i visited chicago for the first time last weekend. my interest in chicago first came when i heard about the cloud gate sculpture located in millennium park. the cloud gate is a giant mirrored bean shaped sculpture which mirrors a distorted image of the sky, ground, and skyline of chicago all at the same time. the sculpture was just as grand as i imagined and even after touring chicago for the entire weekend, i still think that it’s my favorite part of chicago. i loved watching the intrigued kids and tourists stare at their mirrored images.
i wish we were able to make one more visit to the cloud gate to see the city reflected at night. we tried to go, but the park was already closed by the time we got there.
the other fun part of the park was the crown fountain, which has two large moving face fountains that occasionally “spits” water at the children running around below. i love the concept of the park and all its gorgeous art and architecture.
friday night, kelvin and i picked up his uncle from the airport and wandered around the city. we ate at uno’s for some delicious deep dish pizza and stopped at nordstrom’s on michigan ave. to purchase a coat because it was so cold.
the next day, we visited the lincoln park zoo. the zoo was very different from zoo’s i’m used to since most of the animal exhibits were inside “houses”. a lot of the animals that had outside exhibits were inside for the day because it was too hot for them. i imagine it must be really hard to maintain a zoo in chicago with such a drastic weather change from season to season. my favorite was the bear who was sleeping with her tongue out. i later learned it was because she had jaw surgery that resulted in a protruding tongue. still cute.
later that night, kelvin’s uncle took us on the chicago spirit for a fireworks dinner cruise off of navy pier. every saturday night in the summer navy pier puts off fireworks. the fireworks were really fun to watch from the boat, and i couldn’t stop staring at the city at night. all the windows in the buildings glow like stars against the darkness of the night.
the next morning, we had brunch in the signature room at the top of the john hancock building. the view of the city and lake michigan was amazing, and the breakfast buffet was absolutely delicious.
we paid a quick visit to the famous chicago sign on the chicago theater and headed over to the willis tower (formally known as the sears tower).
the wait was two hours to the top of the sky deck. they recently added a protruding glass room lets you viewing the city from a birds eye view. i was terrified to step onto the ledge at first since i’m really scared of heights, but i decided that i didn’t wait two hours to wimp out on stepping on the glass bottom floor.
proof that i stood on the ledge
before we headed to the airport, we made a stop at the wieners circle for some vienna beef hot dogs. they were delicious! i ate so well last weekend. i was sad to leave chi-town, but i think it’s for the better since chicago is making me fat!
