We left early and made it to the temple for the 10 o'clock session. The temple is sooo tiny! Wow.
Chicago Temple.
Benjamin & I in front of the temple.
Us driving to downtown Chicago.
The Chicago skyline/horizon. Look at all those skyscrapers.
Rainforest Cafe. I love the huge frog!! In town I say a little girl carrying a stuffed animal frog exactly like that and I totally wanted it! LOL.
This is a picture of us in the giant bean. The bean at Millennium Park is a huge attraction. Its a bean made of metal that are like mirrors so you can see yourself and the skyline in the bean. Its awesome!
Notice how the buildings are curved. This is because we took the picture of the bean and that's the reflection.
This is underneath the bean. Super cool!
This is the us, the bean, and then the buildings. I love the bean!
This picture below is such a neat structure! Its a concert pavilion and a huge lawn. Sweet!
This is me in front of a dinosaur art piece that was in Millennium Park.
Below is another cool art piece that was on display. Its a creature with a huge tongue holding up a giant boar and two men holding onto the boar and each other. Its so crazy! Got to love art!
This is the Crown Fountain. Its also found in Millennium Park. Art students took pictures of thousands of people from Chicago and the pictures rotate periodically.
Ben & I in front of the fountain.
Below, you will notice why it is a fountain. The picture shoots water out of its mouth. This happens with every face that comes up on the screen. Its way cool! So unique! Kids love it in the summertime because of the cool water cascading off the sides and out of the mouth fountain!
Then after we walked through the park we hopped on a double decker tour bus that goes all around the city of Chicago. It was a first for both of us to ride a double decker tour bus!
This is a sweet building. I loved the architecture and designs of the buildings in Chicago. That's why there are so many pictures of the buildings. So I will tell you a little bit about why I like the ones I posted.
This one is so unique because it looks like someone put their fingers through a stick of butter. Imagine a stick of butter turned like a building and someone just putting their fingers down the sides of it. Pretty nifty!
Here's another view/angle of it!
This is a picture of the Chicago River with a river boat traveling up it. The tour guide said that every St. Patrick's day the city has a boat that runs the length of it with Kelly Green dye and that's how the river gets its color. She says later in the year it looks brown again. Personally, I love the green color!
These buildings are so cool! The tallest one in the middle is beautiful with the arches and thin structures. And to the left on the other building is a huge cheese ball that fell from the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. And the building at the bottom right is the Chicago Tribune.
This is Ben's favorite building. The Trump building of Chicago. Wow. What a beauty! So sleek and shiny!
These are the corn cob towers. So original. The architect loved smooth and curves. No lines. Wow.
Below is the famous Chicago Theater, located in the theater district of the city.
Me with in front of the Chicago Theater sign!
The sign again! From a different angle.
Oriental Theatre/ Ford Center. It was fun to go past these being on the top of the double decker bus! We were on eye level with the signs and it was so much fun!
In the Theater District, we stopped for a free sample of Garrett Popcorn. Yummy! Here is Benjamin enjoying his popcorn!
This is a sweet building that looks like a space ship landed in the middle of Chicago. Sweet!
I love the art in front of it, of course. It resembles a smashed up Snoopy. Not sure what its really supposed to be, but that's the fun of art. Interpretation!
This is Dadelus and Icarus. The piece is a mosaic. Very old and very beautiful! It is found on one of the buildings in Chicago that we went past.
Here is a fountain. I love it! The different levels and the metalic look.
Here we went past the Bank of America Theater that plays Jersey Boys.
Here is a reflection off one of the buildings of us on top of the double decker bus.
The beautiful Hilton of Chicago. Very cool structure!
The legs statues. One of my favorites!!!
I love the design of the building. It reminds me of dominos sticking out and I love the windows! Wow!
Statue of Christopher Columbus!
The Bears' Stadium. It is built over the old one. You can see in the picture, the old on is the one with the columns and the new one looks like a space ship landed on it and squished most of it. LOL!
Here's the other side. I love the old columns! It reminds me of my art history class freshman year of college. I really enjoyed that class!
Holy beautiful piece of art! It is so wonderful because it has curves and lines. I love how it is shaped!
This is the Adler Planetarium located right on the edge of Lake Michigan.
From the lake, looking back, here is the skyline of North Chicago. Beautiful & breath taking!
This is the Field Museum of Natural History. I would loved to have wandered around in there and the planetarium for hours, but alas, time was short. Maybe some other year!
Here is the Buckingham Fountain (since 1927). When it is doing a performance display, the center jet shoots water 150 feet into the air.
Here in the center of the picture is another shot of the Trump building.
This picture is probably the only one I took looking down at the ground instead of up at the top of buildings. Its an old clock. Ben & I think it must have worked at one point, but that the hands were taken down and now its just decor. But its really a cool piece!
Here is the Navy Pier. Really cool rides and attractions like a boardwalk. We didn't have time to stop for this either, just kept going right by.
Ferris Wheel!
The Captain leading all the boats into the saftey of the pier.
I found a lighthouse right at the end of the pier. So pretty! Lighthouses always remind me of Outer Banks NC. I'm so excited to move to NC next week too!!
This building is amazing because of the curves it supports. Not all lines again, just sweet sleek curves.
Here is Benjamin with some sweet buildings behind him! I love my hubby! He's incredible!
Oh my, this is awesome art! Its a moose! I thought I'd only ever see these in the mountains, but no, here was one wandering down the side streets of Chicago.
My family is in Montana looking for moose, but I was in Chicago not looking for one, and I found one! Haha! So much fun!!!!
This is a really cool statue of the painting by Grant Wood. I like the statue!
Here's Ben with the statue!
Across from the statue is the Wrigley Building.
What I liked best about the Wrigley Building is it is two buildings that are now connected. I love the skyway that connects them too!
Here is a statue of Nathan Hale, American Patriot who is known for saying, "I only regret that I have but one life to give my country." Statues are found in a lot of big cities across the country.
There is indeed a castle in Chicago. Its the Waterworks facilities now. How cool! I love the old castle look. It makes me want to dress up as a princess and live there!
Way cool picture (by Benjamin) of the John Hancock Observatory located in North Chicago. The design is back and forth X's to give the structure support.
This is how close we came to our heads being chopped off. We went right underneath the overpasses. If anyone would have been standing (and there is a strict no standing policy while the bus is in motion) they would have had their head chopped off.
This is the top of the former Sears, now Willis Tower. Notice the little glass boxes that stick out of the side near the top of the building.
Well, Ben & I waited for 3 hours to get up there. The wait was worth it. One, because we'll never have to do it again. Two, because of the gorgeous views we saw. Three, because we got to stand right above the street in a glass box. Pretty sweet!
Here we are standing in the glass box 1,353 feet over the city of Chicago. Holy high up!!!
Sunset from the top!
Benjamin laying way above the city streets!
Here we are with nothing but the street below us. Kinda trippy when you're up that high looking down.
Here we are freaking out that we're up so high!
The city behind us from the top of the Willis Tower.
Ben + the city.
Melissa + the city.
The beautiful city of Chicago!
This is a way sweet picture. Let me explain. First the harbor was full of yachts and boats. Then the rest of the picture is filled with people standing in Grant Park for the Lollapalooza concert that is held once a year there. Music everywhere because there are multiple stages with different shows going on all over the park. Wow!
Then we went down and out of the Willis Tower. Behind me are the flags of the countries worldwide for the tentative location of the 2016 Olympics.
We went up to the "Skydeck" of the Willis Tower. So much fun! And if you ever think about going, pay the extra money for the fast pass! Its worth the extra $$$.
Art. And its red. I love red. It just stands out so well in all the grey and black of the buildings and surrounding city scense!
Here's the Hard Rock Cafe!!
Here are the biggest McDonalds arches I've ever seen! Wow! That's a huge McDonalds!!!
Then we made it to our hotel, The Sybaris. It was lovely! Here is Benjamin in our big whirlpool tub! :) We had a lovely evening together watching movies and drinking sparkling cider!
I made him an anniversary movie of pictures of us from all over the place this past year. It was fun! I put sweet songs to it too! He loved it!
Then, we have been carting our cake top all over the country with us this past year and we were nervous about it, but it tasted as good as if it were made that morning! Yum! (Thanks Tina!)
We had a wonderful weekend! Oh wait, this was only one day so far. haha! Well, the next day we had passes for Six Flags, and since its in Chicago and we were in Chicago, and since we'll be moving in a week, we went. Our friends met us down there and we had a blast enjoying the rides together!
What a wonderful first year we've had being married and are excited for many more years to come! :)
