Always big fun at the Navy Pier

[dreamshark]

The Navy Pier is the very essence of crass commercial tourism, but always turns out to be so much more fun than I think it will be. 10 years ago, on our first visit, we were astonished to discover an extensive but little-known stained glass museum (absolutely free!) tucked away at the far end of the pier. That's gone now, sadly. But this year's wonderful surprise was Flyover Chicago. Not free, but included in our Go City pass.

This Exciting New Attraction was hardly hidden away; it just didn't sound like that much fun: a short iMax movie with a few augmented reality touches. You. Have. No. Idea. You sit down in an ordinary row of theater seats with the view partially blocked by an annoyingly high railing. They make you put on a seatbelt, which seems dumb. The lights go down, the stars come out and lighted building tops appear in the dome. Then with a discreet little creak the railing slowly folds down and your jet chairs blast off into the Chicago skyline and straight down the side of a building!!! OMG, it is so real!  The seats have metal railings, which you hang onto for dear life. You know that your feet are on the floor but somehow they appear to be dangling helplessly as your jet chair careens around spiky rooftops, dives over streets where some kind of car chase mayhem is occurring, and zips through the spray of Buckingham Fountain. It was amazing!

Since the trip is less than 10 minutes long, the attraction is padded out with a waiting room full of engaging video clips and then a rousing pre-show in a small multi-screen theater that had me ready to abandon my former life, move to Chicago, and somehow learn to care about sports. But it's a little hard to remember how well-crafted that presentation was after the adrenaline rush of the jet-propelled seats.  

But you can't really capture Flyover with pictures, so here are a few random photos from the ever-photogenic Navy Pier.

Like The Bean only more cylindrical



I have no idea what that statue is but I liked the juxtaposition with the tourist in front of it.



And that appears to be an extrusion of the wonderful Children's Museum that has appeared sometime in the last 6 years. Either that or we somehow missed it when we took Lena there in 2018. 

Comments

[pameladean]

I'm loving all your photos. P.