Chicago - better than the musical

Fodor's Essential USA says of Chicago that its Julys and Augusts can be either "perfect summer months or pack the double-whammy of high heat and stifling humidity." Today we were treated to said whammy, with temps hovering around the high 70's despite the intermittent rain. Michelle's review of this meteorological phenomenon can be seen here.
We started our day off with a couple of errands, mixed in with learning how to use the L (pictured below.)
It's much more fun than the T, probably due to its being above the ground, which somehow remains inherently awesome, and its more complex color scheme, which adds brown, purple, and even pink to the T's rather basic red, orange, green, and blue. On the way to the post office to mail some notes we tried to climb the Sears Tower and take in some views of the city, Ferris Bueller style, but we were stymied by this:
The elevator attendant kindly explained to us that the $12 lift ticket might not quite be worth it today. Undaunted, we turned around and marched right outta there, heading to the post office, which we had strategically chosen out of all possible Chicago post offices because of its proximity to this:

...which we needed to visit because of the dining room. Okay, maybe it wasn't the dining room (a row of picnic tables in a room decorated with Rat Pack movie posters, with The Godfather and Reservoir Dogs sprinkled in...go figure) as much as the Hot, Juicy, Italian Beef Sandwiches, our second corner of the Chicago Local Food Trinity. These are basically just a hot-dog sized french dip with hot giardiniera peppers, which they also pre-dip for you (rather than give you sauce of your own) by ducking the whole thing in some kind of delicious broth so it's slightly damp as it is served. Delicious.

For the afternoon we swung over to Millenium Park and the Chicago Art Institute. The Park certainly did not disappoint: we got to see the Crown Fountain--you know, the one whose two towers cycle between displays of different Chicagoan faces...
...next was the steel sculpture exhibit...

...then we played with the Cloud Gate sculpture on the terrace...
...then we listened to these guys play some bossa nova in the concert shell (while we kicked it to tha beat)...
And finally we headed south to check out the Art Institute and look at that one Seurat painting that everybody seems to think is so awesome (including us.) Outside there was, um, this fountain:
which we thought was kinda nice. Later it got dark:
so we went to see The Dark Knight (soooo awesome!! too bad Heath Ledger is dead) and then we got burgers at The Billy Goat Tavern...
...made famous by this skit. (No video! Transcript!)

Additionally, Michelle took a bunch more awesome pictures today, but I couldn't come up with captions and also we have to drive like 14 hours tomorrow.

Sleep tight, adventure fans!