Chicago

Now that "summer" is here (and almost over), I finally made collages of my Chicago pictures. It was such a fun trip. I can't believe it was a whole month ago! These are in reverse order of occurrence, but who cares?

Pictures of our group all around the town. My favorite pictures are all on the bottom row. We had such a good group!


The last thing we did before boarding the bus was to take a tour of Wrigley Field. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I do love historical and well-known buildings. It was so fun to see and hear some fun stories about this iconic place. This is where my camera battery died on me so I don't have pictures of the Cubs' locker room, only the empty visitors locker room and a million of the field. It was so cool! Check out the buildings beyond the stadium. They have seating built on top.


Right before going to Wrigley Field, we went on a tour of the City of Chicago on a restored 1960's fire truck. It was so cool! One of my students LOVES fire trucks and firemen (her best friend is a fireman). Every time she would hear a siren, she would whip around to see where it was. By the end of the week, we were all doing this.


Next up: the planetarium. We saw a video about constellations that put us all to sleep for the 45 minutes it played. Then we went to look around. It was all pretty "ho-hum"....until we saw the little kids area. We went wild. It was the best part of the whole place! Then, we ventured downstairs and saw this really old sphere. It was the first planetarium built in 1912! It was a sphere with holes drilled into it so that when light shone through you could see the constellations. You actually had to pay to go in it but since the planetarium was only open for 10 more minutes, she let us go in for free and gave us the fastest tour ever. We all liked it so much better than the 45 minute snoozer.

I loved that little kids jacket that I'm wearing. It was tiny!

We went to the Aquarium and Field Museum. I didn't take a lot of pictures in the aquarium because I was exhausted from walking so much. Not to mention there were a million little kids there for a field trip.


The Field Museum was interesting but not all that exciting...until we walked into this exhibit. I kinda went nuts with the pictures, but I love sparkly things. love, love, LOVE. They were all humongous! And it gave me some ideas for making my own jewelry.


The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower:
We went to the sky deck to stand 160 floors above the city in nothing but a glass box. It was so cool. I'm not afraid of heights so I loved it. It was so thrilling. We took some professional pictures and I still need to scan them to put on here, but it was so cool to see such a good view of the city.


There is a Legoland Museum outside of Chicago, but we didn't have the time or transportation to get out there. Instead, we just went to a Lego store off the Magnificent Mile. That is some serious talent to make the Lego's!


Our first full day in Chicago was the 4th of July. To celebrate the holiday, we went on a boat cruise out into Lake Michigan and got an awesome view of at least 4 different fireworks shows. It was so much fun for me; I haven't been on a boat in ages and totally missed it!


Millenium Park was only a couple of blocks away from our hotel and we visited at least three times during the week we were there. We would just get off our bus a stop or two early and play in the fountains for a few minutes before walking the rest of the way back. We all loved "The Bean", which is really called "The Cloud Gate". The park has an amphitheater designed by Frank Gehry and it is so unique. The field beyond the seats was amazing with the gridwork above to hold the speakers. I sent Tim a postcard of the whole park so he could see how awesome it was. The fountains with the faces were trippy but after walking around in the heat and humidity, the cold water was much appreciated.


Being in Chicago, it was so fun to just look at all of the cool buildings and random things around the city. What other city has a gigantic eyeball just sitting off the side of the road? What I really liked about Chicago was the greenery! There were rooftop gardens, planter boxes, and trees everywhere they could fit. It definitely didn't feel like a drab concrete jungle.

I have to have a favorite building wherever I go, and I finally chose one right before we left. I didn't want it to be the Wrigley Building or Tribune Tower since those were too...typical. it had to be different, unique, off the beaten path. You can see it in the collage--right side, middle picture. It is made of blue glass with white wavy balconies to make it look like the rippling water. I don't know what it is called, but it is an apartment building. If I ever live in Chicago, that is where I would want to live.


Well, friends, there you have it. A week in Chicago, with almost 500 pictures taken by yours truly alone, all wrapped up in just 11 collages jam-packed full of memories.