Smurfit-Stone Building in Chicago

Millennium Park

July 2

Following the Art Institute of Chicago, we then met up with Kevin (Jess's cousin-in-law). He took us to Grant Park, where A Taste of Chicago is going on. I saw a lot of different types of food, ie collard green egg rolls. And there were a lot of people.

We walked to the lake shore and it was vast, with a lot of boats and people enjoying the beautiful day. The city is on Lake Michigan.

There was a nearby park with troughs in the ground where sweaty residents and tourists alike were bathing their feet.

Beyond that, we went to the Millennium Park - a 24.5 acre park with various interestingly-shaped sculptures including what one museum employee called the Jellybean. This was a tall, wide, metal, silver sculpture which reflects the skyscrapers and people nearby. It's actually called Cloud Gate and was designed by Anish Kapoor. This is near a pavillion with a metal, criss-crossing, open air roof which offered fun opportunities of city photos.

On our last trip, I was disappointed we weren't able to go, so I was happy we went this time around.

This part of the park has origins from 1998 when the city wanted to add to Grant Park to cover some old railroad tracks.

We had a good vista of the city from here and Kevin, an architecture fan, explained how one feminist architect had designed one of the city's buildings to look like a vagina, since most buildings are phallic-looking. Upon further research, I found this urban myth had unfortunately been debunked but it still makes for an interesting looking structure.

While there, we also started to hear A Taste of Chicago's finale with Rob Thomas.

From here, we took a taxi to Pizzeria Due. This was the first time I had seen a credit card machine in a taxi. I don't take taxis often, so they may have been around for a while but I'd just never used one. I thought it was very inventive and high-tech.