Only in Chicago...

Hancock Building

Chicago LOVES its TALL buildings. It has 12 of the tallest 100 in the world. New York city is second with 6 in the top 100.   The Hancock building is 100 stories tall.  While the Trump tower is 92 stories tall. Both however are smaller than Chicago's tallest building, the Willis (formerly the Sears) Tower.  It rises an incredible 110 stories above the ground.  It is still the tallest building in the U.S., but has fallen from #1 in the world to being only the 3rd tallest.

Willis Tower

The Willis Tower was built in 1973 and receives millions of visitors each year.  Sister Beck and I first toured it in 1983 when we came back East to do a church/country historical trip with the Rigby's. It was amazing then and perhaps even more amazing now (looking out of our window and seeing it every day and night). For those of you that live in SLC, the Willis Tower would be like have FOUR Church office buildings (26 floors) stacked on top of each other!

We had some good friends come through Chicago a week ago, Scott Child, his two sons, Geoff & Andrew, and Scott's son-in-law.  We arranged for our preparation day to be the same day they were here so we could spend some time with them. They had flown into Chicago to drive down to South Bend Indiana to attend the Notre Dame - University of Utah football game.  While the game didn't turn out too well.... we had a lot of fun (missionary speaking) spending some time with them.  They wanted to see some of the sights of Chicago.  So we started off with perhaps the number one attraction, the Willis Tower.  They've made some changes since Sister Beck and I were there in the 80's.  On the one side of the building, they have built 4 "ledges" off the side of the building with Plexiglas. 

Scott on the LEDGE

When you enter these ledges, it gives you the feeling that there is NOTHING below you.  It's quite a shock to enter and look down.  Here's Scott checking one out.  The trick was to try and get Sister Beck out on the ledge.  

Some family members will remember the episode on the Pyramid in Chichen Itza.  Sister Beck is "a little" afraid of heights, especially if there is noting around her for support.  She climbed to the top of the Pyramid and then turned around and almost died.  I wasn't sure how I was EVER going to get her down.  I finally had her sit down and slide out to the steps where the rope was for those needing help in getting down, cling onto the rope and slide down one step at a time.  

In the tower, she was getting lots of pressure from all of us, finally she backed onto the ledge, making sure she didn't look down. She just kind of backed out looking up at the camera until we all got in position for a picture.  I was SO PROUD of her... Here's the proof she made it!!

All of us on the LEDGE

I even ventured out and took a picture looking STRAIGHT down, that REALLY gave you an eerie feeling!  

110 Stories STRAIGHT down

It was a little hazy so we didn't have the best views of the city, but it was still fun to see the city from up above.


Sister Beck and I were surprised we could see our apartment building from the tower.  However, I guess we shouldn't have been surprised, since we can see the tower from our apartment.

Finding our Apt

After spending about 90 minutes in the tower, we found our way down and headed out to see the famous "Water Tower." In the  Chicago Fire of 1871, the Tower along with a couple of churches were the only buildings that survived.  It's a cool old building RIGHT in the center of town. 

Water Tower

We checked out the tourist center and the Child's decided they wanted to take the Subway up to Wrigley's Field.  Even though it was closed they felt like they needed to at least go up and take some pictures of it.

After visiting "Cub's Land," we went back into the city to find a "REAL" Chicago Hot Dog.


We found a little "dive" just off of Michigan Ave, where we all tried one of their DOGS.  Not too bad.


We spent about 4 hours with the Child's and then headed back to our apartment while they checked out more of Chicago before heading back to their hotel near Midway Airport.t

While walking to one of our appointments one day, we came across this bus stop with the BEST SEATS any where, so I had to stop and take a picture.

While Chicago has a lot to see and do, one of OUR FAVORITE buildings and sights is the one below.  We have been able to keep our streak alive, of going to the temple once every week (for the past 8 1/2 years).  While it's a little more difficult to do here because the temple is about 35-40 minutes away, it's still something we hope to be able to do all our mission.  Unfortunately, not too many Chicago members attend.  Too bad for them!

LOVIN' CHICAGO!

  
The MTC was unbelievable, every one needs to experience it.  If every ward member had that same experience we wouldn't need missionaries. While it made for some very long days (since we opted to come home every night), we still loved it and those returned missionaries that taught us.


A HUGE thanks to our family members who helped with our move, we would have never had made it without them!

We've been here for almost 3 weeks and we are loving it.  As many of you know who have followed our trek with our  "RIG"  (16' Penske Rental Truck, and trailer towing our Toyota RAV4), it was a REAL EXPERIENCE getting here. 1,600 miles across Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois to an apartment we'd only seen a couple of pictures of it on the Internet.

Luckily, the apartment which is on the 29th floor was nice (with INCREDIBLE VIEWS of the city), men showed up to help me unload the truck and RAV4, and everything fit into the apartment.

We are supporting the Lake Shore 1st Ward and a Single's Branch (that includes the entire stake). They are two brand new wards that were just split off from two other wards.  Most of their leaders (Bishop, Counselors, etc.) are all brand new with NO experience.

We don't have a church building to meet in so we meet in an Elementary School (Newberry).  Sacrament meeting is in the Auditorium while all our other meetings are in small class rooms.  

90% of the ward is made up of young yuppies in the 25-30 year old range.  Most have high powered, high paying jobs in order to afford the apartments they are living in.

 

Each Sunday we walk a couple of blocks up to the Subway, take the "Red Line" north one stop and then walk another 4 blocks to the school for our meetings.

Speaking of walking, we try to walk to all of our appointments and meetings since parking is so bad and EXPENSIVE.  After about 6pm, it's almost impossible to find a parking place on the street and if you do, it costs $5.00 for a couple of hours, plus you'll still probably have to walk several blocks to get to your meeting.  If you can't find a spot and have to use a parking garage, it will cost around $17 an hour (or more).  We done so much walking that my feet have blisters all over them.

The ward and branch have us working on Prospective Elders, Inactives, and part member families.  Plus the Bishop of the ward asked us to head up an "Empty Nester's FHE."  We've invited about 8 couples and it will start on Monday, the 22nd.  We'll start out in our apartment and see if they want to continue meeting here or move it around to other members.

We are working with a Sister who has MS and is confined to a wheel chair.  I need to go over and get her computer and printer to work for her.  She has no family in town so we have invited her to have Thanksgiving with us.

We are also working with a member from Mexico (very heavy Spanish accent), who had a stroke 20 years ago, to get him ready to go to the temple.  I think it will be a lot of work since he has a hard time distinguishing between the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church.  All his family is Catholic, but we'll work with him to bring him up to speed and then give him the temple prep classes.

Our view out our living room and bedroom is fantastic, especially at night.  We can see the Sears and Trump Towers as well as a small bit of Lake Michigan.  At night, Heidi likes to come in and sit on the couch with all the lights out and just gaze at the lights of the city.  It's unbelievable to think all the apartment buildings out there have hundreds, if not thousands of people in them and all are in our ward's boundaries.

So far the weather has been great.  In fact they turned off the air conditioner in our building in October because it's usually cold, but it's been in the 70's and we've been hot.  Haven't had to use our heat yet, but I'm SURE WE WILL.