Hanging around Chicago

While I would not want to live here, Jess and I have been having a lot of fun in Chicago. Other than the fact that the hotel we've been staying in the last three days is a DUMP (when we stayed in it last year, it was so much nicer) we love being somewhere where there is so much going on.
At least starting tomorrow we move to a decent hotel for the duration on our stay.
We decided not to go back to MN, we would rather stay here and drive up to Detroit on Sunday the 3rd. So now we have over a week to not get bored and for me to TRY and talk my daughter out of spending any more money. My budget was blown about 2 weeks ago. IWe'll now have to stay in Italy simply because I won't have enough money to go home and start over!
So Friday we were so exhausted both physically from driving all night, and mentally from dealing with the consulate we simply went back to the hotel and slept all afternoon. Afterwards we drove up out of the city as close as we could get to the lake. Saw some beauiful houses as well as signs that said "Senior Crossing" We thought those were hysterical.
We also ended up getting lost on the way back and going into a "questionable part of north Chicago"
Today we decided to walk down Michigan Ave, the main shopping street of Chicago ( at least I think it is) We ended up walking from about 12the down to about 5 blocks south of the river, about 17 city blocks in all, and ended up at the Taste of Chicago. That was fun, good food, and then walked almost to the Navy pier to watch fireworks. About 15 minutes before they were about to start this truly awesome fog bank very slowly over the pier, unbelievable sight.
After all the walking we decided to take a cab back to the hotel. We've had a lot offun being able to hail cabs to get around, what a treat.
Well tomorrow we will be in the new hotel, up above the 18th floor and in a room with a view, so I'm signing off to try and get some sleep. Things are really starting to come together!