Monday June 2 and Steve shows me every nook and cranny

I headed out Monday on a very warm day for Chicago Illinois. I chose to exit the Interstate at junction 0 the US 41 north along the lake. My pictures show the welcome I got to Chicago's south side. I enjoyed the photo ops and was not unduly worried about some of the stares I got from locals on the street corners with brown paper bags. I am heavily armoured and they only seemed curious that in such heat I would be so smothered in stickers and leather and gloves. I didn't chance any personal portraits though.

I stopped at Soldier Fields for a shot of this amazing stadium. I hear it was a controversial update. No kidding. I think it works well in spite of being a lover of classical-style architecture. I like modern if its creative but I would round up all the Kleenex-box architects of the 50's-80's and force them to study shape, shadow, style, and eye-teasing design using clean materials. Self-staining raw concrete eye-garbage? No thanks. Duffers. Rant over.

I rode up Michigan Ave. to meet a well-known ACC, Steve Stroz of Gold Coast Advisors, at 1 Magnificent Mile www.goldcoastadvisors.com but the car park said no motorcycles. Thanks Chicago. I found another where the friendly chaps even gave me a discount when I left for the charity! We had a funny few moments as I confused Steve with where I was waiting and he was being honked by impatient drivers. Sorry Steve! We walked to the beach to see spectacular views of this truly great city. I vastly prefer Chicago to New York. The skyscraper was invented here and the lakeshore protection is genius. I was very hot and felt a tad silly in my clobber but hey, I wanted to see Chicago and boy does Steve know the city. We walked about 6,000 miles. I most enjoyed the historical stones from around the world set into the walls of the Chicago Tribune building. The "Bean" sculpture was amazing too. We ate deep-dish pizza at the place it was invented and I filled my camera memory with city photos. About 9pm I said goodbye and headed off to meet Jax at Ohare Airport for the trip up north to Milwaukee. The rain started and by the time I found a motel it was chucking it down. I heard a London accent in the bar as we ate a burger and had a good laugh with Phil and Anne about life in the USA as a Brit. Tuesday was for discovering childhood haunts of Jax and getting to Peewaukee and a yoga class.