'Field' Day

Despite the noise and occasional shaking from the El I was able to get a pretty good night sleep (about 10 hours!). The only problem I had was getting out of bed because I was in the top bunk and they didn't think to put enough ladders in the room for all the top bunkers (1 ladder, 3 top bunks). Oh well, good thing I climbed trees as a kid :)

I actually didn't mean to sleep so late and barely made it down for the free breakfast they have here. It was pretty decent for such a place: Bananas, cereal, toast, muffins (banana nut and blueberry!) and coffee/juice. I've been trying to drink more coffee lately as a healthier and less caloric replacement for sodas. The only clue that I was breakfasting in a hostel was that I had to wash my plate and cup.

After a quick (and refreshing) shower I headed out for the day. About half a block down the road I tried to take a picture and the camera complained that it couldn't store the image! Whoops, I forgot to pull the SD card out of my camera (stupid Canon and their non-standard camera drivers). I had to head back to the hostel quickly and grab the card. I would've been really upset if I'd gone out and taken a bunch of pictures and didn't have any of them!

Even though it was sunny out, it was surprisingly chilly so I was glad I had a sweater on. I guess the lake really cools things down out here. I headed over to Grant's park which is a short 5 minute walk away. This park lines the shore of Lake Michigan and has a beautiful fountain (Buckingham). I got some pictures and decided I would try coming back at night to see if I could take some longer exposures.

The next stop on the trail was a hot dog stand outside of the Field Museum where I had my first Chicago-style hot dog with the works. It was quite good, the variety of flavors (mostly tangy/bright) and textures kept my palate interested. I washed it down with a cold Mt Dew (the vendor didn't have any beer :( ). The view from the North Side of the museum grounds is quite beautiful, encompassing a majority of the sky scrapers in Chicago.

Since it was the second Monday of the month, today was free day at the Field Museum and I certainly got my money's worth. I ended up wandering from hall to hall for 5 or 6 hours. I started off in this habitats area, then wandered into a mammals area, then some birds, then ancient Egypt, etc... Despite the amount of time I spent there I think I only saw about 40% of the museum! This is something that Slat Lake is sorely lacking. Downtown is basically devoid of any museums: art, history, etc... The U has some museums but they are pathetic to be honest. I guess I got spoiled by the wonderful museums in Dallas. Perhaps that is the one thing I miss about the 'big' city.

After the museum I came back to the hostel to recharge for a bit. I planned out my next trip which was to the Sears Tower observatory. I also needed to grab some dinner while I was out so I stopped at the info desk and they recommended a Chicago-style (deep dish) pizza place. Thanks to the wonderfully central location of the hostel, the tower was only a 10 minutes walk away with plenty of interesting architectural wonders to examine. I've come to the conclusion that I need to make another trip to Chicago and go on some of the walking/bus tours of the city's architecture. Salt Lake has a great walking tour of downtown that you can go on but the scale cannot compare to Chicago.

Sear's tower was great except that the windows must have gotten mucked up during the rainstorm the previous day. Several of my pictures have weird 'spots' on them from this. The view was amazing and I got up to the top just in time to see the sun set. An added bonus is the interior wall of the observation deck has a timeline of Chicago's history including music/architecture/sports/etc... I soak up the history so this was really nice for me. After the sun was mostly gone I tried to take some longer exposure night time shots. For some reason, the shots kept coming out blurry even though I had the camera on a tripod. Oh well, that's the beauty of digital: you take some good, some bad, but only publish the good so everyone thinks you're great. Whoops, I guess I let the cat out of the bag :)

On the way back I stopped at the pizza place, Giordano's. I think I got there just before they closed so I'm not sure how excited they were to see me. There was a big group of LSU kids at the table next to me and I helped them out by taking a picture of the group. I think I remember seeing most of them up at the Sear's Tower so they must have been on the same timeline as I was. The pizza was really good...the best way for me to describe it is that the crust tastes a lot like a pot pie. It's a really filling pizza and I only ate a few pieces. I also had a local beer there...gooseneck I think. Pretty standard wheat beer.

On the way back to the Hostel I detoured to the fountain to see if I could get that long exposure shot I wanted. Turns out it's not really all that lit up at night so that was sort of a wash. My best bet is probably just before or after the sun rises. I doubt I'll get out there tomorrow bc it's late now so I prob won't get up early and I have to be at the Cub's game early to try and get in on the bobble-head action. I did decide to stay on tomorrow night as well so I'll have a shot Wednesday morning before I head out to Ohio.

Well, that's all for now. Lazy pictures again today :)

Chicago
Sear's Tower