Ghosts and Gangsters on the Chicago River

Months ago, I purchased a YouSwoop (similar to Groupon) special that was half-price kayak tours on the Chicago River. I thought it would be such a cool way to experience the city! I've done a couple of architectural tours on boats, but this was entirely new! And I've never kayaked before, so I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into.... Here's a peak inside of our trip down the river.

See that annoyed look on Andrew's face in this first picture? It's probably because tandem kayaking is hard! And frustrating! Imagine trying to figure out something where left is right and you're trying to do it the same time (and in tandem!) with someone else. Good thing he keeps his cool because I just had to stop paddling and just sit there a few times because I was getting frustrated :)

He looks happy...

I wanted to take more pictures, but I was a little nervous to take my phone out too often for photos.... This is a bridge. Obviously.

 The theme of our tour was Ghosts and Gangsters of Chicago's history. We learned a lot about the types of people who lived in Chicago first (talk about a rough crowd!) and some of the tragedies that have happened and are said to haunt the city still.... Creepy, right?

Such a cool view to be down on the water looking up at these awesome buildings!

The Merchandise Mart. It used to be one of the biggest buildings in the world. It even has its own zip code!

Okay, we seem to have figured out how to kayak together, he seems happy now.

I'm probably thinking, "Wow, it's really awkward to turn around in this kayak. I hope it doesn't capsize!"

I got a little wet on the tour, but Andrew had it way worse than me. Plus, he wore a gray shirt.... Which makes it a lot more obvious.

If you kayak or have always wanted to, I highly recommend doing this. Neither of us had ever kayaked before, and despite being frustrated at working together at first, we got the hang of it quickly and had a good time. It was a very interesting way to see the city!

In other HUGE news, I won an iPad 2! Crazy, right??? My gym was holding a summer incentive program for people referring people to the gym. Lindsay just moved in with us and on the last day of the summer special, we went down to FFC (that's my gym!) and signed her up. We both got our names in the bag and they drew mine for one of the grand prizes. Lindsay was sure they rigged it (maybe because I asked the membership guy to rig it....), but when we asked him later, he assured us that someone else drew the actual name. So anyway, that was pretty awesome and I'm SO excited to play with it. If anyone does facetime, you should call me on my email - hannah.smith14@gmail.com!

That's it for now! Later gators!

Love,
H&W