Friday in Chicago was an action packed day! I wish I had a pedometer to find out how many steps we took because I know it was way up there!  We could not have asked for better weather!  The skies were blue and the temps were in the low seventies – PERFECT for what was in store for our day of exploring Chicago by foot!

We started the day with a walk down to Navy Pier to go on our Chicago River Architecture Cruise – a tour through Chicago’s “Forest of Skyscrapers”. 

“The Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings, but this tragedy gave the young city a mission to rebuild on a much grander scale.  Architects flocked to Chicago, eager to be part of the rebirth of a great city.  Their work led to the development of the first iron framed high rise, and then to the invention of the caisson system, which made possible the modern skyscraper.”

We were able to see the famous architecture that rebuilt Chicago into the great city that it is today.  What a beautiful skyline.  I would highly recommend the boat tour! 

Our next stop was a quick bite to eat and then off to Millennium Park – WOW!

The Cloud Gate on the AT&T Plaza  was our favorite!  Here’s the description of it:

“Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor’s first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a “gate” to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.”

A MUST TO VISIT – You will be amazed!

Next stop – yes this is still Friday – The Art Institute of Chicago…

The Art Institute of Chicago has a wonderful collection of art!  We wanted to see Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (the center picture in the top row).  This painting is amazing. Here is why…

 “Using newly discovered optical and color theories, Seurat rendered his subject by placing tiny, precise brush strokes of different colors close to one another so that they blend at a distance. Art critics subsequently named this technique Divisionism, or Pointillism.” 

We found some other paintings that really moved us (the second row). They were Job, Chagall’s White Cruxifixion, and Peter after denying Christ.  I forgot to get the artist’s name on the picture of Peter.  They are not sure who the artist is of the painting of Job. We really enjoyed the Thorne Miniature Rooms display.  We have always been impressed with Hopper’s paintings and purchased a 2009 calendar as well as a print of the Nighthawks. 

Okay, enough art and now on to baseball!  We took the El to Wrigley Field.  What a great venue!

We were quite impressed with the enterprising idea of having bleacher seats and suites atop the row houses all around Wrigley Field!  It was impressive to see all the different features of each location!

We then decided we would w.a.l.k. back to downtown Chicago from Wrigley Field.  That was over 5 miles!  But boy what a great way to see the diversity of this city! My camera battery was pretty much dead and I am contemplating ways of getting around this annoying dilemma! 

On the way back to the hotel we spotted the Rosebud Steakhouse located up the street from our hotel.  What a pleasant surprise this place was! Delicious and the service superb!

“A Rare Steakhouse Well Done”

All during the day we were treated to the different sites and sounds of the Chicago Air and Water Show.  Our night cap was their Firework Show.  This was the first time I saw a firework show that started with fireworks from airplanes and parachuters!  A great end to a great day!

Chicago is one of the finalists in their bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and from what we saw – we could see why!  It is a magnificent city. 

So, we had every good intention of getting more sight seeing in on Thursday afternoon but we and the rest of the tourists were a little distracted by the Blue Angels!!!! They are in town this weekend and they had their practice run today – OH YEAH!!! Most of these pictures are from our room!  We are so excited that we are going to get to see them by kicking back and opening the curtain of the hotel room!  Oh My!

We did get to see some more architecture though…

A wonderful lunch at Rosebud on Rush Street…

And a visit to Navy Pier..

Another day of meetings but who cares.  Today Steve was arriving and we were invited out for a special evening.   I met up with Steve and we did a little walking around …

We then got ready for our evening. 

We were invited to dinner and concert (Grass Roots – the 70’s band – I forgot how many of their songs I knew!) on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building.  The elevator ride to the 95th floor was 30 seconds!  That is fast and boy do your ears feel it!  Here are the views from the 95th floor…

 

There was a little storm that was coming in and we were able to watch it come in! Amazing!  This storm also provided some wonderful sky shots!

This morning I went to some more meetings and now we are off to REALLY explore Chicago!  More pictures to come…

So, I had an earlier than expected start this morning!  As I was going to bed last night at 10pm, I called the front desk for a 5am wake up call.  I was sleeping soundly when at 2am, I received a phone call from the front desk asking, “was your wake up call for 5am or 8am?”  I was still half asleep so I said, “5am” and hung up.  My proper response should have been, “neither, apparently it is for 2am!”  

Needless to say, it has been a long day! Here are the highlights…

Ted Koppel spoke this morning at our general session:

He was pretty funny and had some great stories to tell.  The rest of day was filled with meetings and breakout sessions.  After the meetings, I took the shuttle bus back to the hotel and decided to do some more exploring and think about what to do about dinner since it was a free night. 

Michigan Avenue is a wonderful place to explore!  I got to see some more great architecture.  These pictures are of the Chicago Water Tower.  I love the contrast of the old and the new!

But, the really fun part was taking pictures of these dresses that were placed along Michigan Avenue!

 Each one had a different description. These were my favorite…

Clever, Clever, Clever! 

I was heading back to the hotel thinking I would just order some room service and call it a night.  But, I looked down this one street and saw a sign for Gino’s East and remembered that Hubby had told me about this place.  It’s known for its Deep Dish Pizza.  Well, when in Chicago one must have deep dish pizza! So I indulged!  OH MY!

And that one piece on my plate is all I could eat!  Delicious!  Truly Legendary!

Now I am going to try to get some uninterrupted sleep. I have decided not to ask for a wake up call.  Instead, I will trust the alarm clock in the room! 🙂 Good night all!

The view from the hotel room…

Forced exploring due to the fact that I was ready to take the shuttle to the convention center at 5pm and the shuttle was not going till 6pm – PHOTO OPP! 🙂 

Found a Presbyterian church that had the most beautiful architecture, a fun statue and then headed over to the convention center for the opening event which was dinner and a Sheryl Crow concert.

 

Now it’s time for sleep!  My first meeting is at 7:30 tomorrow morning.