We slept in a bit Saturday morning, then got ready for our mid-day architectural cruise. We decided to walk down to the cruise area so we could maybe see the charity village that we’d have to go to in the morning so we would have some idea and avoid last minute panic. We headed toward the direction we thought it would be and couldn’t really find it. For some reason I had in my head that we only had about 20 minutes to get to the pier for the boat. So we rushed a little bit not really thinking about it. We were about half-way there when we (Michelle) realized that we actually had almost an hour. We made it down to the Navy Pier with some time to spare so we walked around in their little mall and got some Garrett’s popcorn – which was highly recommended. It was good, but our hands were quickly coated from it – which is why they give you wet naps presumably.
We walked up to one boat kiosk and they looked at the receipt and told us we had to go to another kiosk just off the pier. We went there and they said that it’s not for their company but for another company back down on the pier. So for a day that we really didn’t want to walk too much, we were walking!! We finally found the yellow SeaDog boats and found Beverly and her family and boarded for our cruise. There were two others from Naples that were going also, so we all sat together for the tour. We were happy to see that it was a 75 minute tour so we would still have time to find the charity area before dinner. The first part they took you on a speedboat-ish ride. The boat was basically a big speedboat that probably sat about 60 people. One poor older lady was getting splashed as we picked up speed. After probably about 20 minutes of that they took us into the Chicago River lock system so we could go into the city. It was a neat way to see the city from a different perspective. The guide was funny and knowledgeable. We found out she is going to college for acting in Chicago and this is her college job. Pretty good experience, I’d say. We saw buildings and heard about their history and construction. It was interesting, but I can’t tell you that I remember very many details. Opera house, champagne bottle shaped building, moon rocks on the newspaper building, Sears tower, bridges, Trump… I took a bunch of photos but haven’t uploaded them yet. Once we were back and docked, we all agreed to meet later in the lobby to catch the bus for the restaurant.
M & I walked back to the Grant Park area – somehow missing the bean again in Millennium Park. Still can’t figure out where that bean must be. We walked along the water-edge walkway. It was really great weather. Once we got back to Grant Park, we followed the path to the Charity Village which seemed like quite a long distance from the Start & Finish areas. This caused us a bit of dismay because we didn’t want to be pressed for time in the morning and also weren’t sure about how we felt walking another mile or so after finishing. We decided to ponder if we were going to go down and have breakfast at the Village before the marathon or just have it at the hotel with Beverly’s special gold-key Hilton Honors perk room.
We got back to the hotel and were discussing dinner. Everyone kind of felt like we didn’t want to make what turned out to be a longer trip to the restaurant than expected. So we changed plans and returned to the previous night’s pizza place but had spaghetti this time (the runners watched the spectators eating pizza and salads). J After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, decided to stay at the hotel for breakfast and then head down to the start. Everything needed for race day was laid out for morning. Lights out, marathoners!!!
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