We saw some pretty neat sights while we were in Chicago - some from WAY up high - and others closer to eye level. It was a really fun city to adventure in, I'd like to go back with a bit more adventuring time, there's a lot I'd still love to see.
Our first day - looking out the window - we were in the midst of a cloud. It's actually kind of creepy to look out the window and only see white. The following days - we had much better views. The buildings in Chicago are neat. It's not that old of a city - but it seems that buildings have been kept - rather than just torn down for a new development. They're also REALLY tall! Due to the downtown airport here, there has been a height cap in Edmonton, so it was very unfamiliar to have so many giant buildings.
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| This is one of the views from up where we stayed for the first couple days! |
In 1871 - the Great Chicago Fire burned down a good portion of the city, especially the downtown. I was told it left over a 100,000 people without homes. There are a few buildings that survived - one of which is the Chicago Water Tower
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| It's surrounded by so many other big buildings I couldn't get far enough back to get it all in... |
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| This is from across the street on the other side. I love that it looks like a castle! |
Another one of the surviving building is the pumping station - which also houses Sara's theatre company,
Lookingglass.
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| You can see the Into the Garden poster! |
The pumping station is still functioning in a different area of the building - Sara told me some crazy stat on how many gallons of water pass through there every day. I remember thinking,
Wowza! but the number didn't stick in my head... :)
There was lots of gawk at all over the place. Chicago also seems to have a crazy number of fountains and gardens... some that spit at you, some that look like something magical might happen, many that seem to commemorate something.
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| This garden smelled wonderful! |
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| The face looks at you for a bit and then... |
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Spits at you!
It was a blast to watch the screeching excited little people splashing around! |
Tia and I went for the Architectural Society's architectural boat tour
one morning. The rain threatened, but didn't really fall - which was
great. It was interesting to learn some of the things that makes
buildings look the way they do - like the ones with recessed portions,
because of bylaws or structural issues (like what goes over the
subway/train lines). I would recommend the ride!
I loved all the bits of decoration on lots of the buildings. Beautiful little details!
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| On the Opera House - can you hear him? |
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There are SO many bridges in Chicago - and they seem to all be bascule bridges
(they can be raised up so large boats can pass) so they have these fabulous bridge houses. |
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| Isn't this a massive building? "short" by comparison, but GIANT. |
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| The guide on the boat asked what we thought the top of this building looked like? Apparently some think it looks like a battery, and other think the top of a bottle of champagne. What do you think? |
There were LOTS of cool structures, but I won't make you look at them all, plus some I just looked at. I hope you're having a great day!
peace ~
