We decided to go check out the free Chicago Zoo in Lincoln Park and the Navy Pier for the day. We got free fountain juices from the hotel lobby and brought up our cereal breakfast to the hotel rooftop patio. It was nice except even at 9AM the sun was very hot as there was limited shade. After our Chicago Subway experience the night before, we headed to the subway station to get an all day pass for the Chicago Transit Authority. We talked to the man there where he said kids were free so just get two adult passes. So for $10 total our family was good to go to ride the subway and busses all day.
We caught a bus going north towards the zoo. This may have been the first city bus ride experience for the kids and they had many questions. We got off at the farmer’s market that was going on in Lincoln park and got authentic croissants made with real butter that Katherine could eat. On our way towards the zoo Toby found a small praying mantis which kept the kids occupied for some time. The zoo was advertised being small but was actually quite large and we easily spent at least 3 hours there. They had a very impressive lion building which allowed you to view the lions through glass from inside the air conditioned building.
After the zoo we hoped on the bus which took us by Oak Street beach, and then through “magnificent mile”, a famous high end shopping street. We passed the Sears Tower there as well. We transferred onto another bus which then took us to Navy Pier. Navy Pier extended quite a distance out to sea and you could walk through the building filled with shops and food outlets or the outside. There were many tour boats operating from the pier, and the view of the skyline from there was incredible. We looped around the pier then headed home on the bus, as by this time the whole family was pretty tired. We ended up ordering more pizza from the same place as the night before.
We then met up with Zovel and Jace who had moved to Chicago recently. We had a great time chatting on the hotel roof patio while the kids played in the pool. Zovel had given us tips and places to go see in Chicago before we arrived and it was very much appreciated! There were so many other things to see in Chicago we had barely scratched the surface with our two night stay. The Chicago Science and Industry museum is apparently a must see, along with the Planetarium, Aquarium, Sears Tower Skydeck, and many other museums and parks. We decided we would definitely need to make a separate family trip to Chicago.
Trip Around The World 
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