Going north, south, east, west - Chicago UPDATED 1/7 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Just getting caught up. I've missed a lot. It's great that you have a tour guide in Lesley to show you around Chicago.
I would feel very claustrophobic in that hotel room.
Great updates! I just love seeing your pictures of Chicago! Its funny with it so close by we never take the time to go there and do the tourist thing there. We should rethink that.
Friday 24 October – part three: Chicago from above
The John Hancock Center was our next stop and the first time we used our Go Chicago Card. We debated whether to go up then or later in the day, but went for it in the end. I’m glad we did, as the views from there were quite something. Every way you looked, there was something worth seeing. This city really does just go on and on for miles.
What kept striking me was how green it was, with a lot of places for people to enjoy. I had been surprised by how many trees we had seen coming in. It’s very reminiscent of the UK in that respect. Even as we walked along earlier, we had seen some lovely floral displays and again, I was surprised that they were still going strong, mainly because in my mind, I had Chicago down as a cold city and assumed that by mid October, most things would be dying off. They certainly would be at home, but no sign of it here.
Lesley pointed out some roof top swimming pools. Again, I had seen a number of these as we had flown in and that surprised me as well. Another thing I wasn’t expecting to see was how vast Lake Michigan was. Somehow I always picture a lake as having an ending. Not here. It just stretched into the horizon. It’s something like 300 miles long and 69 miles wide. You can’t even comprehend that. :
I’m sure Lesley will correct me if any of the captioning of these photos is wrong! On the way up in the elevator
Looking over towards Navy Pier
A close-up of Navy Pier
Lake Michigan
The Chicago skyline
The Adler Planetarium
Just poking out from the high rise building in the centre of shot is the Shedd Aquarium
Looking down at the Water Tower and Pumping Station
Yes, they have a harbour here as well!
The Chicago River
The Sears Tower
This amazing structure is actually a parking lot! You wait until the close-up shots that we got of it...
Building work on the Trump Tower
North Michigan Avenue that we’d just walked along
A huge McDonald’s!
Yes, they have beaches here as well!
Lincoln Park
The far north of the city suburbs
He even found a silly photo op up here!
Milton Lee Oliver Park
Close-ups of Navy Pier
The far south of the city suburbs
Finally, we finished admiring the view and headed back to ground level with a new appreciation of the city. We were going to take the Grayline tour over to our next stop, Navy Pier, where we would be catching the one hour architecture cruise from, but we quickly realised that the tour only ran one way and it would take us forever to get there, so we opted to talk there. Again, we saw lots of beautiful buildings as we walked along.
I had to get a photo of this, as this is the name of the main road in London’s West End theatre land
Love, love, love those photos!!
When I was up there with Josh's class trip, from the Field Museum, we also had a view of the harbor, but the opposite, it was looking toward Navy Pier and The JH Center and Sears Tower. Anyway, really great update!
I am really enjoying your Chicago pictures and TR. I lived in Lincoln Park and worked downtown, years ago, and it's fun to see the sights through someone else's eyes. Terrific pictures. Cheryl, Lesley and Mark are quite photogenic, don't you think??
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Your pictures of Chicago are fabulous. I want to go back so badly! What great views of the city. I can't wait to hear about your architecture cruise. We were going to do it but ran out of time. I hope it is fantastic!
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You wait until the close-up shots that we got of it... 
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