Seeing Chicago with Shoreline Sightseeing

I was given free admission to the architectural tour to facilitate my review of this Chicago attraction. All opinions are honest and my own. 

So here we are! The final installment of my trip with the #NorthIowaBloggers to Chicago. This excursion was actually on our first night there, but it's the second "view" of Chicago that I get to share with you. The view from the SkyDeck was incredible, but the river tour provided to us from Shoreline Sightseeing was amazing in a different way. And much like our experience at Lou Malnati's, it was MADE by our tour guide, Victor. We boarded at Navy Pier, so prior to our tour, we grabbed dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, and took a stroll along the pier. There's a lot of construction going on as their build their new vision for Navy Pier, so if you're headed to Chicago this year, I would schedule a visit back after the completion of their project. 

I went on a similar tour about fifteen years ago when I went to Chicago on a school trip, and it has always been one of the things that I remember fondly. When we stepped onto the boat for our tour a few weeks ago, it was a completely different experience, though. First of all, I had no idea how much and how quickly the Chicago skyline could change. There are new buildings popping up in every direction. So if you've been on this tour before, it's worth going again. Learning about the new construction projects was just as much fun as seeing the historical buildings. One of my favorite buildings is pictured here, and modeled sort of like a champagne bottle, built during prohibition as a way to sort of thumb their noses at authority.

Thanks for the awesome tour, Victor!

When I think about traveling with my kids, and the things I want them to have, you all know that I'm big on learning and on "experiences" - things they will look back on twenty years from now and still love. This was one of them. I honestly wasn't sure, when thinking about future Chicago trips, if this would be appropriate yet for my young family, but as I mentioned previously, our tour guide Victor was amazing. My kids would have loved his stories and flare. So beyond the fact that I know they would love the boat ride, the story-telling that went along with the tour was impeccable.

On the flip side, if you're from the Chicago area and love architecture, don't forget how easy it is to fly on Air Choice One into the Clear Lake/Mason City airport so that you can check out the architectural walking tour of Mason City. The tour features designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as buildings in the Chicago style, Classical style, and Tudor and Victorian styles, among others.




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