Chicago Trip - Day 2

Day 2 – I got up early this morning and walked over to a nearby grocery store - where I found a styrofoam ice chest for 4.99. Needless to say, we called the hotel front desk and asked them to come pick up the $30-dollar-per-day fridge. My mother’s workshop started at 9:00 AM. I went with her to see what it was all about and take a few pictures.

Then I hopped on the train again and rode several stops away towards downtown to see what I could see - because the night before we had passed some really interesting-looking neighborhoods. Well it so happens I got off on the totally wrong stop – undergound, walked out of the station, took about 2 pictures and promptly walked back in and went back to the hotel – because I was meeting Adrianne and her husband Carmine for lunch.

I ducked into my mother's workshop to get an in-progress picture of her workshop.

Adrianne and Carmine picked me up at the hotel and took me to eat Chicago style deep dish pizza which was really delicious.

Then we parked at the train station and took the train downtown. Carmine graciously offered to take Adrianne's and my picture (as he did several more times during the day!) This was the first time Adrianne and I had seen each other in about 26 years! And as she said "but it felt like we picked up right where we left off. Really cool."

We walked all over the place, going to Millenium Park, the Chicago Art Institute
(where Adrianne's son Trey goes) and over to Buckingham Fountain. It was great having somebody to show me around – it just wouldn't have been nearly as much fun all by myself!

Most of the fountains were not yet in operation for the season - when this one is on the water spouts out of the mouth of continuously changing faces:

There were trees and tulips blooming everywhere! It was beautiful:

Blooming trees and sky scrapers - Millenium Park:

This interesting sculpture is officially named "Cloud Gate" but most people just call it The Bean:

Duck and Canadian Snow Geese in Lake Michigan:

I was lucky to be there during the Tulip Festival. Just one shot of many beautiful Tulips:

Here we are at Buckingham Fountain - which unfortunately was not on for the season yet :-(

Not sure why these trees are painted yellow and orange but they look cool:

Like I said before, the blooming trees were absolutely beautiful!

We spent a lot of time in this park:

I love the contrast of this old building with the sleek new skyscrapers behind:

This is the BP Bridge. It curves back and forth over the very busy Columbus Drive. Carmine said they could have just made a straight one - it would have been shorter and cheaper! Ha!

Here are Adrianne and Carmine again:

Adrianne's son Trey got out of school at 4:30 so we met him by the school and all rode back on the very crowded train together.
Here are Trey, Adrianne and Carmine:

I went back to see how my mother was doing and took a picture of her project in progress.

I still had time before dinner so I got back on the train to go to the area that I had tried to get to that morning – the stop is called Damen and the area is called Wicker Park/Bucktown. What a cool place that is! Old, beautiful houses. A great park with a section especially for dogs. Lots of restaurants. A really cool train stop.

These are the stairs out of the train station:

One of many beautiful buildings in the Wicker Park/Bucktown area at the Damen Train Stop:

Cool Old House:

Another Cool Old House:

Yet Another Cool Old House: (this one looks like it is empty and available!)

Still Another Cool Old House:



A shot of the business district:

Cool Building in the Business District:

This is the Damen Train Stop. I was absolutely awestruck with the view towards Downtown. I think I also happened to be there at the perfect time of day.

The tracks:

This building backs up on the train stop. I just love the architectural details:

Here I was trying to get a picture of the sunset while on the train. This is the best one I got:

Back at the hotel:


Afterwards, my mother and I ate a late dinner at the hotel restaurant and got ready for the next day.

Chicago Trip - Day 1

Day 1 – Our flight took off without a hitch. In the air, we saw some interesting clouds hovering over the ground not too far out of El Paso. I figure that had we been on the ground, we would have been in fog!

As we were descending in Chicago, it was a lot greener than I expected.

We arrived at the Hotel before lunch so we went ahead and ate lunch at the Hotel Restaurant. My mother had requested to have a refrigerator in our room but it was not there when we checked in so I called the front desk to remind them. They said it would cost an extra $30 and were we aware of that fact? When I mentioned this to my mother she was not too happy (can you say livid?) because the online site for the hotel says they are complimentary. She talked to somebody at the front desk who said the reason they were charging for them was because of the high demand during the miniatures show. We thought this was totally ridiculous but my mother had brought food and we had to have a place to put it!
Later that afternoon after a nap :), we peeked in on several workshops that were already in process.
That evening, we went ahead and “hopped” on the train (the train station was very close to the hotel) and went downtown to see what we could see. The funny thing was that about 2 stops later we realized that we didn't know the name of the stop where we had started. I looked at the map on the train and figured it out and then remembered that I had taken a picture with the name of the station that we could refer to if necessary.


While on the train we had no idea what stop to take so my mother asked some women riding with us who told us a good place to get off. We got off there and ended up in a sleek new-looking mall. It was very nice but not exactly what we were looking for. While in the mall we did have a delicious cream puff. I had never actually had one before (aside from miniature frozen ones at parties here and there).
After our snack we got back on the train and transferred to the Loop train (which takes a small loop around downtown - hence the name) and rode it around downtown and got off at a couple of stops. One of them was near the Harold Washington Library – there was some beautiful ornamentation way up on the corners and in the middle of the building. We thought the ones on the corners looked like owls, or dragons, but we really couldn't tell. (I found out later that they are owls surrounded by foliage).




By this time it was starting to get dark so we couldn’t see much of anything because the lights were on in the train, creating quite a glare – so we returned to the hotel.


This is the view from the train station right by our hotel. It is in the middle of the freeway!

Brown Belt

Still trying to get caught up here. Jenna has made it to 3rd degree Brown Belt! We are so proud of her for sticking with it all this time.

Spring

When the wind is not blowing, it can really be pretty around here!

Albuquerque - Japanese Garden

We went to Albuquerque last spring with our friends the johnsons for a concert. Lee and Jeremy johnson actually went to the concert on a Friday night. Chrissy, the kids and I all stayed at the hotel. But then we had the whole weekend to do other stuff. So we went to the Rio Grande Botanical Garden, Aquarium and Zoo. It was beautiful I have always loved Japanese-style lanterns and they had plenty! It was a really nice weekend trip.

Green Belt!

yes - this is a bit late. But here is Jenna receiving her Karate Green Belt!