Wednesday, August 31, 2011

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Saturday Morning in Chicago


We awoke Saturday morning to another beautiful day, after getting showered and dressed, Jennifer, Crystalie and I went to get a coffee at a nearby Starbucks. After that we headed over to the Field Museum of Chicago.

This picture below is an artist creation, located in another park close to the museum, these are cast iron pieces about 8 feet tall, no heads or arms, but half a torso, there were very rusty in appearance, and there was no pattern to how they were positioned. Anyhow kind of different but very noticeable.



We opted for the one feature ticket along with visiting many of the free area's to go into, the feature we wanted to see was on Whales! It was very cool but the area did not allow pictures. The one below of the elephants is a life size replica of two bull elephants in a battle. I took this for my daughter Raquel to see, she has an elephant collection.

 This T-Rex skeleton, was a promo to the T-Rex Sue, which was a featured event, and included a 3d movie  in their I-max theater. I took this one for my nephews Joshua and Jacob!
 Jennifer, pictured below, is in the main hall that separates all the exhibits, the huge suspended balloon is a whale in the background. I think Jennifer was checking out the elephants when this was taken.
We also toured an exhibit about the history of our the America's Ancestors, kind of a chronological history of the population of the America's by the native cultures, it was very informative and had lots of great items to look at. Below is the Aztec carved story piece, this was about 9 ft across hanging on a wall.

We also toured the Gem collection, and Jade collection and we also toured the Field Museum's Botanical Hall, one of the most complete collections in the world. Needless to say the gardener in all of us found this pretty amazing, it had seeds, plants, and history on them, along with uses of the plants. After that I think we all were suffering form brain overload, and decided it was time to leave and get some lunch, and also get ready for the wedding that was scheduled for 4:30pm!

I would recommend a trip to this museum which has an emphasis on the world and the history of man, and the animals that inhabit this planet called Earth!



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Garden Veggies!

Well this is what happens when you don't get to your Garden till 5 days later! As you can see I have a lot of produce here, and Crystalie hasn't even seen it yet.

These were the ripest of the tomatoes, and there will be many more soon, especially if we get a warm sunny weekend like they are talking.



This box of zucchini has a wide mix of different sizes, but there is more to come of those also. The bucket with the green peppers has a few cucumbers in it. I cut off 3 of the red cabbage we grew, before they started to possibly split from being so wet.

Some of this will go to Wooden Nichols, and the rest will be used or given to relatives, I know Jennifer and  Matias would love some of the tomatoes and peppers and zucchini, and a cabbage also.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

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Friday Afternoon and Evening!

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!




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Friday Morning in Chicago!

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!


















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Chicago!

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!



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Riding the Amtrak Train!

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.

Monday, August 29, 2011

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Wedding and Vacation all in one!



I know those of you who follow this blog have noticed, that I haven't posted since last Wednesday, the reason is we went to Chicago to watch our Niece Michelle get married to Matt!


And yes we took the Empire Builder one of the rail trains used by Amtrak!


We had quite an adventure, and there will be lots to see and tell over the next few posts but we arrived back in Staples, MN where we departed from early in the morning on August 25th, and we arrived back in Staples at 4:30am this morning. We didn't get a lot of sleep on the train and therefore we are both dragging, I did work today also, at both jobs and it is time for bed!


Need to catch-up on some needed rest. Good night!