Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Friday after some lunch, we opted to take a swim in the pool area of the hotel which was a greenhouse type structure on the 4th floor roof that was atop their meeting room portion of the hotel. The water was very warm, and you can see my daughter Raquel, and Livia a granddaughter and also Eric's head in the picture, Raquel's husband. It felt great and was a nice way to relax for a couple of hours.

Jennifer and Crystalie and I decided to go see the Bean in Millennium Park, north of our hotel about 10 blocks. It was set in a huge courtyard, and it stands about 25-30 feet tall, and is in the shape of a bean. It is a stainless steel sculpture, that is polished to a mirror like finish.


With the curved surfaces, all the images our distorted some, but it does give a very accurate reflection people were taking pictures from all sorts of angles around it and even under the center. Which you can see is tall enough for people to walk under it!

It was a pretty cool spot, and had lots of visitors, we found out form a cab driver later in the trip, that they actually move it inside for maintenance during the winter. Probably a through cleaning and polishing.
Our evening plan was attending the grooms diner, at a local bar restaurant called the Rockbottom Brewery and Grill. So needless to say we had to find a way to get there, and one of my brother Neal's friends, Kurt, talked to the concierge about getting a large limo to take us there, and in 10 minutes up pulled this long black limo. $5.00 a piece to go about 2 miles int he city traffic, we pile 14 of us in this limo and off we went.

I took our two granddaughters Livia and Addy with us, also and needless to say they were thrilled. Their first limo ride, they were lots of fun thoughts racing through their heads like of the paparazzi would be there when we got out of the car!

We ended up getting a ride home with the same driver, and we also took his limo to the wedding on Saturday and also on our way home later that night! It was fun travelling in style!

The grooms diner was great and there were about 70 people there, the bride and groom realized a lot of people travelled a long ways and wanted to make sure, we all were part of the evening.

Thanks to Matt and Michelle, and also Matt's Mom Deloris!

We took some time early Friday Morning to do some sightseeing in the area close to the hotel. Below we saw this guy making bubbles in the park and of course he was asking for tips also, so we took a few pictures and some video.

Below is the Buckingham Fountain, located in the park across from our hotel, just across the road from the Chicago Harbor area of Lake Michigan The center spray only happens for about 5 minutes every hour on the hour, and at night this is all lit up.

Below is just one of the many flower gardens, in the park area across form our hotel. Crystalie was inspecting some of the different plants, and getting ideas for back home and Wooden Nichols.

We were only about a 3 block walk from the southern shore of Lake Michigan and the Chicago harbor area, where there were large marina's and also a number of historic sites.

As you can see we enjoyed wonderful weather, clear blue sky's and temps in the low 80's in the afternoon. Below is a metal sculpture of a lily, made from old car and truck parts, it was part of an exhibit that was funded years ago.

You can see the wonderful skyline in Chicago, in most of these pics, and it was really cool to see the contrast of building styles and also the building colors which made an interesting picture.

We ended our sight seeing tour that morning around 11:30 am to see this little guy below, yes Miles Cooper arrived along with Mom and Dad of course...as you can see he was happy to see Grandpa!

We arrived in Union Station around 6:00pm but of course it took about 20 minutes to get outside. Below is the Station sign, which was located a little over 1 mile from our hotel.

Below is a shot of the skyline, I took on our way to dinner with other family members, we walked north on Michigan Ave, to a place called the Artist Cafe, and had a nce supper and visit with family members.

Here is the hotel we stayed at the Essex, it was a nice hotel and the place had some great amenities, and was where most of the family stayed who were here for the wedding.

Needless to say, we were not up real late as we had been up most of the night before waiting for the train. So we turned in early and enjoyed a good nights rest!

Well,as I mentioned in my previous post, we took the Empire Builder to Chicago. Below are some pics of us at Staples, and in Minneapolis, we did have one of my Mom who was with also, but the only picture I have of her is at the Staples Depot, taking a nap while we waited for our train!


Crystalie and I above and my Dad Bill, and myself below.

My daughter Jennifer also joined us and we were a party of 5.

Above is us waiting for the train to arrive in staples, we arrived at 3:30 am to board at 4:09 am, but as with any public transportation it was delayed. 2-1/2 hours later it finally pulled into Staples, we don't know why it was late, but they have an Amtrak App, and I downloaded it about 4:30 am and found out it would sometime around 6:00am before it arrived.

Needless to say this is when my Mom got in her nap. In Staples, no Amtrak employees are there to talk to, when the train arrives the conductors and assistants help you board and check your ticket and give you a seat assignment.

The train ride took about 11 and a half hours, putting us in Chicago around 6:00pm. The ride itself was interesting, we did visit the viewing car, which has more glass, to see through and also seats facing either side. Along with some cafe type dining tables if you bought a snack at the snack bar. The cars all have two levels a lower and an upper, the upper is the coach seating area, and then of course their our sleeper cars, which we did not get.

Crystalie and I enjoyed the viewing car, once we left Minneapolis, and were going south along the Mississippi River. We enjoyed watching the river and Lake Pepin in route to LaCrosse, WI where we crossed over and headed east to Milwaukee and then south to Chicago.

We napped a little bit and we had packed sandwiches,scones and crackers and snacks and some beverages, so we got by without eating a meal on the train. Although my mom and dad did go to the dining car for a light lunch.

Riding the train you see the old side of most Metropolitan cities, as the railroad lines were there for many years as the city grew around them. But it was all very interesting and the trip down all in all was a good experience other than being late.