(no subject)

It's getting to be that a day I come home with sore hind paws is a day I know was well spent!

I got in to Chicago about 8:30 and departed Ogilvie Station for points east. It took me 'till about eleven-thirty to make it to Michigan Avenue where I got a sandwich at the Subway behind the Trump building. On the way, I meandered every which way along Wacker, shooting tons of pictures of Marina City, the riverwalk, some of the office buildings facing the river, the movable bridges, yada yada. I investigated the Chicago Bridgehouse Museum. For just three bucks, you get to see the inner workings of the Michigan Avenue bridge and climb the stairs to the top of the bridge house to look out over the street. The whole building is chock full of great vintage pictures and newspaper articles, along with lots of good notes and research from the Friends of the Chicago River. Totally worth it! Looking west along the river from the bridge house.

Let's see. From there I walked over to Navy Pier and traversed the whole length out to where the anchor of the USS Chicago is at the tip. As I crossed over Michigan Avenue, some serious fog was starting to roll in, and by the time I got to Navy Pier, I could barely see the skyscrapers back west of me.

There was a band playing some cover songs that I took pictures of. I got up behind the stage and have a picture of the drummer from behind. They were decent, though loud.

I walked through the stained glass museum (I love that place) and through the shops, where I bought Moira some of that cheese-carmel popcorn she loves. (It's no secret that I love it too.)

I decided to get back west for my train and walked back past the big balloon-ride thing and the Wii-resort that I'd passed on the way in. I made my way to the riverwalk south of Illinois street and went westward, passing some nifty fountains and under Lake Shore Drive.

I then ended up at the Michigan Avenue bridge, where I investigated more closely all the setup that was going on for the upcoming Oprah taping that's happening on Tuesday. I got some neat pictures of everything being set up that I'll be posting to Flickr later on.

Going along Wacker, I passed a man feeding pigeons. A couple women were watching him. One of them would occasionally rush the birds, scattering them into the air. Shortly, they would all flock back to the pavement. I wish I'd taken a picture of the guy who was feeding them.

From there, I walked north across the river and to the Kinzie Street bridge, investigating the abadoned Kinzie railroad brdige on the way. There was another guy there taking pictures of the bridge and we expressed our mutual admiration for the structure. "This bridge is so awesome!" "Yeah!"

*woofs* Finally, I got back to Ogilvie for the 4:30-something train to Kenosha, where I had a microwaved pizza, played with picures, and got to bed to rest my sore paws. I'm still way tired this morning, but at least I only have to be in the city (as opposed to being there 'cause I want to be) one day this week.

(no subject)

I didn't write in any detail about my day at the zoo with moiracoon yesterday!

We got into town about noonish and made our way to the zoo via CTA, with a stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way for food. They have breakfast sandwhichy things now; who knew?

The zoo was fun, and we saw lots of animals including our favorite, a red panda! They are just the epitome of cuteness. I've missed the sea lions both times I've been there now, which is a shame considering that their tank/pool is my favorite of all the animal cages I've seen! Also exuding great cuteness were the penguins and puffins in the arctic birds area.

Possibly even better than the zoo, though, was the walk we took through the Lincoln Park Conservatory. It's a fantasy realm full of strange greenery and intoxicating smells. I don't have my pictures from the day with me, but I'll definitely be posting some of them. It was really neat!

On the way back south along Michigan Avenue, the raccoon and I stopped for Thai food at Star of Siam, a surprisingly reasonably priced place with decent food. My pad thai wasn't awesome, but it was good. From there, we kind of wandered around the theatre district, seeing the Chicago, the Oriental, and the Cadillac Palace. It was a really good time. We even had fun on the train rides to and fro, being cute and snuggly. It was, all in all, just a really great day.

-----------------

Since I don't have conservatory pictures, here are a couple from the Tribune Tower yesterday, a gorgeous neo-gothic structure on the south end of the Magnificent Mile.

Here's a view of the statue of Nathan Hale that stands outside one of the entrances. (That darn overcast sky again!) I think this one would be more interesting if the camera was aiming further down and the flowers were a bigger part of the shot.





And this is a cornice box (I think that's what it's called. It's a sort of open-bottomed box that covers the upper part of a window. If it's called something else, please let me know!) on the first floor that I rather liked.

Unfortunately, it's dark enough in there that the corners of the picture outside the cornice box are blown out.





-----------

My brother's first day of class is today, and he's near enough that I joined him for lunch just a little while ago. That was fun! He gets a free CTA pass as part of his school package. I'm envious! I'm thinking he and I need to hang out late in the city some nights and explore.