Chicago !!!

Ok, so I have a new city to add to my list of favorites. Chicago. It was fan-freaking-tastic! My only complaint is that even with the crazy pace that we kept we still missed way more than we saw.



I'm sure that other people have posted pictures of the city before and they're all probably wayyyy more knowledgeable than I am so I won't even try to play tour guide. Instead I'll share some of the stuff, actually a bunch, that I found interesting or made out trip special. If you're still interested then you can go here to find the rest of the set of vacation pictures I took.

I took this picture at the Shedd Aquarium but I could just as easily have taken it when we were in Mystic last May. It's one of the same Beluga Whales that we saw then. It turns out that the Shedd was undergoing renovations and had temporarily sent their whales to Mystic to stay safe and about 2 weeks after we saw them in May they made the trip home to Chicago.



There was an air and sea show that started just as we were leaving town. We had a killer view of the city from our hotel room on the 31st floor of a building just south of the city. We could see Lake Michigan and the whole city. We could totally have watched the show from there but as the ar show was starting at about 10 am on Saturday we were closing the door and heading down to pack the car and head home. Srsly bad planning.

At least we got to see them practicing during the week. We'd be walking down the street or sitting in a tour boat and suddenly you'd hear the sound of jets, look up, and there they were.



We did see many of the participants though since it seemed like they were all staying at our hotel. They were easy to spot in the lobby wearing flight suits and pulling roller bags with cases of beer propped on top. Party on dudes!

One thing that worked out really well for us was that the Harry Potter Exhibition was in town when we were there. It's only making 4 stops in the US and DC is NOT one of them (Boston is though) so if we hadn't caught it in Chicago it's unlikely we would've seen it. The girls loved it. That's the flying car from the movies that they're posing with.



We all got to see many of the props and costumes from the movies up close. Is it any wonder that Stinkette was inspired to watch HP movies on most of the ride home?

One of my biggest regrets is that there was so much in the museums that we left unseen. Any one of them would take a ful day and more to cover completely. We just had to choose a few exhibits in each to see in depth and hope that someday we'd get back to see more.

And I didn't even stop at ANY yarn stores during the WHOLE trip. None! I did knit a lot and I tried to stop at a yarn store but we were just too busy. The closest we got was when we stopped at a visitor center and I asked for directions to one shop. When I concluded that it just wasn't going to work out the volunteer there helpfully tried to explain to me that I could look the shop up on the internet and order online... as if I didn't know that could get yarn on the internet! Hah! As if! I didn't even try to explain it to him.



In an effort to cover as much ground as possible, we took tours by bus and boat. During an architecture tour on the Chicago River I got a good look at the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower). Check out those glass boxes with the people inside. No way I'd get in one of those. No way!

One of our last stops on our way out of town was FLW's Robie House on the University of Chicago campus. Isn't it wonderful? Look at those cantilevered roofs!



It's very close to the Obama's house. We went to go take a look but we didn't stop. There were very stern looking officers around it and we weren't messing with them at all. Besides. there's a big hedge surrounding the property. We could see a bit of the house and a basketball hoop through the hedge.