Chicago in Instagrams - Days 4 and 5

Day 4 
We got off to a late start, which allowed me to sleep in and catch up on True Blood... it's my vacation and I can do what I want! But after lunch, I finally got my wish granted and was allowed to take off on my own.

The family made their way to the planetarium (I still took a pic), and I split off and got on my very first city bus ride. First item on my list? Find authentic Chicago-style pizza! From my research and recommendation, I made my way to Geno's East, which was featured on "Man vs. Food", and ordered a few Jamison and Coke's to go with my Chicago-style pepperoni...

And I've decided: I'm not a Chicago-style / deep-dish pizza fan. It was good (thick and buttery), but I miss the thin NY / crispy crusts.

With that decided, I just took my time walking around downtown. I checked out the Chicago Water Tower, that survived the great Chicago fire...

I came across the Chicago Tribune building with it's statue of Nathan Hale...

On my wanderings, I came across my family again at the Marilyn Monroe statue. Apparently between days 4 and 5, this statue got vandalized... a tattoo on one of her legs. I wasn't able to go back to get an "after" shot though.

Did some more walking inside the shops of the Magnificent Mile, ate dinner, and then went up to the Hancock Observatory. This is the building that is similar to the Sears/Willis Tower (tall, two antennas, has a sky deck). Their "museum"/deck isn't as cool as the Sears Tower's, but we got to take in the Chicago skyline at night this time. Here it is from the 94th floor...

Day 5
Today I got up to an early start, got dropped off at the subway station by my cousin's house, and made my way back downtown.

Since it was still early, I found myself in the Theatre District - which was beautiful! Here's a shot of the Chicago Theatre.

Makes me so excited to get to Broadway!

I spent a few hours walking inside the Art Institute of Chicago, with all it's paintings, sculptures and miscellaneous pieces that tend to go right over my head. There were beautiful paintings by the likes of Van Gogh, and then you had this:

A pile of candy where they tell you to take a piece and enjoy.

I was skittish at first, but then the audio tour guide explained it all quite well. The artist is depicting his partner by using 175 lbs of candy (his body weight). And the partner has AIDS. Just as the pile slowly gets smaller, so too does the partner's body weight decreases as the disease progresses. (The story is a lot more eloquent via the audiotape. Not so much coming from me, and at midnight.)

Anyways, here's a piece that's a mirror with the figure of an art student, so that the viewer can become part of the piece... as so...

Afterwards I made my way to the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls. I've never been a huge basketball fan, but I was watching back in the days of Michael Jordan, especially in the team's second three-peat. So getting a shot of his statue was high on my Chicago list.

Then I raced over to see the Blue Man Group, which was a really cool production in the vein of Stomp, but had more audience participation and was pretty funny. I had no pictures though, as I turned my phone off during this part of the day to save battery life. Though while walking around afterwards, I did walk by a pub that had this sign outside.

And to that, I say "CHEERS!"