Chicago: The arrival

We left from Indy at about 945am on Friday. The drive was GORGEOUS...and entertaining, as always. As soon as I saw the first glimpse of anything that even halfway resembled a city skyline, I started snapping pictures. Traffic was a bitch, so in light of that, this is one of the better pictures that I took. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather.

We were lucky enough to score ourselves a four-star hotel on priceline. Originally, we bid on a three star, but lady luck was on our side. There was no indication of where the hotel would be, other than somewhere in downtown Chicago. We took our chances and ended up with a room at The Palmer House Hilton. Which to me was awesome for three reasons: A. because I'd never stayed at a Hilton B. I've never stayed at a four-star hotel and C. it's located in Chicago! Any city that is not Indy, is right up my alley, especially if it's bigger than Indy. The bigger, the better.

I digress. I had to act like a silly little kid and jump on the bed and take crazy photos of myself to celebrate the occasion.



I was being literal when I said jump on the bed.

But in all seriousness, we had to celebrate LOVE in Chicago with an arrival picture:


Of course we didn't want to spend all of our time, holed up in some fancy, shmancy hotel. We had to get out and explore the neighborhood! It was sooo convenient that our room was close to pretty much all of the main attractions the city has to offer. We wanted to be total tourists so we prepurchased tickets for a hop on hop off tour. But before we did jumped on, we had to check out Millenium Park. The first thing that pretty much anyone would notice (when entering from the same point that we did) are these two HUGE fountains.



It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so there were plenty of folks out in the sunshine. Once we got closer, we realized that people were running around in the water, splashing and soaking themselves. There were several groups of small children chaperoned by teachers and parents.









Those of us who didn't want to get soaked, chose to admire from afar. Although, I think Lindsay did get a light misting from the wind!








Next, we moved on to the world famous BEAN! Now, I had seen this in pictures and what-not but I never imagined how intrigued I would be. I'll let the pictures do the talking...


It really was super cool to me. I couldn't stop taking pictures.


This is what you see when you look up in the center of the bean. Kinda trippy, if you ask me.


The BIG picture of the bean.


Clearly, lots and lots of people, but the only one that mattered to me was this special one!


The next place we checked out in the park was this cool ass amphitheater. We learned that they have FREE concerts here all summer or when the weather permits and the venue holds 11,000 people. If you look in the pictures, you can see that there are speakers suspended over the entire lawn. We hear it sounds like being in a concert hall.



This is from the side. I couldn't quit capture how
GINORMOUS
the place is in one picture, so.....











I took another one from the back. Lindsay and I will definately be going back this summer for a show. For a complete lineup of this year's shows visit this link.







A little more exploring and we found some pretty cool art from the students at The Art Institute.
I don't exactly know what the hell this is supposed to mean, but whatever. It was interesting. Especially when you look at the detail in the piggy's nether regions...




And just for the record, this dinosaur had nothin' on me! Well. maybe he does now. HA.














We browsed around a little bit more, checked out some more artwork from the students....


















And decided it was time to find our way to the trolley. But not before this happened:


Yes, that's right. The seagulls of Chicago had their way with my head....

And my shirt. Oh well, at least they got me instead of Lindsay. Apparently, she always gets shit on by birds, hence her pure hatred for the beings. Regardless, it was still a great beginning to what turned out to be the best one-day getaway of my life. More to come!!!!