is going to remain pretty consistent for the future.

There was a lot of seating, which was also available for customers of the food court restaurants. We did end up eating lunch there after the tour, and we all ate from different places, which was our first time in a food court setting in Chicago.

Many of the shops are tourism themed, so we bought some postcards and magnets here. I bought a carved baby elephant from a stand, which has nothing to do with Chicago - it is just cute. That and the Mold-A-Rama Lincoln were my only two souvenirs.

As the stores are not that distinctive, this may be why the Pier's web site does not really highlight them. However, we did really enjoy one specific store, so I want to call that out. We had a fun time in iCandy Sugar Shoppe.

There are two iCandy stores. One is in the Mall of America, and that one seems to have a stronger web presence. We enjoyed this one a lot. It was a little like Sweet Factory, in that you could fill from different bins, but there was also salt water taffy, and there was also a lot of harder to find candy. We had Valomilks on the correct side of the Rockies, and saw Sky Bars again. A lot of our appreciation for that comes from reading Steve Almond's Candyfreak. There were also cute related items, like plush Nerds. Well, they had two, and now Julie and Maria have them. So, there was a lot of nostalgia looking around, and the staff was very helpful; that's a definite place to check out.

http://icandysugarshoppe.lovefromcompanies.com/

I don't think the Amazing Chicago Funhouse Maze was open while we were there, but there were some mirrors in that area to give a feel for it. I will write about the Stained Glass Museum in its own post, but the main point I want to make is just how much there was. We walked a long time to get to the museum, to where we wondered if we had missed it, and then we were amazed by how long it went. And even then there was still the grand ballroom.

So it feels like the Pier is very long, though it is really only 3300 feet - less than a mile. There is a lot there.