The Magnificent Mile

 

To end the day, we walked the Magnificent Mile, admiring its luxury shops, landmark hotels, and architecture.

The highlight was the LEGO Store, complete with a detailed LEGO model of the Willis Tower. The shop is far more impressive than our local one in Australia. 

Next door to the LEGO Store Chicago is Unicorn World, a colourful and sparkly children’s boutique, unapologetically targeting rainbow princesses as its customers.

We also stopped by It'Sugar Chicago, a candy lover's paradise packed with every sweet imaginable. This type of store seems unthinkable back home in Australia.

Just as we turned the corner towards our hotel, we spotted the massive four-storey Starbucks Reserve Roastery.

We knew we were getting close to our hotel as we began crossing beneath the elevated tracks of the 'L'.

Skydeck - Willis Tower

 

Perched on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower, the Skydeck delivers sweeping, unobstructed panoramas of Chicago, the vast Lake Michigan, and the wider metropolitan region, stretching across Illinois and three neighboring states.

Conditions could not have been better for visibility, with clear skies and no trace of haze or pollution to dull the view.

Millenium Park.

From the Skydeck, we had a great view of the museum campus at the far end of Grant Park. The standout features are easy to pick out, the brown dome of the Adler Planetarium at the tip of the peninsula, the Shedd Aquarium in the middle with its distinctive semi-circular atrium housing the Abbott Oceanarium, and the sheer scale of the Field Museum.

Stepping onto 'The Ledge', a glass balcony that juts more than a metre beyond the building's exterior, sparked of nostalgia, recalling a scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.