Walking Tour

A couple weekends ago, we went on a walking tour with the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  Surprisingly, we really enjoyed it.  I would definitely suggest this to any local or tourist.  I have now been on a boat, bus, and walking tour with this company and all three have been great.  Check them out!

Coolest Park Ever!

Floating Balconies

Architecture

Zoomed in shot of one of my favorite buildings in the city.

Jennifer Hudson at the Taste

City Love

South Loop Traffic Streaks

Pay for Parking

Lots of Buildings

Cloud Reflections

Building sky + beautiful building (Spertus Museum) = beautiful photographs!

Afternoon Walk in the City

Love the colors and textures going on in this shot - 

The clouds were CRAZY! (Please note the beautiful moon that was out at 6:30pm)

Fun Black & White city scene - 

Downtown

Chicago architecture is pretty sweet, huh?

Tourist weekends are back... and along with them... the street performers.

They don't move until you pay... he's pointing towards the bucket.

Good old John Hancock.

The Gorgeous John Hancock Tower

Stats on the John Hancock Center

• 875 North Michigan Avenue
• 100 Story / 1,127 foot / 344 m tall skyscraper
• When the building was built in 1968, it was the tallest building in the world outside of NYC
• It is currently the fourth tallest building in Chicago and the sixth tallest building in the US
• The building is home to restaurants, offices, 700 condominiums including Best Buy, Cheesecake Factory, Jamba Juice, The North Face, the Signature Room, and Aveda.
• Jerry Springer maintains a residence on the 91st floor
• Prior to Chris Farley's death, the two lived in adjacent residences and Farley later died in the building.

Shots from Old Town

I've mentioned before that I think Old Town (one of Chicago's many neighborhoods) is one of the cutest places ever.  Division Street is general thought of as the south border of this neighborhood.  Here are a couple shots from a recent visit.

Intersection of Division & State - 

Pretty crazy staircase, huh?  Hopefully they don't have too many fire drills.

Close up of the Hancock Building and surrounding buildings.

Day 3: Hands

February 3: Hands

Today, rather than going with the straightforward photography of my hands or a friends, I decided to shoot the "hands" on a clock - so what better than the Wrigley Building?  And then I ran into this hand-prominent statue of "Mr. Chicago" aka Irv Kupcinet.  The statue's plaque said - "Irv embodied the city he loved with all his energy and enthusiasm.  In his Chicago Sun-Times column and on his television shows, Kupcinet was honest, accurate and fair, and his commitment to charity was one we should all aspire to match." - Mayor Richard M Daley.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

Christmas in the City

Hotel 71 gets in the holiday spirit.

Marina City residents light up their balconies!

Earlier this month, many of the buildings were lit up pink.  Why pink in December you ask?  Well, sadly, former Mayor Daley's wife Maggie passed away from breast cancer.  It was beautiful to see the city switch from Christmas colors to pink in her memory.

There is this "lightscape" display on State Street right now, these bulbs light up different colors and sing Christmas music, it's kind of wonderful.

Macy's Christmas Trumpets - 

 

Macy's Windows - 

Christkindlmarket Tree on Daley Plaza

Lots of the downtown buildings really get into the spirit with lots of decorations -

This isn't even half of it!  More to come!