We arrived late so no chance to change to an earlier train to St Louis so stowed our bags in a locker and headed to the Navy Pier for the lake cruise that we missed when we were here last and the weather wasn't good. It was a beautiful day, couldn't have asked for a better one. We gazed at Chicago from the lake and picked out the Sears Tower and other landmarks that were familiar. 168 acres of the land at the waterfront had been created by some guy who accidently ran his boat aground on a sandbar there. He went to the locals and asked if he could leave his boat there until he repaired it and they said it was ok but he never repaired it at all. He saw that Chicago was being built at a great rate of knots and told all the builders they could dump all there excess in the water by his boat and thereby created a huge new piece of land. Cunning plan!
Back up town and with the help of the local constabulary we made our way to 'Gino's East' a restaurant recommended to us by Todd. Found it on West and Superior, a cool pizza and pasta place that allows it's guests to graffiti up the place to their hearts content. Our waiter was Christopher who told us he used to have hair as long as Carol's, he was a good sort and when told that it was Kent's birthday he brought us out a treat at the end as a celebration. The pizza was seriously good as were the combination platter of mozzarella and spinach sticks and calamari we had as an entree. A special occasion so we splurged just a little, not too bad though as we were very full at the end and the meal and drinks (with tax and tip) cost $45. Yeah for Gino's East! Go there when you're next in town. As you will see from the pics we left our mark on the joint.
Headed lazily back to catch our 5.15 train and half way there Kent discovered he didn't have his hat so had to go back for it, luckily Christopher had found it and was holding it for him out the back. Yeah for Christopher! Haha. Meant we were getting close to the edge of Carol's comfort zone though and just like the last time we were here we ended up walking around the block to find the station, but we are so good at walking now that who cares...
