Chicago, IL.

I finally faced the 118 pictures I took one day in Chicago and narrowed them down to these fourteen that, for whatever reason, seemed best for the blog. I might upload the rest of them to picasa at some point. Some are decent; none are spectacular, regrettably.

Arwen and I took advantage of an absolutely beautiful July day to take the riverboat architecture tour in Chicago. I heartily recommend it if you ever come to visit me and the Windy City.

We sat on the top deck and listened to Judith, our docent, talk a little about the architecture and history of the buildings around us. I wish I could remember everything she said. Prairie style, modernism, neo-this, and something-that, are all scrambled in my mind. I do remember that modernism came over from Europe.

But I couldn't tell you if this building is an example of modernism or something after that. I'm pretty sure it's mirrored glass, which has become quite popular. Sometimes people get upset when a new skyscraper is built up to block their view, but actually with mirrored glass they end up getting a different sort of view of other buildings too. This building reminds me of the Flatiron building in NY, if perhaps not quite as cool.

This is Trump Tower.

We had Jersey fresh corn on the cob for dinner tonight, incidentally.

This might be a cool place to live, so long as you could remember not to throw stones.

This green building is one of my favorites. It's called the Knife's Blade, and it was designed to follow the contours of the river. You can't tell so well in the picture, but it's also the same color as the water. There's a special word for buildings that built to blend into their natural surroundings, but of course I can't remember what it is.

This is a rather odd perspective because 311 S. Wacker Drive is nowhere near as tall as the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower).

This might be my favorite building in Chicago, the Tribune Building. It's so pretty.

a picture of Arwen, finally.

Measure once; curse twice. I'm worried about this building.

Arwen had to take the train back for an evening shift, but I stayed in the city and was joined by another roommate, Ruth. Just for the heck of it we took a ride on a water taxi.

We bought a ticket thinking we could take the water taxi to Chinatown but turns out that's only offered on weekends. So we headed elsewhere, bought a cta pass and traveled to Wicker Park to visit a good used bookstore and used record store, some overrated and overpriced thrift stores, and an ice-cream place. Then we made it to Chinatown for dinner, and a quick poke around a Chinese grocery. That's the place to get dried octopus, if you're ever craving it.

And a train ride back was the end to a Very Good Day.

Posting a whole slew of pictures on my blog always makes me feel almost guilty. And then I scan my blog and see that my last picture-less post was in June. Oh dear. Uploading something worth a thousands words and leaving it at that seems a bit of a cop-out when part of the point of this blog was to turn me into a better thinker and writer.

Perhaps my readers are more forgiving than myself?