We've already told you the many reasons why Navy Pier is actually cool this summer, but today you have a chance to experience plenty of fun activities on the pier yourself—for free. As part of the top tourist attraction's 100th birthday, Eli's Cheesecake will dish out free slices of a seriously massive cheesecake (1,000 pounds of goodness) and you can catch a special fireworks show at 9:30pm. Festivities, games, live music from the Navy Pier Brass Band and other surprises will continue throughout the day. But while you're there, you should also check out the Centennial Wheel (the new fancy Ferris wheel) and a few of the new restaurant vendors, like Snow Dragon Shavery, Tiny Lounge and Original Rainbow Cone.
We got pretty excited about the upgrades and the general festivities at Navy Pier, so we headed down to take a ride on the new Ferris wheel ourselves. See what we learned while we checked out the awesome views.