Wendella Boat Ride

I called in to work and took a personal day off so I could take my Mom and Dad and the boys on the Wendella Boat Ride up the Chicago River and onto Lake Michigan. It was a combined birthday present for my Mom and Dad. Their birthdays are two weeks apart. My boys have never been on the Wendella. I can remember going quite a few years ago. It was a beautiful clear day, no clouds in the sky. We left Villa Park about 9:30 a.m. and got downtown about 10:30 am. I purchased our tickets and had some time to kill. We walked over by the NBC Building and went inside to see if they had tours. They don't. We saw where they do the news broadcasts from and walked over by the Tribune Building and saw where they broadcast the Kathy and Judy Show on WGN Talk Radio. Papa had a cigar in Pioneer Court by the fountain. We got back and got in line for the boat ride. Boarding for the boat is down the stairs in front of the Wrigley Building. We sat on the top deck of the boat. The boat is brand new and was less than a month old and the tour guide was excellent. We saw the new Trump Tower that's being built where the old Sun-Times Building use to be. It's been a while since I've been downtown and there are a lot of new buildings. We went through the locks onto Lake Michigan and had an excellent view of Navy Pier and the Chicago skyline. The lake was really calm and the sky was so clear we could see the skyline in Indiana. After the boat ride we walked down Michigan Avenue to Ontario Street and then west to the Hard Rock Cafe. The plan was to have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe but it was closed for a private event. We ended up going around the corner and having lunch at The Rainforest Cafe. We all shared a "Volcano" for dessert. After lunch I went back to the parking garage to retrieve the car. We left Chicago about 4:00 p.m. We hit some rush hour traffic but made it to Villa Park around 5:00 p.m. It was a great day.