CHICAGO

We arrived in Chicago after a 19 hour greyhound coach journey, where James entertained the masses with his English accent and Vicki slept.  On arriving it became clear quite how unfriendly New Yorkers are, as we were made to feel welcome by our hostel, greeted and helped by people on the street and treated nicely in restaurants.
Chicago was crazy busy due to Lollapaloza and a never ending stream of Cubs fans visiting the Wrigley Field Stadium. The hostel was full of oddball festival goers.  We were forced to stay an extra night, due to a very expensive parking fine, which put us in a bad mood for a while but has since been dealt with and forgotten about.

Sears Tower: ****
James overcame his fear of heights by standing on a glass ledge on the 103rd storey of one of the world's highest structures.  Lots of fun, despite the palpitations. Now actually called the Willis Tower after a knobby London bank bought the naming rights!

Millennium Park: ****
Awesome sculptures here, including the 'Bean', where we got some cool distorted camera shots and a fountain that has interchanging pictures of locals spitting.

Museum of Contemporary Photography: ***
The first floor was a little disappointing but the top two floors were much better.  We both particularly enjoyed the photos by LaToya Ruby Frazier, which documented, in black and white, her family's and town's struggles as the steel industry declined.

Museum of Contemporary Art: ***
There were some fun, interactive exhibits; it is always funny to watch public act sillily in the name of art. The main exhibition was that of Daniel Clowes on 'modern cartoonism'. This was bitter and sardonic observations of modern life.  Stealing Beauty by Guy Ben-Ner was a very funny film about anti-consumerism set in IKEA.

John Hancock: The Superior Lounge: **
An excellent view of the city at night, whilst we enjoyed a very expensive cocktail.  Unfortunately though our view was not of the firework display over Navy Pier but rather of the air port!  Vicki got to see the fireworks from the ladies' loos but the men's had no window.

Navy Pier: ***
Went on a boat ride on Lake Michigan, where we were given a guided tour with many inaccuracies/lies and forces to listen to jazz, though somehow the American idealism and the breeze from the water made it quite a pleasant experience nevertheless.  Afterwards, we went on the Ferris wheel and the swingy seats, which was rather fun.

Mr Beef: **
A very sloppy and rich Italian beef sandwich, apparently a Chicago must according to the ridiculously chinned Jay Leno.  However the restaurant itself held no pretence and was somewhat grim.

Giordano's: ****
Waited in the queue to queue to wait for our table, so we were very hungry when we finally got our sausage pizza pie.  Worth the wait though; certainly an experience.  We were both full after only two slices each.  James felt defeated.

Chilis: *****
This was an incredibly surreal experience as this restaurant seems to serve some very strange things.  America yet again out does us on portion size as we are both full after our soup.  James picked the chicken quesedilla soup and Vicki picked the loaded potato soup. Bizzaro!  Felt like how they would serve these foods in a nursing home to patients with no teeth.

Other foods tried:
Taquitos - pleasant enough deep fried taco
Soda Shaq - very sweet, orange preferable to blueberry. Can't believe he has size 23 feet!
Hershey's Kisses - disgusting, taste of sick.
Tootsie Roll - chewy corn syrup, dissolves in water.
Pepperoni pizza flavoured crisps - first one made us gag, second was better but by the third we needed no more.
Froot Loops - way too sweet to be called a breakfast cereal.
Funnel Cake - doughnuts in a different shape
Root beer float - antiseptic ice-cream