The Chicago River is Calming at Night

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Sears Tower & Chicago River, The Loop, Chicago

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Chicago River, The Loop, Chicago

In the fall and winter it’s dark when I leave work. Not that I like that it’s dark when I leave work but I find the walk along the river to the train much more soothing and enjoyable at night. Maybe it’s because I see less people or I notice the river more or the reflections of the lights, I’m not sure.

Shedd Aquarium with Stephanie

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On Saturday I opened up tabs in Firefox of all the places Steph might be interested in visiting. Then I had her look at all the websites and choose. We decided to go to the Sears Tower then to the Shedd Aquarium. Bad news: When we got to the Sears Tower we were told that visibility was ZERO PERCENT. So we decided to just go to the Shedd Aquarium. Bad news: There was an hour-long line just to get into the building. Oh well. We didn’t go all that way not to do something and Steph really wanted to go to the aquarium, to see the things we didn’t see last time*, so we stood. In line. Forever.

We were excited to see the komodo dragon, and while the whole lizard exhibit was cool, the dragon was a let down. Wow. A big dragon. Next! I mean, it’s cool, but we were pretty psyched and then it was just.. like.. there. We did really like the Wild Reef exhibit, though. There were a few other things we wanted to see that we’d already seen before, but for the most part, we skipped the rest of the aquarium. I was getting so tired! Maybe I’m just old or maybe I’m just not used to a 10-year-old kid’s pace and being responsible for someone else, but I was exhausted! Plus, why does she have to keep asking me questions like “What if we get to our stop and you step out but I get caught on the train and can’t get off?” and “What would happen if like a bomb was on the train tracks and the train couldn’t stop in time?” Jeez! Way to stress me out!

We had a good day, though. Later on we went to the movie, filled up on popcorn and then went to dinner at Robey Pizza, a new favorite in our new neighborhood.

* The photos of Steph here are cute, but I liked my animal photos better last time.

A View From the Chicago River


Wendella


IBM Building & Trump Tower Construction


Trump Tower Construction


Trump Tower Construction


Marina City


IBM Building


Marina City


Reid, Murdoch & Co. Building


Merchandise Mart


Sun Times Building


Wendella


Richard & Dad


Water Taxi


Water Taxi


Metra Train


Sears Tower


Sears Tower


Leo Burnett Building & RR Donnelly Building


IBM Building, Trump Tower, Wrigley Building


IBM Building, Trump Tower, Wrigley Building


Navy Pier


Wrigley Building


Michigan Avenue Bridge

On Sunday we were going to go to the beach, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. We ended up going on a Wendella boat tour. The tour we chose was the hour-long Chicago River Architecture Tour It went on both the north and the south branches of the river, then just to the lake, and back to the dock at Michigan Avenue. Some facts on the tour I knew but there were tons I didn’t know. And it was cool to see everything from a different point of view. I spoke to Amanda a short while ago and she said Jess is still talking about riding the train and not about the long boat ride we went on!