Sunday is spent back at the Taste of Randolph Music Festival – more beer, more bands, more Country, more burgers.

Two stages & a Dance set up.

At least 10 bands on each stage with five on Friday. Not bad – 30 bands for $10.

Monday is spent visiting & revisiting new and old hot spots. Firstly, a walk around the Bean in Millenium Park.

Watch the crowds around Crown Fountain.

A Chicago Dog for lunch and a game of table shuffle-board in the Athletics Club

before visiting the Japan Festival in the Cultural Centre.

Pop into Macey’s to see the Tiffany ceiling.

In the underpass on the walk along the river to the lake, study the tiled mosaics that tell the story of Chicago. The two panels below describe how the city decided, in 1848 to turn the flow of the river away from the lake to create the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal. Previously, the river had been used to clean out the cattle yards where hundreds of thousands of cattle were housed and then slaughtered.  The city’s human waste and sewage also emptied into it and so flowed into the lake from which the inhabitants drew their drinking water, becoming rather ill in the process. By taking advantage of the lake being at a higher level than the river, a wider canal was dug to a lower level which created an increased flow thus changing its direction.

Take a water taxi through the centre of town up the Chicago River to China Town.

Then head out to a local bar for eats and beers to end the day, a very busy day.