Sears Tower

I went to the Sears Tower, which is now called the Willis Tower, on a Wednesday night, which turned out to be very handy in terms of not having to wait in line for up to two hours. The tower itself is 110 stories tall but the skydeck where the tourists gather, is at 103 stories. I walked around the skydeck, reading the tidbits of information and Chicago history around the floor. I browsed the skydeck gift shop, which was very overpriced. I waited for quite some time to get clear views at each window location. Then I got to the Skydeck Ledge. The Skydeck Ledge is a small 'glass' box that edges over the side of the building. There are currently three Ledges with one under construction. Now if you remember my trip to London over a year ago, I got very afraid when we climbed to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. This wasn't that bad though. I stepped out carefully and managed to stand there long enough to get a couple decent shots through the glass and of course, a photo to prove I stood out on the Ledge (the shoes in this picture later got sliced somehow and are on their way to retirement).I then waited for another hour and half or so until the sun went down and I could take some night shots of the city from above it. Turned out to not be the best place or time to take the type of shots I wanted as the visibility was pretty low when I was up top, but I am still happy with the trip up to the top of the Sears Tower.

Michigan Avenue

Michigan Avenue is the major north-south road in Chicago. It is home to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park and the Chicago Water Tower. It also happens to be the place I visited the most during my time in Chicago. This was mainly because it was the easiest place for me to get to as it was literally around the corner from the hotel. It also because Michigan Avenue happened to be incredibly photogenic. I really enjoyed walking the street and since it was populated at all hours, it seemed relatively safe even at night.

Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is absolutely enormous and has some stunning works of art. Some of its more notable pieces include Van Gogh's Self Portrait, Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day and Grant Wood's American Gothic. I did my best to see as many of the notable pieces during the 3 hours of free admission on Thursday evenings, but the place is huge and it seems impossible to get everything in on even a month worth of free nights than on the one that I had to spend there.The exterior of the building is just as breathtaking though. I passed by it several times as I walked around Michigan Avenue and each time I had to stop to take it in.
The Grand Staircase was the first place that I got lost. I guess I misunderstood the layout of the building and I ended up walking around them at least twice before I realized where I was and where the areas I wanted to visit were. I wish I could have spent more time there and been able to take things in better.
Those of you who know me, know how much I love Impressionist art - Monet in particular, so that of course was the first place I tried to get to. I walked slowly through the Renoir room, the Van Gogh room and the various artist room (including Edgar Degas) and then got to a room that made me want to cry - The Monet room. Not only did this collection have the Water Lilies, but it had not one, not two but six haystack paintings. These paintings were created by Monet in the Autumn and Spring of 1890. There are 25 of these paintings and this is the largest number of them I have ever seen at once. As simple as these paintings are, they are my favourite impressionist paintings. One on its own is good but multiple paintings arranged together is so beyond words beautiful.

Millennium Park

Millennium Park is located along Michigan Avenue in Chicago and is the spot I spent the most time taking photos during my visit. It was only about a 15 minute walk from my hotel room and I was able to go there 4 times both during the day and at night.According to the website, it is an award winning centre for art, music, architecture and landscape design. I can vouch for the art, architecture and landscape design, but unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to listen to any of the concerts which take place in the large amphitheatre.It also happens to be the place where I completed my first assignment for my Composition and Design course. The below image is the large mercury orb, which is actually called the Cloud Gate, that was the primary subject for my urban landscape photos. I am unsure as to what the 10 means on the building in the background. The next night, it displayed a 9 so obviously it was some sort of countdown, but I don't know what it was counting down to. I can't seem to find any information about it online either. I think this was my favourite spot in Chicago. It was free and opened most hours and was of course beautiful. Even with the large number of people walking about the park, I was still able to get a great deal of shots with little to no people in them, which is always a big plus in my books. Returning to this location again and again during my trip did limit the number of other locations I was able to go to, but I thought it was worth it.

One Minute Writer #40

What is the last city that you visited, for the first time? What did you think of it?

I was going to write a brief summary Chicago post and then realized that One Minute Writer had started one for me already. I spent this past week in Chicago completing an Asbestos Fibre Counting course (NIOSH 582) for work. The course itself was pretty good, though I had a few problems seeing certain fibres in the beginning but eventually got the hang of it. In the end, I received 100% on the theory exam (simple theory questions and a few even easier math problems) and passed the practical (there was only pass or fail, no grade). There was only one other person who aced the theory exam, and he had to recount one of his slides during the practical, so I guess I got the top mark (If you know me at all, you know this is what I was aiming for).
As the course ran from 8am to 5pm, there wasn't much time to take in the sites of the city, but myself and Kyle, the other DST employee who went, did our best. We walked around Michigan Avenue and I went to the Sears Tower (which is now called the Willis Tower) and the Art Institute of Chicago. I took a great deal of photos, most of which were night photos taken with my new Gorillapod. I was able to finish my photography assignment with ease as the tourism board does a really good job of lighting up the buildings and art in an interesting fashion. I even got a woman's business card while I was taking photos near the Art Institute one night. I wasn't able to see everything, but I got to see some really great stuff and am pretty happy with how much tourist stuff I was able to cram into my business trip (my first I might add).
As usual, I plan on posting my images on my photography blog and a few choice ones here with a little more details about the trip. But for now, I thought Chicago was beautiful, for the most part, and would go back again if given the chance.

Chicago without the Net

I am currently in Chicago for a training course (Asbestos Fibre Counting). I am really enjoying it, more so since I can no do all the components of the course, but have found one flaw - this city has horrible Internet reception at hotels. You either have to pay an arm and a leg for Internet or you get it for free but it is constantly down. I have been able to log onto the net from my hotel for a total of approximately 3 hours. During which I have only been able to talk to Dave through Skype and check my emails a few times. That means that all the planned posts I had (unwritten and therefore not scheduled) were not possible. I will be posting regularly again once I return home, which is tomorrow night, though I am sure it will take me a day or two to get back into it the way I had been recently. For now, all my readers will need to enjoy my previous posts and the few scheduled posts I have, like my features. Thanks for your patience.

Quotable Thursday #3

"Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place." - Billy Crystal.

One Minute Writer #39

What responsibility would you like to forego (without any negative consequences) for one week?

I think the obvious answer here is work. I would love to not come into work for an entire week. Simply put, it would be wonderful.

Quotable Thursdays #2

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Chuck Reid.

Top Content

Through the magic (and sometimes creepiness) of Google Analytics I have been able to determine the Top Content (most visited posts) on each of my blogs. I have put the lists on each blog somewhere near the links section. I hope that this enables readers to catch up on my most popular posts. I also find it kind of interesting and hope that they will change as we go along and I post about newer topics.

Rubber Duckie

Another goodie from Cute Overload, this time in the form of a giant rubber duckie. It was created by a Dutch artist named Florentijn Hofman, who makes all sort of giant wacky art. The duck measures 9.5m tall and 11m long and is travelling around right now, so far he has been to Japan, Brazil and around Europe.

Landscape Poll

I have been given my first assignment in my current photography course - Night and Day Landscape Photography. We have to take two sets of photographs (night and day) in both a rural and urban setting. The assignment isn't hard, but finding a scene that will look just as good during the day as at night (at the same viewpoint) is proving to be troublesome. So I am wondering if a Cemetery Landscape scene could be considered rural. Please give your opinion on the poll on my photography blog. I need as many opinions as possible as quickly as possible - the assignment is due on the 25th. Thanks everyone.

Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze lost his battle to pancreatic cancer yesterday after fighting for over 20 months. He was diagnosed in January 2008 and underwent various treatments. While he was ill, the tabloids blasted images of him post treatments which disturbed me not because he looked sick, but rather because I found it to be a massive invasion of privacy.

Patrick Swayze is best known for his roles in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, both incredibly amazing movies in different ways. He was also a major heartthrob and was named sexiest man alive in 1991 by People Magazine. He was married for 34 years to Lisa Neimi. They were a very devoted couple and it is reported that she was by his side when he passed.

To me, Patrick Swayze will always be Johnny Castle, the dancing instructor at the posh camp who knew how to move and wouldn't let Baby sit in a corner.

One Minute Writer #38

If you were to design a personal coat of arms, what symbols representing you would it include?


A while back, like a couple years now, Chris and I went to the Art Gallery and participated in the children's craft activity which was to design your own coat of arms. I tried to find it and scan it in, but alas, our house is far too messy and unorganized for me to find such a small item.
Anyway, it was pink with purple and gold details and had my initials, a tree and a paint brush on it. There must have been something else as there were four corners, but I cannot remember the last one. Really wish I could find it. I also made one for Dave that mimicked mine. It was blue with dark blue and gold details. Had his initials a plane and two other things, neither of which I can remember. They were really quite cute and making them was really fun.

Quotable Thursday #1

"For any new technology there is alwayds controversy and there always some fear associated with it. I think that's just the price of being first sometimes." - Hugh Grant.

9/9/9

For the last couple of years there have been an abundance of weddings on the dates where all the numbers are identical (e.g. June 6, 2006, July 7, 2007, etc). Today is September 9, 2009 (9/9/9) and it got me thinking - will this trait continue into the winter months? Typically weddings are significantly less frequent in the winter months and I wonder if the appeal of the matching numbers wedding dates will be greater than the standard dislike of getting married in the winter. Any thoughts?

Features

I am trying out the weekly feature thing, you know, where every say Tuesday of the week you write the same type of post. I already have Motivational Mondays going on my Photography Blog (first in this series was Yousuf Karsh) and am now looking to start a really easy one here - Quotable Thursdays. I like quotes and am going to try and find some really good ones. As today is Wednesday, the first in this series will be posted tomorrow. Let me know what you think.

Baby Sloth

Oh my, it's a baby sloth. If sloths weren't irresistible before, they sure are now!! Doesn't it look like he's smiling or something. It also looks like he wants to be picked up, someone should go pick him up.

Groceries

Today Dave and I went grocery shopping for the first time in weeks. To be honest, we had been now and then to pick up this or that, but not a full grocery event and never enough to fill our fridge and/or cupboard. It has been so busy and frantic at work lately, that neither of us wanted to make anything when we got home. We would throw together some basic food and then buy lunch somewhere the next day. Tomorrow I intend on making a few dishes that we could have as lunches throughout the week and hope that I can keep it up.
I don't like spending so much money on food when for at least half the price I could make something myself and probably like it more. I have always tried to think of buying lunch as a portion of my work day. In other words, if my lunch cost 8 bucks and I made 16 an hour, then half an hour of my work day went to purchasing my food. Was the food really worth an additional 8 dollars? This has been my thought since I started working and has resulted in my usually only buying lunches once every week or two, with the exception of the past few months of course.
Hopefully we will be able to stop buying so many lunches and save some of money and put it towards something useful - not sure what that is though.

Lost in Austen

Lost in Austen is a BBC miniseries that has been airing on TVO lately. I watched it for the first time when Dave as in Toronto for work and watched it again when he was in Brockville for work. Well, to be honest, both times I have watched it, I have only actually seen the third installment of the four part series. It is basically Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, with a twist. The main character is a modern woman who absolutely loves the Austen novel. During a somewhat peculiar time in her life, she ends up trading places with the heroin from the novel, Elizabeth Bennett. She then spends the rest of the show trying to fix the plot of the novel, but inevitably and quite predictably, messes it up even more.

I know it sounds slightly cheesy and ridiculous and some even say blasphemous as it is messing with such a popular book, but it is a really charming story with great actors and witty writing. Since I had only ever seen the third part, I decided to buy it from Amazon.ca and am so happy I did. I ended up staying up very late the night it was delivered watching this really great British romance. I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves that period of book or movie.