Chicago, day 2, a more relaxed morning
After our extensive tour of the previous day, over many miles of hard Chicago tarmac, we were all slightly exhausted. A gentler day was in store, with a little less architecture. You can see from the picture below what beautiful weather we were enjoying. We made our way downtown again and had a cup of coffee in the Chicago Hilton. This was the foundation of the Conrad Hilton chain of hotels, being originally opened in 1927 as the Stevens Hotel, when it was the largest hotel in the world. It contained a bowling alley, a cinema, and a miniature golf course on the roof. The Stevens family were bankrupted in the depression and the building was taken over by the US Army Air Force as a barracks in 1942. It was then sold in 1944 to a private businessman Stephen Healy who reopened it. In this year the Convention on International Civilian Aviation was signed here by 54 nations to ensure peaceful co-operation for international flight. Conrad Hilton bought the building in 1945 and ...