Sunday, October 21, 2012

Chicago

After a week in Florida, I flew to Chicago to spend a week with my younger son Ian and his fiance Corey.  On the last day of my week with them, we took the train downtown and spent the day walking Chicago.  I lived outside of Chicago (not far from where Ian is living now) in the late 70's and early 80's, but I haven't been back in years.  Maybe 1990?  I can't remember.

Obviously, a lot has changed since I was there.  We decided we were going to visit the Shedd Aquarium, and walked there from the train station.  At times, I felt like I was walking through an urban slot canyon!



We walked over the river more than once on our journey through the city.


I'm sure I embarrassed Ian multiple times looking like a tourist with my camera!

I loved the view of the city from the aquarium.  I could never live in this huge city, but the waterfront there is beautiful.


A nice gentleman offered to take a picture of all three of us at Buckingham Fountain.


Just across Lake Shore Drive from this park, we stumbled into an urban garden.  I found it fascinating.



And, I loved stumbling onto urban art as we walked around.  At first I thought this was the plaza in the last scenes of the Blues Brothers, but Ian informed me otherwise.  The building is a post office, not the Chicago city offices.  Oh well, I like the sculpture anyway!!


My favorite urban sculpture, however, was the Bean.






The 'views' of the city in the Bean were fascinating.  I now have quite a collection of city pictures, which I'm sure will provide plenty of inspiration for future quilts.

We were exhausted after walking the city the entire day.  It was nice to be able to sit back on the train, and let someone else worry about driving back to the suburbs!

3 comments:

Rian said...

Fun! Loved The Bean as well as the rest of the urban art. I haven't been to Chi-town in many years--it's a great city.

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

My daughter and I want to get to Chicago soon as to avoid the cold cold weather. I hope to see some of these sites too. Love that bean!

Vicki Miller said...

I agree, it is nice to visit the big city and see all the wonderful things, but I bet it's nice to get home again to a slightly slower pace!