walking the windy city

We made our trek to Chicago this past weekend for the bf's 50th birthday, and because we all needed some kind of adventure this summer. I have to say it was one of the most fun three-day trips we've ever done.

There was some walking-in-a-cold-rain stuff, and then some waiting-in-line-in-the-heat stuff, but all in all, it was all good. We saw the tall ships come in at Navy Pier, which was really lovely. We did a great architechtural boat tour along the Chicago River. We walked for miles and miles and saw parks and lake views and people and buildings and bridges. We saw the most incredible sculpture any of us had ever seen--Cloud Gate, by British artist Anish Kapoor. Simply awesome from every angle. (One end of it shown in the picture at left.)

We were awed by the King Tut exhibit. It was so well done. Just exquisite, but very crowded. I've wanted to see it since the last time it toured, more than twenty years ago. Lollapalooza, the big MTV-covered music fest, was also going on while we were there. There were thousands and thousands and thousands of rock music fans in Grant Park. The mancub would've killed to be one of them, but at least we got to hear some music while we walked along. He was happy about that.

We ate at a great Spanish Tapas restaurant (expensive, so we were all still hungry when we left and had to get ice cream later ;). But we were eating outside on a shady street amongst cool old buildings on one of the most beautiful nights of the summer, so that was a great evening for all of us. We went through some art galleries and a stained glass window gallery and did a lot of people watching. We walked under fountains and over bridges. We touched all the stones we could each on the Tribune Tower--the walls contained stones and bits and pieces of facade from historical places all over the world and the US. We got to board some of the tall ships, one of which was a reproduction of Columbus's Nina. The last day we found a little international market and bought food and took it to the beach across the street for a picnic. Then walked through the sand and got up to our knees in the cold water of Lake Michigan. And then it was time to come home to our small, green, quiet city.