World's Tallest Building and World's Bravest Clare

Hi all! Yep I made it up the Sears Tower - the elevator ride to the 103rd floor was not my finest hour but I made it and the views were definitely worth it. When I am back in the land of decent internet cafes (also known as Canada) I will put some pictures up for you all!

OK, so since I last wrote I did a bit of an explore around Chicago - especially around Millenium Park, which has this very cool giant silver jellybean on it so you can see yourself reflected against the skyline etc. I also made some friends with fellow travellors Nicky and Marie, and after some pizza we decided to head off to the hostel outing "30 Plays in 60 Minutes"... unfortunately the longest bus ride ever meant we missed the plays and had to settle for the pub instead but we still had fun! On Sunday I got up and headed straight up the Sears Tower because it was fine and sunny and thunderstorms were expected later in the day. After that incredibly brave act, I hoped on a city tour to see a bit more of the place. The best thing about Chicago really is the amazing architecture and the view of the double decker bus was excellent. We went past the Water Tower, which is one of only two buildings that survived the great Chicago fire, checked out Oprah's house (very nice), Soldiers Field and the Magnificent Mile among other things. We had a great guide and I really enjoyed learning a bit more about the place.

After that I headed back and met up with Marie and Nicky again, and we went to the supermarket to get some food to make dinner and spent the rest of the night sitting around eating and drinking and having a good old yarn. Today we went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, including the Body Worlds exhibition which was really interesting and took up far more hours than I would have expected. Tonight we are going to take a look at the John Hancock Tower (the second tallest building in the city) and some of the buildings by night before I head off on my train to Vancouver tomorrow and they head off to Toronto. Give them a warm welcome Torontonians!!!

Chicago has been a nice stop but I am very excited about heading west now, catching up with the people I know over there and seeing Ms Goodall of course (happy birthday for Thursday Z!)... I am not so much looking forward to going back to work but I guess that had to happen some time!

Hope you are all well!
Clare