i went to chicago this weekend for my birthday. it was good.
i got out off the plane and into traffic just after lunch on friday. took the shuttle to rent a jeep - very nice... drove downtown after being stuck on the kennedy freeway forever. instead of going to the room, my mom and i ate at a groovy outside cafe on st. claire st.
we had reserved rooms in the hard rock hotel but it took a long time to find because their sign was hidden. checked in. looked at some of the rock stuff. very sexy bar. the HRH is in the middle of town on 2nd and north michigan. they charged us $70 to park and tried to fuck us on the rates, but the hotel -as a building... very impressive. we won eventually. the mariner towers were outside my room to the left. i got the 20th floor.
friday evening, we took a 2hr boat ride out into the lake and thru the rivers. i enjoyed this more than the ride around nyc or paris. dunno why, i just did. we had some dinner at at a place close to the hotel.
on saturday... we walked thru all the parks along the shore... got to see a mass herd of segues. [see the pics] and then walked along the shore up to the planetarium.. watched a few films and looked for hours through the exhibits. an astronomy museum. nice. a lot cooler than i thought it was gonna be. spent 20 mins debating on whether or not i REALLY need the 16inch clear inflatable globe of the earth. i didn't get it.
we took cab back and rested and then went out and walked around town for hours and took photos. a lot of photos. note the reverse yankee hotel foxtrot pic. then we decided to drive the jeep around town... up to the planetarium again to take some multi frame panoramas. an INSANE parking cop was screaming at people. i hope he dies soon. or at least breaks something.
at the last minute, we decided to go to the navy pier and ride on the ferris wheel. it just happened that at 12am as we were getting on the wheel... i turned 32 and took a photo. gosh.
on sunday, we checked out and tried for hours to park for the field museum excursion... because the bears game was getting ready to start and parking in the city was impossible.
i fucking hate football by the way. no exceptions. its a waste of time and energy. and its stupid.
but whatev. so it fucked up our morning.. we were in the museum for over 4 hours. got to see the tut exhibit. tut's baby chair. and his golden boxes that held his guts and mummies and all kinds of amazing-ness. then on the other side of the gallery, i got to see pretty much every animal in the world. they are ALL stuffed and on display in the museum. it should be your first destination in chicago. i'm still in awe. note the photo of sue the t-rex. badass.
of course when we got ready to leave... the fucking bears game was letting out... making us almost miss our flight. ...but luckily we made it. a pretty groovy trip. and now i'm really old. pics below... some of them look crappy because i scaled a bunch of these larger. maybe i'll reference back to flickr at some point.
i got out off the plane and into traffic just after lunch on friday. took the shuttle to rent a jeep - very nice... drove downtown after being stuck on the kennedy freeway forever. instead of going to the room, my mom and i ate at a groovy outside cafe on st. claire st.
we had reserved rooms in the hard rock hotel but it took a long time to find because their sign was hidden. checked in. looked at some of the rock stuff. very sexy bar. the HRH is in the middle of town on 2nd and north michigan. they charged us $70 to park and tried to fuck us on the rates, but the hotel -as a building... very impressive. we won eventually. the mariner towers were outside my room to the left. i got the 20th floor.
friday evening, we took a 2hr boat ride out into the lake and thru the rivers. i enjoyed this more than the ride around nyc or paris. dunno why, i just did. we had some dinner at at a place close to the hotel.
on saturday... we walked thru all the parks along the shore... got to see a mass herd of segues. [see the pics] and then walked along the shore up to the planetarium.. watched a few films and looked for hours through the exhibits. an astronomy museum. nice. a lot cooler than i thought it was gonna be. spent 20 mins debating on whether or not i REALLY need the 16inch clear inflatable globe of the earth. i didn't get it.
we took cab back and rested and then went out and walked around town for hours and took photos. a lot of photos. note the reverse yankee hotel foxtrot pic. then we decided to drive the jeep around town... up to the planetarium again to take some multi frame panoramas. an INSANE parking cop was screaming at people. i hope he dies soon. or at least breaks something.
at the last minute, we decided to go to the navy pier and ride on the ferris wheel. it just happened that at 12am as we were getting on the wheel... i turned 32 and took a photo. gosh.
on sunday, we checked out and tried for hours to park for the field museum excursion... because the bears game was getting ready to start and parking in the city was impossible.
i fucking hate football by the way. no exceptions. its a waste of time and energy. and its stupid.
but whatev. so it fucked up our morning.. we were in the museum for over 4 hours. got to see the tut exhibit. tut's baby chair. and his golden boxes that held his guts and mummies and all kinds of amazing-ness. then on the other side of the gallery, i got to see pretty much every animal in the world. they are ALL stuffed and on display in the museum. it should be your first destination in chicago. i'm still in awe. note the photo of sue the t-rex. badass.
of course when we got ready to leave... the fucking bears game was letting out... making us almost miss our flight. ...but luckily we made it. a pretty groovy trip. and now i'm really old. pics below... some of them look crappy because i scaled a bunch of these larger. maybe i'll reference back to flickr at some point.
