The Traveling Idiots-Where The Tuck Are They Now?: Getting educated beyond my level of intelligence

Tomorrow is our last day here in Chicago. Twelve days is going by quickly . There is so much to do here, especially in the summer. The good folks of Chicago take advantage of the warm temperatures with special events such as free outdoor concerts in the park, fireworks at Navy Pier, festivals and so much more. They pay a big price for these nice days once November/December rolls around and the temperature drops to ridiculously low levels for the next six months or so.
In addition to all the mindless fun stuff such as biking and walking the lakefront trail, baseball games, concerts and pizza, we have also made an effort to educate ourselves a little along the way. First it was the Art Institute of Chicago which I've written about in a previous blog. We also did an architecture tour on the Chicago River and yesterday we spent most of the day pondering the enormity of space at the Adler Planetarium. Speaking strictly for me, I feel I'm educated well beyond my level of intelligence.
All of these activities were part of the "Go Chicago" pass or from a Groupon. The "Go Chicago" pass is a pretty good deal. You pick three or five activities from a list of around twenty choices. They have similar City Passes in a number of major cities and if you're traveling to somewhere like NY, Chicago, LA or other places like that I would recommend checking it out. They even have one for Tampa that we purchased and used last year that was fun.
https://www.smartdestinations.com/chicago-attractions-and-tours
http://www.citypass.com
The architecture of Chicago is fantastic and there are so many interesting stories about the buildings along the lakefront and Chicago River. We had done a boat tour on a previous trip but decided to do it again because it was so much fun previously. It certainly didn't disappoint and we learned quite a bit in the 75 minutes. One of the most interesting stories was about the Chicago Tribune building. This building is on Michigan Avenue and is actually just across the river from our hotel so we have a great view of it. On the outside of the building there are artifacts such as bricks, stones and small pieces of buildings that are mounted into the walls. Currently there are 150 of these fragments mounted around the outside. As the story goes, it all started when the owner and publisher (Robert McCormick) of the Tribune back in the early 1900's had his reporters who were sent out on assignment to bring something back that could be mounted on the building. Some are from some pretty sacred places and I can only imagine how they were collected, but it does make for a great story and walking around the building is quite interesting.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-tribune-tower-wall-artifacts-htmlstory.html
It was our first visit to the Adler Planetarium and it was well worth it. They have a number of interesting exhibits as well as shows throughout the day in different theaters within the building.
This may come as a shock to some of you who are so kind to read this blog occasionally, but I'm no Stephen Hawking! I am fascinated by this whole space and infinity thing but it's a little beyond my comprehension. When I hear it, I am intelligent enough to know that somewhere out there in the vastness of all this space there is intelligent life. Heck, maybe we'll find it here on earth one of these days!
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org