Entries Tagged as 'union station'

Christina & Geoff’s Wedding Shower

May 18th, 2010 · No Comments

Last week was Christina & Geoff’s wedding shower. Christina’s Aunt Chris and Uncle Bob hosted the party up in Northfield, a suburb of Chicago. The plan was for about 15 of us to meet at Union Station at 5:30 p.m. and take the train up to Northfield. Unfortunately, someone decided to commit suicide by getting hit by a train on our train line so it delayed everything. What should have been a 36-minute train ride ended up taking a couple hours.

Luckily Geoff had planned ahead and bought about a case of beer.

We’d been out the night before and Dallas was pretty tired so he spent the Metra delay and ride resting. And holding our gift.

Good thing Dallas had that nap, because then he perked right up when we got to the party and was good to go!

When we finally arrived at the station, Christina’s brother and Uncle Bob picked us up in cars and took us to the house.

It was a big surprise for Geoff & Christina that Christina’s mom and brother flew in from Florida and California for the party. It was nice to meet Christina’s family – aunt, uncle, cousin, mom, brother – after having known her for so many years. Dallas knows Christina from back when they both used to live in Boston and worked for the same company. Christina’s maid of honor is Caitlyn, another friend from Boston, and she and her sister Sarah flew in to Chicago from Boston so it was good to see them too.

Out on the back patio, Christina’s Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris had a bar set up. Some people might have done some shots of Patron tequila. Not us! Christina and Geoff are getting married in Mexico in June so the party had a Mexican theme. Bob’s bar had Mexican beer, sangria, tequila and margaritas. I stuck with the margaritas.

Others? More shots!

Christina’s Aunt Chris had a bunch of appetizers that she was walking around. We had beef skewers with a pesto (?) sauce, goat cheese quesadillas with a mango relish, and ceviche. So delicious.

For dinner we had a citrus cabbage salad, enchiladas, chiles rellenos, and Mexican rice. Wow, the dinner was so good. The enchiladas were as good as in any restaurant. And the chiles rellenos were outstanding. Dallas always orders chiles rellenos when we go out and he thought they were fantastic.. he even got seconds on them.

After dinner we hung out around a bon fire. By then it was at least 10 p.m. and everyone had a lot of drinks in them.

Uncle Bob had a bunch of cigars and some people partook in smoking them.

I’d noticed earlier that there were sombreros hanging around the house and yard and I just thought they were decorations. Well, of course by now we were all wearing them.

I had to take a few breaks and drink water. I swear I only had 3 margaritas, but they must have been SO strong. They didn’t taste like tequila though.. just like delicoiusness. I don’t know what was in there, but it was good. Here’s a photo of me with my two best friends that night:

(sombrero and margarita)

Oh, and my third best friend, bon fire:

At about 11:30 or 12:00, I don’t even know any more, a bus came to the house and picked us up to go back to the city. There was more drinking on the bus, but Dallas and I were DONE. Some were still going strong, some were passing out on the bus. I think people may have gone out more when we got to Chicago, but I’m not sure because we got off the bus, said our goodbyes and grabbed a cab home.

What a fun party. Thanks to Christina and Geoff for inviting us and to Uncle Bob and Aunt Chris for hosting everyone. We’re disappointed because we’re not going to be able to go to Mexico for the wedding, but it was fun to at least spend the night with Christina and Geoff and their family and friends. If it weren’t for a conflicting family wedding here in Chicago we’d totally be in Mexico!

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Silkscreen Print of my Union Station Photograph

January 17th, 2007 · 1 Comment

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In December, a reader from the Netherlands named Ron contacted me and said that my photograph of the hall at Union Station inspired him and that he made a silkscreen print of it (shown above). He said:

I can’t make good pictures of buildings or landscapes. Somehow they don’t connect with me. I prefer people. I used to have a traditional camera, with black and white film and my own dark room. I could spend hours on getting the right print. Now my camera is broken down, my dark room is in use by one of my children and I can spend just the same time on silk screen printing. I started printing about six years ago and now I am starting to print a quality that I like. Of course I can see that the real professional printers do a much better job. But I see that as a challenge. Printing portraits is extremely difficult, but sometimes it works. I did a picture of our queen, and that is in my office now. I work as a civil servant (boring!), with Queen Beatrix as my formal boss. So a few months ago I decided I wanted her picture. The official portraits are very dull, so I made one myself. It is hanging straight ahead of me. So every time I want to do some creative thinking I can look up to our queen. And it helps. I always get the bright ideas, or find the sollutions, whenever I look at that picture.

Even better, Ron offered to send me a silkscreen print of the image that was inspired by my work. I was so excited to see how it came out. In early January it arrived in the office. At first I was surprised at the lack of detail, but then I realized that’s how silkscreens are. As I looked at it more, I realized that all the important details are there and that it really is more interesting and imaginative than the original photograph. I like it! Thanks, Ron!

Other times I have inspired someone else’s art:

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Union Station

January 8th, 2006 · 5 Comments

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Union Station, West Loop, Chicago

I took these photos a few months ago when I went to Union Station to catch an Amtrak train to Wisconsin. From A View on Cities:

The Chicago Union Station is one of the last of the grand American railway stations. The station replaced the overcrowded Grand Passenger Station built in 1881 for a consortium of four railroads.

This consortium, headed by the Pennsylvania railroad wanted to Chicago Union Station create a new, large railway station befitting the city’s status as America’s railway hub. They wanted the station to make an architectural impact, similar to New York’s Grand Central Terminal and Washington’s Union Station.

Daniel Burnham, Chicago’s famous architect who was responsible for the magnificent Beaux-Arts Union Station in Washington, started drawing plans for the new railway station, but he died before the design was completed. His work was taken over by Graham, Anderson and Probst, later joined by White. They designed a complex incorporating two different buildings on either side of Canal street, connected to each other by a tunnel. Construction of the building started in 1913 and was finished 12 years later, in 1925.

The west side building contains the large waiting room, known as the ‘Great Hall’. The waiting room has a 112ft/34m high vaulted skylight, marble floors with long benches and marble walls with large Corinthian columns. According the the original plans, the building would also have 20 floors of office space, but only 8 were completed.

On the east side of Canal street was the concourse building. The glass vaulted concourse was modeled on the concourse of the now demolished Pennsylvania Station in New York. The concourse in the Chicago Union Station was demolished in 1969 and replaced by office buildings.

Although the station could handle as many as 400,000 passengers per day, about 100,000 passengers made use of the station during its heyday in the 1940s. The station has two sets of tracks, 10 leading northbound and ten southbound. It is estimated to be capable of handling more than 700 trains in a single day.

After the foundation of Amtrak, most of the train services were directed to the Union Station. After Dearborn Station was closed in 1971 and Central Station in 1972, the Union Station remained as the only passenger railway station in downtown Chicago. In 1992 the Union Station was renovated by the Lucien Lagrange Associates and in 2002, the building was (finally) designated a Chicago Landmark.

Also, Wikipedia has some great information.

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Foggy Sears Tower

September 28th, 2005 · 3 Comments

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Sears Tower, The Loop, Chicago

Looked up to see the Sears Tower engulfed in fog on Sunday night while walking down Clinton St. from Union Station to the CTA Blue Line.

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