Chicago, Day One.

After a wonderfully warm visit with friends in Lansing, Michigan, Nathan and I drove to Chicago late last night from Detroit. (We were originally going to catch a bus from Detroit, but missed it. I guess such a snafu was bound to happen at some point in our travels...) The light was wonderfully weird as we drove into the sunset. This was somewhere near the Indiana border:





We had to be in Chicago by last night, because I had an appointment here this morning with the British Consulate to secure my visa to legally enter and work in the UK. Here we are at the Consulate, with me looking all nervous before my appointment... (but also, one of the few decent photos of us together)


Success! I was granted the visa without a hitch. After the appointment we went to the Westfield Center to eat some hummus, falafel, and pita, at the suggestion of a consulate employee. We quickly learned that Westfield has a lego store so the center has several life-sized figures made out of legos. I was way too amused.


In the afternoon we ran around downtown Chicago checking out the amazing architecture and getting our fair share of exercise. Nathan and I both got a really great feel from Chicago. I confess that I have unexpectedly fallen in love with it. Perhaps after the rather barren condition of Detroit, I am easily impressed -- but truly, there is no argument against the fact that Chicago is a world-class city. Although it lacks the cultural diversity of a city like London, aesthetically it is actually more pleasing. This is obviously a hugely economically successful city with an abundance of creative minds and a lot of public and private funds to back it up.

Of course I must now subject you to a whole boatload of photos from our afternoon adventure.

The view of the Chicago River next to the Wrigley Building (where the consulate was):



The Chicago Tribune Building (Shouldn't a Spiderman villain live here? I mean, really.)Typical condominium buildings that totally blanket downtown:

Pritzker Pavilion and a partial downtown skyline on the edge of Millennium Park:
The view of Pritzker Pavilion (a Gehry creation, naturally) from the adjacent pedestrian walkway:

The Park was happening on a Thursday afternoon with LOTS of people tooling around all over the place:A juxtaposition of the Cloud Gate structure and Pritzker Pavilion:

Cloud Gate is mockingly called the Bean around these parts. Let me tell you, it is freaking COOL. Here was our view from the underside of the Bean:

Can you spot us from this viewpoint?

Here we are on the pedestrian bridge overlooking Pritzker. It was a really fun afternoon:



After our adventure, we rested up a bit and later met up with our friends Nancy and Micah once they got off work (they are both architects, who were some of Nathan's best friends back in architorture school) for some drinks and appropriately, some Chicago deep dish pizza.