What happens in Chicago...

This week I had an opportunity to go to Chicago for a business meeting. On Saturday, as I was preparing for the trip, I called my mom. The following is a transcript of our conversation:

Erin: "Hey Mom, whatcha doin?"
Mom: "Just sittin' here at Huey's doing laundry."
Erin: "Sorry to interrupt, but I am packing to go to Chicago and I had a question."
Mom: "Chicago? Wow, how do you get all your work done with all your travel?"
Erin: "I manage. Let me ask..If you got a chance to go to Chicago, what would you want to see?"
Mom: "I don't know. Is that the place with the Sears Tower?"
Erin: "Yes, it is. And it has one of the most famous art institutes in the world as well."
Mom: "I would like to go to the Sears Tower. I heard that is the tallest building in the world."
Erin: "It was, up until a new building in Dubai India was developed. But for all principles, the Sears tower is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere. I will visit it for and with you."
Mom: "Ha! that sounds great. Call me when you get there."
Erin: "Will do. Love you!"

Needless to say, Chicago was awesome! I can't wait to go back. As a good friend of mine said: "It's like a clean New York." I totally concur!

Here is a picture of the Sears Tower I took from the street:

When I reached the top of the tower, I called her to describe the scene. I then took pictures of what I saw and described them to her. Needless to say, the view from the "now" second tallest building in the world (over 114 floors above ground) was magnificent and should be a "must see" for everyone. Here are several pictures from different vantage points. My ears actually popped in the elevator on the ride up.

This one is of me looking directly down from the North side of the tower. I had to use the zoom option on my camera to capture the boat:
Facing East as I rose up from the boat. According to the marker at this point, this view spans across 4 states. My geography is horrible so I will let you try to distinguish which ones.
Facing North toward Lake Michigan. I was completely taken away with the Lake. It looks like an ocean. Just over the horizon sits Canada. Here is a shot of a building molded to a similar style as that of the buildings in Marina City. After touring the Sears tower, I decided to wonder around the streets a bit and take in the city. A little people watching proved to be loads of fun as well. One thing is for sure, Chicagoan's love to Honk. Light turns green.."Honk". Light turns red.. "Honk". Guy on the street corner smiles.."Honk". I never once saw the proverbial middle finger associated with a honk, but could visualize it based on the length the author of the honk decided to allow their verb to remain audible. A passenger on the shuttle bus into town warned me, "Stop signs are a courtesy and red lights are targets for pedestrians. You have to out will the drivers to cross the street." Game on.

Here is a shot from the street one block from the Sears tower.
I was trying hard to be tourist but not act too much like one. But I am fairly certain that the camera and Texas A&M sweatshirt kind of gave me away.

One of the most interesting places I stumbled across was the Chicago Board of Trade:

Here is the building that is reflected in the windows from the Board of Trade. I love the shadows from the buildings around it:

Two blocks south of the Trade Center I passed this in the middle of down town: Then there is the food of Chicago. No one can visit and consider their time well spent unless they go to Gino's pizza and have the original deep dish (with the sauce served on top). That and couple of adult beverages, and my first day was complete! On the way, we passed this interesting building. It was built by the same architect that designed Marina City. I really liked how the tree overlaps in front of the building.

On the last day of my visit, I had about 3 hours to kill before my flight left after we finished our meetings for the day. Luckily my hotel was right across the street from the Navy Pier. I had never heard of it, but now consider it one of my favorite destinations.

Here is a picture of Lake Michigan and the Navy Pier from my hotel room:

The front of Navy Pier. I must say this was a very hard picture to take. I actually got blown sideways by the wind a good foot or so while taking this picture.

This is a shot that stretched my camera to its limits. I zoomed all the way in to capture this light house and all the sea gulls. Note how much like an ocean this lake looks like.
Here is a pic of the same light house from the Sears tower:

Here is a good shot of a boat framing the city. I can only imagine how beautiful this would be at night:

A little picture of the "Spirit of Chicago". Check out the windows on the bow. Wish I could have road it out on the lake:

And a close up of the Ferris Wheel.

One of my favorite pictures of the entire trip, here is one I took of an awesome looking office building as I left the pier:
Inside one of the shops at the Pier was a Tiffany Glass showcase. Here are two of my favorite pieces from the display:

Overall this was a very good trip. Not only did I get tons of work done, but I finally had a trip where I got the opportunity to see the city as well. Also, during this trip, my mom received the news that her cancer is continuing to shrink! So she started up her chemotherapy treatment this week. Hopefully, I will get to take her to share some pizza in Chicago in the near future.