Hi all, another day in Chicago. The sun has been out but the was flat, dull and boring! What am I to do?
I got up early and headed into town on the commuter express (it’s 4 mins quicker than the regular train) headed straight to the Bean in hope of getting some great photographs without any people about, well at 8.20am the tourists were out with the same intentions! The sun was so hard on the surface it was hardly worth taking any photographs. After my first disappointment I headed down to the Hancock tower to take in the views of Chicago, worth paying the $10 for the views:

A view of North Chicago.

A view of West chicago.

A view of South Chicago.

After spending some time up the tower taking in the views, I headed for lunch at the highly recommended pizza / pasta restaurant : Giorando’s (730 N Rush St) Ok if your going to eat here not have any food for a week before hand or don’t eat for a week after-wards. The Stuff crust pizza is more like a pie than a pizza, mmmmmm yummy.

Ok time to walk off the food, in the afternoon i took a walk down by the harbour and the Navy Pier. If you come here in the summer I can only guess the pier is packed full of people, it was just about ok for me (I found walking down the service road on the North side of the pier better, nothing to look at but great views of the city and Lake Michigan.

Hazy view of the city from the pier.

I headed back to train station taking in East / West Wacker Drive and had to stop and unload my camera out of my back to get this shot for 333 West Wacker Drive (just as you give up and go home!)

Thanks Chicago, next stop St. Louis (for two days)

Take care

Jonathan

Hi all, well I’m in Windy City (Chicago) yep! and today it’s been that, as well as being: COLD, WET & FOGGY!
Never mind, not to be put off by this I took the Metra (double decker) train to Chicago.
Ok if you have never been here before, you should! same on you for not trying it. I find Chicago my little Sazlburg of America (so far) It’s big, it’s beautiful and fantastic if you like high end shopping this place is for you. Forget New York, if you want space and no sirens every 2 seconds then this place is a must.
Right for the tourist bad weather is never a good thing and today it’s been pushing my creative edge to the limit. If it had been snowing it would have been better.
On the train journey in the train was packed with Navy uniformed staff (great for Jenni! and yes I do have a photo just for you)
My first impression of the city was that the someone, somewhere along the line decided that the roads were getting to busy and that a subway style system was needed, OK in the Uk they would have thought about and never did anything here they have built it over the roads:

I walked down to the Millennium Park where they have various contemporary art sculptures, one being the “BEAN”

Now you must stand inside the bean for some of the best photographs (i’m not going to post hear but on my own website (when I get one up and running when I get back)) As you can see from the reflections in the bean the fog is covering the tops of some of the buildings!

Another sculpture comprises of two towers that face opposite each other and have water running down them, they also project peoples faces on the them:

After the Millennium Park I took a stroll along the Chicago river and then down Michigan Avenue (which is also know as the “Magnificent Mile” here you will find a mixture of normal and high end retail outlets (it also has the Apple Store if you need to check your emails for free) The Magnificent Mile also has some of the best architecture (New & Old) to photograph (shame the weather is so bad!)

This is a photograph of the John Hacock Centre (complete with fog)

After lunch I changed direction again and headed for the river to walk around the “East Wacker Drive” nothing to write home about it’s just nice to be down by the river looking at the buildings.

this is a veiw of the river looking East towards the “Wrigley building” (the Wrigley builing is on the far left)

On my continued walk around the city I found time to take in some of the back streets and get some images that would beat “BANKSY” hands down, this one’s for you Banksy.

Ok, just to show that I have been busy and still come up with something in this weather here is another building in Chicago:

At this point I would like to point out that I am trying to get a film location out of each place (it might be hard after today) but today’s location is “Emmit’s Pub” as featured in Ocean’s 11 (no george wasn’t on hand to pose for photographs)

Well that’s today gone, as I finish this off the weather has now cleared up, it looks like it’s going to be nice tomorrow (if it is going to be nice expect me to be out all day and night!)

Take care.

Jonathan