Having gone for a walk to the park that had the Bean in it I felt comfortable going for a quick run early the second morning. Even though it was kind of quiet out and a good area I learned that city running is not for me. All the start/stop of traffic lights and then they had a nice path along the lake but it was very noisy as the main road paralleled the path.
I had to go play with the Bean, especially since there was basically no one else around. Directly under the bean was like a kaleidoscope. I probably spent about 5 minutes walking around and going close/far to watch how the reflections changed and distorted.
They had these two towers with water pouring down them and faces, like they were talking to each other. It was early in the morning so they were just getting started.
The giant fountain was not running at the early morning hours either. I finished up my run and went back to the hotel to grab Manfriend and let our adventure of the day begin. We headed to the Navy Pier. We wanted to take a river cruise and ended up on the architecture tour where we learned about the different architects of the skyline and the buildings/materials.
More of the random art on display throughout the city that make it much more pleasant to walk through than any other city I have been to.
We grabbed a quick bite at McDonald's since the hot dog place wasn't open and we had to catch our boat.
The building below is the old Post Office building. It was so big (think Sears catalogs back in the 1980's) that it had it's own zip code to handle all the PO Boxes. Oh how I wanted to get off the boat and take a tour of the building. I can only imagine the awesomeness inside the old building. Yes, I am obsessed with old/quaint post offices that aren't completely modernized. I bet there is still some of that quaintness tucked away in this building.
After our boat tour, where we learned a lot about the city and the buildings we went on the Ferris Wheel on the Pier. Non of that mobster history though. That wasn't exactly our style but maybe for another day and bus tour future visit.
The ride was supposed to be 7 minutes but we think it went much faster than that. Oh well. It provided nice views of the skyline and it was a nice, clear day and not too windy.
We ended up going to a local place at the John Hancock building for lunch and then walked the Magnificent Mile--stopping at Hershey's for a chocolate shake.
We went back to the Old Water Tower so we could get an ornament for our tree and Luke got himself a souvenir t-shirt. I got nothing. I've got lots of clothes and to be honest I would much prefer something Disney (the Disney store was under renovations and closed FYI).
I busted out in the Rock-n-Roll McDonald's song when I saw this and Manfriend thought I was absolutely crazy and making up songs. It is a real song. Check it out
here and listen for about 30 seconds for the part I kept sining (rockandroll Mc Donald's...). Apparently we
should have gone inside cause it is a museum and actually really neat. We ended up across the street at a hot dog joint.
We both went for a traditional Chicago style dog. I got mine without onions though and it was delicious. Luke did ketchup instead of mustard and no onions.
Luke also had some Chili and said it was amazing and very filling. Not too spicy and full of lots of meat instead of just beans. He also got a giant glass of beer. It was a very delicious hot dog and if we go back to Chicago it will be on our list of places to go.
We then went on the Casey Jr. Circus train before heading over to it's a small world. Although it was closed for refurbishment I still felt a strong need to go check out that part of the park. It worked out for the best since I found a Dumbo pillow pet. 
We met up with my mom's friend Timmy and took a cruise on the Storybook Canal Boats. Noticing a very short line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride we decided to go on that before going to the expo. It was quite the wild ride. It broke while we were on it. All of the sudden the lights came on and an announcement to stay where you were, a cast member would be by shortly to assist. I was stuck looking at a not so nice police officer. When the cast member came we had to backtrack through the whole ride. We went on the attraction later and I had one more scene until the end so it was cool that I got to go all the way back and walk the track. 
We went to the expo where I proudly picked up my bib number 353. Mom has all the expo photos. After that little adventure we went to California Adventure which is under a huge renovation project that is changing the entrance to the park as well as adding Cars Land. 
Dinner was some pasta with sauce on the side. I love how the chef put the side of meatballs and sauce in a kids serving dish. We went on the LIttle Mermaid and Jumpin' Jellyfish plus Toy Story Mania. The plan was to watch the World of Color and then go back to Disneyland since it was open until 11:00. 
World of Color=amazing water spectacular. Return to Disneyland in hopes of short lines after the fireworks= lots of crowds (unusual). The biggest bummer, the fireworks that we missed Saturday night were cancelled on Sunday due to "circumstances..." More on the trip when I get photos from my mom.
