Friends Visit in Chicago

I had a nice weekend with friends from Michigan! Dale worked on Saturday so he didn't get to go to the park. Here's a glimpse of the weekend festivities:

Introducing Miss Maggie! This was my first chance to meet my dear friend Heather's baby girl and it was very exciting! She's quite a sweetheart and very well-mannered.

And here are the proud parents! Heather and Ryan. They are standing in front of the "bean"--a neat silver sculpture in downtown Chicago.

And there's the rest of the clan! That's Brent & Cindy and little Isabella--not even two years old! I had them stare into the bean! Ha!

Cindy and her son, Benn, play in the reflecting pool at the Millenium Park right next to the bean!

Benn was a little cranky in the big city but his mood improved when we got to the reflecting pool. It's a great place to people watch and to get your feet wet.

Or, if you're anything like Benn, you'll get your whole body wet when the fountain turns on!

Auntie Ree helps little Isabella. She was fascinated by the water and it was very cute. She seemed to take the reflecting pool quite seriously! She meant business.

Hey! Who's the huge dork doing a self-portrait? That's right, as usual, it's me.

Museum of Science & Industry Part 3

The Museum of Science & Insdustry has a massive model train set-up that shows how important rail is to the region and how it connects Chicago to the rest of the country. From the balcony, near the Boeing 727 exhibit, you can see the plane flying over the little city below. Too cute!

At street level the scaled-down Chicago is adorable!

Look at it! It goes on for miles. There are many landmark buildings and it gives a flavor of typical Chicago neighborhoods.

See the blue windows on the left side of the street? Those are meant to represent this building, which I talked about in this post!

Another shot of downtown Chicago! Trains are a very important part of life in Chicago. It sure makes it easier for us to get around.

We live on the Green Line. The trains represented in the Chicago model include the Green and Red Lines!

From the city, the trains spread out to the countryside, showing unusual terrain.

Trains move through the farm land! I LOVE this picture. It looks so charming and tiny!

From the balcony we got a shot of the spectacular bridge that separates the two sections of the model railroad.

Finally, we end up in Seattle! Isn't this cute? I've been to Seattle and it looks just like this! Ha!

Next time we go, I'm setting up the tripod and taking pictures of Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle! That was pretty awesome. Check it out here.

Museum of Science & Industry Part 2

In the Toy Making factory, you can watch a toy--called the Gravitron--as it makes its way from assembly to packaging. You can also have yours customized (we picked the name Monty but don't tell the other cats).

The museum of Science & Industry featured a huge selection of robot toys and a couple of bonuses--like the robot above. It's a Sentinel featured in the Matrix movies. Weird!

This is a model of a submarine launching a missile! Dale loved it because it was in plastic and the missile has cotton wrapped around the base to simulate the foam of the water. It was a neat little model.

The petroleum exhibit had a small room that illustrated the refinery process. Dale though the bubbles were neat!

Another great interactive opportunity! Dale got to ride a segway for the first time. He was super excited though the guide gal was a bit over protective.

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Part One

We had a pretty fabulous day at the museum today! So fabulous that I'm going to break it up into pieces because I love the pics so much!

First off, I think Body Worlds was really amazing. It was a startling exhibit that I enjoyed but also found disturbing. I was doing really well until there was a man sliced like a loaf of bread. And he had a face that had skin on it! Very unsettling. At any rate, I think if you're curious about the human body at all it's very well worth seeing. Bonus is that the entire thing was created by a totally mad scientist named Gunther who wears a black hat at all times. Very odd.

The museum is a great day-long activity! What a huge place filled with scads of interesting exhibits! One of my favorites is surely the chicken hatchery. Dale took these great shots to show off the exhibit:

There are two pens in the hatchery. The first is where the eggs go when they are 21 days old. This is when the baby chicks finally break on through the shell with their special egg-shell breaking beak! The exhibit helpfully puts one of the eggs under a magnifying glass, as you can see above.

Click on the pic above to get a closer look at a tiny beak poking away at its shell! So bitsy!

There were three new chicks milling about during our visit. It takes the little guys about 10 hours to bust out of the shell so they are tired when they get out. They kind of just hop around lamely squeaking like crazy.

They are very curious right from the start and they poke around, looking for food or momma or something and then they get tired and rest for a bit. Once the chicks have made it through the shell and have chilled out in the cage for a few hours they can graduate to the next phase...

Baby chicks can start to eat grain about 24 hours after they are born. So they are moved to the incubation housing next door where they eat and frolic with the other new chicks until they are moved to a farm or something. The museum hatches birds that were facing extinction and helps boosts the population of three different birdies.

How insanely cute is this little guy? Why does he have to grow up to be an ugly chicken? I swear, I'm eventually going to be vegetarian because animals are just too cute to eat!

Flashback--Easter!

I realized today when I transferred my camera card to my computer that I never posted our Easter picks. We're not the most religious folks but it sure was nice to spend the holiday with our friends Lara & Tony and their families. Incredibly sweet and generous folks! THe picture above is Lara and her mom in Lara's dining room.

We had Polish feast that included sausage, sauerkraut, ham, salad and other goodies. All of it was exceptional! And Tony's clever way of getting rid of the leftovers while cleaning the kitchen was awesome. Look at all the baggies of goodies. We took home more than our fair share for lunch the next week.

Lara and Tony have the infamous Christmas Story leg lamp! It's fragile! And so very beautiful!

Tony's mom makes a lamb cake every year. It's awesome. And it has raisins at its butt! Haa! Anyway, I was fascinated when she told me she uses a cast iron mold that belonged to her mother. I, of course, searched for the pan on ebay and it sells for like $100. It's pretty rare, I guess! Neat!

Another great dessert treat were the fantastic bird's nest/peep cupcakes! Wow, were they neat! And delicious!

Body Worlds 2

We're going to see Body Worlds 2 tomorrow morning and I'm a bit nervous. I've heard that it's really fascinating but I'm a bit squeamish. Not that I can't handle seeing displays of human anatomy but this isn't just a display! These are actual bodies and actual bones and skin and muscles and tissue and eeeeek!

The above picture wigs me out a bit and that's just one thing! Anyway, we're heading to the Museum of Science and Industry for the first time so it's sure to be a full day! Dale's been wanting to go for some time!

More City Photos!

Things have been pretty quiet around Casa D&B! Nothing too exciting. Dale has been picking up photography assistanting gigs (which is pretty exciting in and of itself). I've been crazy insane busy at work, editing all of the company's 2008 calendars.

Dale went downtown today because he's building his architectural portfolio. These are a couple of the shots he considers "keepers" from the day! Above is a church on Michigan Ave. He didn't know which one but it sure is pretty, no?

Some huge-normous buildings along the river. Dale said he walked for miles and had an enjoyable day.

This is his favorite photo from the day downtown. I like the twist of shadows and the city in the background. Dale said he had to wait quite awhile for the sun to peek out from behind the clouds.

Sunday in the Theater District

Dale and I went for a long walk around Chicago's theater district that culminated in a trip to the public library. We found out Chicago's public library is the second largest in the world, behind London's public library. The photo above is the main rotunda!

This is the top floor of Chicago's Public Library. It's a beautiful space that can be used and rented out for private events. It's quite spectacular.

This was a controversial building when it was built as it was very modern and stood in stark contrast to the surrounding buildings. Check out the super-modern sculpture front and center.

A lovely shot of the front of the Opera House. It was a windy day but we saw lots of pretty buildings and sites.

A statue that sits in the courtyard area of the Chicago Board and Trade.

Oooh! Pretty door! That the Chicago federal reserve something or other. Hee! They have a money museum! Isn't that odd?

This is an electricity substation with a very strange art deco architectural flourish!
Pretty building.

Downtown Chicago.

Theater district McDonald's--very fancy!

Theater district.

The Color Purple is showing downtown.

Dale's Field Trip to Chicago

Dale had to go downtown and decided to make a day of it. He tooks some shots around town that he didn't think were portfolio pieces but he did like them enough to share with friends and family.

We love to take the train into the city. It's the only way to travel.

A spectacular view!

I think this is the new Trump Tower now complete. Dale disagreed but I am going to over rule him. Haa!

This is what like to call the artichoke amphiteater. At the time it was built, it was the most advanced acoustical space for an outdoor venue to date. That's what I heard anyway.

Freaky sculptures located in a downtown park. The entire waterfront is devoted to public space! It's really spectacular. Dale liked these freaky monster feet guys.

To give you some perspective, these babies are BIG.

And there are A LOT of them.