My very first layover with my new airline was to Chicago and it was long enough to head downtown and lucky for me there was another member of the crew willing to see some sights with me otherwise I might not have gone. Once we got downtown we began walking mindlessly and ended up near a very tall building that happened to be the John Hancock Building. We paid our $15 and headed on up to view this beautiful city from one of the tallest buildings. Our fee to ride the elevator to the 94th floor, a 1000 foot ride in 40 seconds, included a guided tour using an iPod and numbers on the windows with David Shwimmer as our tour guide. A well spent $15! The views were breathtaking and the guided tour very informational.
Above is the view of some of the best real estate in the United States
I was lucky enough to fly with this lovely lady {Julie} who was happy to "take me under her wing" and show me the ropes both on the airplane and on the layover.
After leaving The John we hopped into a taxi {limited time and it was a couple mile drive} and headed to Cloud Gate {its official name} affectionally called The Bean is
a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago. . Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).
It was a beautiful November day, the weather was crisp and quite cool in the morning but warmed up a bit through the day.
