Greetings from the Windy City! I officially turned almost old today (old is next year), and to mark the occasion we decided to visit somewhere I'd never been, Chicago. One of the fun parts of having a summer birthday is that you never have to worry about snow ruining your plans. Heat indexes are a different story, decided this year was the year to be somewhere where the 'feels like' isn't flirting with the century mark.
Chicago delivered in that regard, never even got out of the mid-80s today, coolest birthday I've ever had. The city is the third most populous in the country, and the largest city I've ever been to, so some exploring was called for.
Was definitely something to see, more skyscrapers than you could shake a stick at, and a whole mess of people out and about, people-ing. Prime street photography territory.
Wouldn't hardly be right to visit Chicago and not make a pilgrimage to the Haymarket Square. Got to explore a bit of the Riverwalk as we made our way there.
A sculpture stood there in the square, a memorial marking the spot the speaker's wagon had been on that fateful day in 1886. Although we make take the eight hour workday for granted now, that wasn't always the case. If you trace back how that came to pass, it leads you here.
After paying our respects we headed for Lake Michigan. Or at least some sort of bean thing near the lake.
Kept getting distracted by all the architecture, so many neat buildings and fun reflections.
The clouds and occasional rain made things interesting, but at this point that just seems a part of me traveling anywhere.
Think they call this the omphalos. We found the bean and it was shiny! It was definitely the kind of art to put you in a reflective mood.
The Bean wasn't the only art like that, Millennium Park had some other interesting sights to behold as well.
Since we hadn't quite walked enough to get blisters yet, it seemed only appropriate to finish up the day's wandering with a visit to Navy Pier. I'm about to finish up this day with some sleep, but for getting older I couldn't have asked for a better day. Got more exploring to do tomorrow, catch y'all later.