The Out-Of-Towners

This past weekend, I played tour-guide to some nice folks visiting from Texas. Frankly, it was quite an eye-opener for me in many ways, for most of the things we saw and did were things I’d never done before.


I’ve lived in Chicago for ten years and haven’t been to the Sears Tower until now. (Yes, it’s the Willis Tower, I know.) Here’s a photo I took, looking through the glass floor, 103 stories down.

What an incredible experience!

Every day, I walk across the Chicago River and barely notice the tour boats. We took the river tour that also went out into Lake Michigan. Oh my goodness, what a great skyline Chicago has! Who knew?

As the boat was waiting to go through the lock (a lock? There’s a lock between the river and the lake? I didn’t know that.) a mommy-duck and six baby ducks came swimming up to our boat. Sooo cute.

I had some Sun Chips with me and began feeding them to her – she liked the cheddar flavored ones – and a seagull swooped down. In a flash, that little mommy duck’s protective instincts kicked in and she bolted two feet up out of the water, snapping at the seagull. Quacking and squawking ensued. The seagull flew off and is probably afraid to venture any closer than Gary, Indiana now.

By the way, I get seasick at the drop of a hat and managed to get pretty queasy on the lake tour. Maybe I shouldn’t eat cheddar Sun Chips while boating.

I had never been out to eat Chicago deep-dish pizza before – only had it delivered.

Even though the Cloudgate sculpture (The Bean) is across the street from my workplace, I’d never been inside of the darn thing. It was really impressive.

I probably haven’t been on the roof of my apartment building in over a year. I took them up there and the full moon was shining across Lake Michigan. What a sight!

I should go up there more often. It’s really pretty.

I really should get out more. How many nights have I had deep-dish pizza delivered and sat at home watching the Science Channel? With the blinds closed.

Who knew this was such a fantastic city to live in?

I definitely need me some more out-of-towners around here. . .

Driving in Chicago

I recently saw a list of The Ten Most Difficult Cities to drive in and Chicago was on the list.

I will readily concur with that.

Besides being the third largest city in the country, there are three things that make Chicago challenging to drive in:

1) The EL
2) The Chicago River
3) Bullets flying through the air.

Okay, I made the last one up.

First of all, the EL: A driver must be able to NOT crash into the EL supports which are huge, steel beams embedded in the middle of the busiest streets. Merging from one lane to another is difficult enough in downtown traffic. But Chicagoans have to contend with giant I-beams sticking out of the street, none of which have any markers. They’re just there. Thousands of them.

Next, the Chicago River winds its way through downtown and has 25 drawbridges crossing it.

These drawbridges have to be a certain height above the water, thus causing the need for a tangle of double-decked streets on either side.

Double-decked streets are confusing enough, but actually, there are numerous triple-decked streets to negotiate as well. The top level will cross the river over a drawbridge, the lower level is for through-traffic on either side and the lowest level is for delivery access to basements of the big buildings.

For example, here is a triple-level intersection of Stetson Avenue, Lower Stetson Avenue, South Water Street and East South Water Street. (South Water Street runs east and west – got that?)

With the maze of lower-level streets, it’s really difficult to tell where you are since you’re unable to see any buildings as reference points. GPS devices and cell phones don’t work on the lower levels, so you really have to know where you're going. One wrong turn, and you’ll be down there for hours, eventually ending up in the basement of the Sears Tower.

Here’s a handy, utterly confusing map of triple-level streets for you.

Then, when you do finally make your way up to the upper level, BAM!
You’ve crashed into an EL support.

So, here’s some advice if you’re ever traveling to Chicago:

Use the EL.

Green Morning Scene

The Chicago River is sporting its green-ness in honor of St. Patrick's Day --

Definitely a High Holy Day for Chicagoans.

Morning Scene - Chicago River

Winter is definitely here in the Windy City as evidenced by the freezing of our Chicago River.

The winterized river is so remakably different from the summertime with all its tourist boats buzzing up and down.

For the next couple of months, it'll remain cold, silent and grey.

Night Scene - Fireworks on the River

About 9:30 on Tuesday night, there was a fireworks display right below my balcony on the Chicago River. This is the second year that this has taken place and no one seems to know what it's for. Both years, it has taken place on a non-eventful Tuesday night.

I took a short video of it this time.

Click here

Morning Scene - Icebound

It looks like the boats at Marina City won't be going anywhere soon.

Here's the Chicago River this morning:

Springtime in Chicago

There was still a chill in the air on Saturday morning (May 17) but it was such a lovely, Spring day that it brought out this cute little sailboat brigade down the Chicago River.

I heard the bells begin clanging which only means that they're about to raise the drawbridges. Then, here came all these little sailboats.

In order to keep traffic moving, only one or two drawbridges are opened at a time. The sailboats all scurry past the bridge and then float around in circles waiting for the next one to open up.

It's kinda cute. Here they are waiting for the bridge right under me to open up.

And, finally it opens and they all scoot through on their way to Lake Michigan

There you have it. A typical Saturday morning in downtown Chicago.

Chicago on Ice

Lake Michigan always freezes over every winter, but for some reason it's pretty rare for the Chicago River to freeze over.

Here's a pic of it while I was walking to work this morning.