Downtown Date Day

Fernando took a vacation day Thursday.  What a sweetheart, and so thoughtful toward his dear wife who is terrified at the thought of driving to downtown Chicago by herself.  No, I'm not really terrified.  Just terribly nervous.

Jacob wanted to visit the federal courthouse in Chicago to sit in on a criminal trial, and take notes for a project for one of his college criminal justice classes.  So, Fernando and I drove him downtown to the federal building on Dearborn Street and dropped him off.  Literally.  Fernando simply pulled over, and Jacob scooted out with his phone, notebook, pencils, and $20 for lunch.  And we drove off.  Sigh.  Jacob is becoming quite the young man.

Since Jacob was going to be occupied for several hours, we had those hours FREE, so we headed out to find a parking garage (another interesting experience).

 View from the roof of the parking garage

From there, our first stop was to visit the Chicago Cultural Center to have a look at the Vivian Maier exhibit.  It was interesting to read her unique and mysterious story, and to see her photos from the 1950s and 60s, especially the ones from New York and Chicago.  I took one quick shot.

Vivian Maier's cameras and other personal items

Since we were so close, we walked on over to Millenium Park to see The Bean.  Can you see it in the image below?  This is not a photo of the cityscape; it is the reflection of the cityscape in The Bean!

The Bean, with the reflection of the Chicago skyline

For those who have never visited Chicago, the next few images give you a better view of what the Bean looks like.

I realized just now that I never did get a side photo of the Bean, which looks like, well, a big ol' kidney bean.  It was fun hanging around snapping photos and watching people.  What was just as nice was enjoying the 60-degree temperatures for the first time this year!  At one point, I stuck my telephoto lens on and captured this little guy having fun.

A boy and his reflection

And I actually took a good self-portrait!  It took me only four or five tries.  This is one of the best ones I've done, too.  Okay, I've tried to do it only twice.  I'm so proud of myself.  *cheeky grin*

Dear hubby and I

After a while, we walked across the street to Caribou Coffee, where Fernando was able to get some much-needed coffee and a snack to tide him over until lunchtime.

We walked around a bit, I took some shots of interesting buildings, we had lunch--and a long chat session--at Panera, we walked around some more, then picked up Jacob and drove home for a simple dinner started by Danny.  All in all, a very nice day.

An old building

The clock at the Chase Building plaza

My dearie at the plaza

Tile mural at the plaza

Looking down the street from the Berghoff Restaurant

You can see Fernando in the lower left corner.  He led the way back to the parking garage, while Jacob walked with me and told me all about some gang leader's criminal trial.  I'm so glad Fernando remembered where we parked.

Back to life,
Christine

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