While Melissa, Will, and I were visiting Indiana and Illinois a few weeks ago in August, the weather down here in our hometown of Gainesville was horrendous, with storms and heavy rain making life miserable for its human inhabitants...although the frogs were probably hopping with delight over it all. We travelers had better luck as it was pretty in Indiana and didn't get around to raining in Chicago until midday on Monday. We took the Architecture boat tour that morning and in the afternoon explored some of the shops in the Wicker Park area. By evening time, when we boarded the C.T.A. Red train at our nearby Lake/State station, there was a distinct probability of some more rain...no problem, we each had an umbrella. With the Navy Pier our destination, we left at the Grand Street station and took our free trolley ride to the attraction's entrance. We had "high" hopes of riding the famed Ferris wheel...which was invented in Chicago in time for its 1893 World Fair (the current one is a much smaller version)...and after entering the building full of shops and eateries, eventually made our way to the mini-park on which the huge wheel stood. We bought our tickets, posed for a picture, and got seated...the rain at this time was a comfortable drizzle. I looked out the compartment's window and saw several people going around on a swinging carousel ride that resembled the Yo-Yo ride at Valdosta's Wild Adventures theme park, but bigger...I thought I'd like to try it out after the Ferris wheel ride. As the passengers boarded, the wheel turned and we found ourselves going around our first cycle very slowly. By the time everyone was aboard, though, the bottom fell out of the sky and it was raining heavily...so they shut down the ride and let us out (and refunded our money) after only one cycle. Still, we got some good photos of the Pier from high up on the wheel. After disembarking we decided not to let the rain spoil our outing, so we took out our umbrellas and walked the southside outer walkway down to the end of the pier, while occasionally looking leftward into the building and its restaurants and bars. At the very end I snapped a picture of Melissa and Will facing Lake Michigan...that's the next to last photo above...and turned around to get the easternmost building from the pier's end. While standing out there we ran into a young couple who were going to fly to England the next day to attend a friend's wedding...it was almost surreal, we complete strangers just standing there alone in the pouring rain at the end of the 3,330-foot pier, chatting with one another as if we were all close buddies! We finally decided to part company and began to make our way back, first on the outer north side and then through the inside of the building...ending up at their gift shop and then making it back to the trolley and eventually our rail station...
Our Navy Pier visit was, to be sure, marred by inclement weather, but by deciding to make the most of an adverse situation we ended up creating some interesting experiences and memories. The next day there would also be some rain, but we also walked right on through it as well...
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