Chicago- Part One

I have had the fortune of only being only 159 miles from the city of Chicago. We live close enough to visit friends, family, and my husband's colleagues (other ice sculptors living in Chicago).  This time we ended up in Chicago because we bought a charity package which included an apartment in Chicago for the weekend. (It was a very nice apartment in a high rise and we had an excellent view of the city. Totally worth it just for the parking) So, the first thing we did was visit an ice sculpting studio to drop off equipment, because we needed to do that anyway.



The next thing we did was go to the Art Institute of Chicago. We got there an hour before it closed so it only cost us $10. I have been here before so this didn't really bother me to only see it for an hour. My husband didn't really care either. I wanted to see my favorite painting again, "A Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grand Jatte". It is a very large painting by Georges Seurat. This painting has always been my favorite, since I was a little girl. I wanted to see it. After I did see it, then I wanted to see the Seine (where it was painted in France) and I guess that goes into a rabbit hole of stuff I've done. Anyway, Randy had never seen it.  We looked at it for a few minutes. Discussed the strange little box in the back corner (I said I think it's a TARDIS, Randy said probably not, then we were on our way.)

We went to the Willis Tower next. It used to be the Sears Tower. We went to the top, I could feel it sway. We took lots of pictures on the glass ledge.  It was really cool. When we had to wait in  line there were a lot of questions and facts about the tower. It was an hour and a half wait. The fast pass cuts your time in half, my suggestion, get the fast pass and go on a week day. It was Saturday when we went and of course the weekends are busier. I've been before at night and it was pretty, but I really wanted to go during the day. I hadn't been up since the glass sky boxes were put in and that was really cool. Especially looking out and seeing other people in the other boxes.

We had dinner at a place called "Carnivale". It was really brightly colored and had lots of music and it was really nice. They has some pretty exotic Latin American food. It was pretty tasty.


We also walked around some parks and hung out with the sculptures. It was a pretty good first day. The buses weren't that hard to maneuver and finding a cab to take us places was easy too. I give the public transportation a B+, only because the bus driver tried to take out a taxi that wouldn't let him in. All the regulars on the the bus were kind of shaken up by it, but they also cheered, so I figured this wasn't typical. Please do not be afraid of taking the bus because of this one experience. It was cheaper and surely more interesting than a cab.

The second day we spent shopping in Gurnee Mills. That is nice too. Next we head to Shedd Aquarium and a lot of Museums! That will be in Part two. Forgive me, I didn't bring my camera, just my phone.

Here's where we went:

http://www.carnivalechicago.com/
http://theskydeck.com/
http://www.artic.edu/

http://www.citypass.com/chicago?mv_source=rkg&creative=48663209189&adpos=1t1&device=c&network=g&matchtype=e&gclid=CPnw9_3W1r8CFVIQ7AoduW0ANw