Chicago Trip - Day 3 - Part 1

My mother was off to Day 2 of her workshop so I walked with her up to the classroom and then I pretty much had the whole day free again. Adrianne picked me up to drive me around to places that were too far to walk to the day before. While waiting for her, I got a few pictures of blooming trees on the hotel property.

Before heading downtown, Adrianne took me by to show me her house. On the way we passed this interesting church. I have since learned that it is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church - named St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Church. I has a 13 domed roof with 12 domes symbolizing the 12 apostles and the largest center dome symbolizing Jesus Christ.

Once we headed east towards downtown I really enjoyed seeing the Chicago skyline getting nearer and nearer!

There's the old Sears Tower – now called the Willis Tower. I had to take 3 pictures to get the entire thing!

There were some glass balconies recently added way up on the 103^rd floor. Not sure if I could bring myself to go out on one of them or not!

I zoomed in to see the glass balconies:

Luckily, Carmine got finished early with a downtown appointment so we picked him up right after we got there. We had just driven around a little while more when Adrianne’s son, Trey, called and said he had gotten released from school early. So we picked him up too. They drove me all over the place - by the McCormick Center, Soldier Field and we even ventured into a part of the Southside where they have torn down some projects and are trying to revitalize the area.

How would you like to have one of these parking places located right inthe heart of downtown?:

Here is a pretty cool looking modern skyscraper:

View looking up out of Adrianne's sunroof:

This building was in one of the Batman movies:

I like how this old building was preserved when they built the new one on top of it:

There were several big clocks in downtown. Here is one of them:

Here is another side of the Library my mother and I had seen from the train station the other night. From this angle you can tell that these are definitely owls:

When I got back to work after my trip, my friend Jenny asked if I had seen the buildings that look like corn. I knew exactly which ones she was talking about:

This is the famous Chicago Water Tower on Michigan Avenue (the magnificent mile): I believe it was one of very few structures left standing after the Great Fire.

Here we had headed towards the southside. These are some "projects". I ha always heard bad things about projects but these actually look pretty nice to me:

More southside:

Here is an old church down there:

Detail from old church:

Here is Soldier field. The last time I was in Chicago (1999) that big new structure had not yet been plopped in the middle of the old structure!

Here we are passing multi-million dollar condos located right on the waterfront:

Next, we headed up north to Evanston, the town where Adrianne said she would really like to live. It is a really nice, quaint town right on lake Michigan. It is also home to Northwestern University and Loyola University:

I really liked this window? door?

We ate Spanish “tapas”, which I had never eaten before.

I got a good picture of Adrianne and Carmine:

I tried to get a picture of Trey but the background was too bright.

Then we walked around a bit in the small downtown of Evanston.

In the downtown area I noticed several overhangs like this:

And like this:

Adrianne and I knew Carmine and Trey did not get enough to eat at the Tapas restaurant so we decided to eat again – this time Adrianne and I split an Italian Beef Sandwich and Carmine ate the fries. Trey had a full meal – hamburger, Fries and soda. I had never had an Italian Beef Sandwich before.

Look closely at the "B" in "Beef":

There's a bird in it!

I just liked the look of this fire truck so i took a picture of it!

We went back to the beach where some construction work was being done – who knows what they were doing. Possibly in the future if I ever get back, I will see!

We also saw a dog beach – where the dogs can run free and play.

Here Adrianne and I are again courtesy of Carmine:

Adrianne was smiling all pretty and look what the mischevious guys were doing:

Then we headed back and they dropped me off at the hotel. All in all it was a wonderful day!

Now I was ready to head off to the 1st of 3 miniature shows with my mother - the 3 Blind Mice Show.

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.