240/365 A lovely walk around Chicago

One of the items on my must-see list in Chicago was the Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park. This sculpture is a huge visual draw for tourists, and I see it online all the time as a fun photography subject.

It's very cool in person -- surprisingly simple but totally captivating and fun. You can walk all around it, underneath it, and right up to it. It looks like a giant, utterly smooth silver jelly bean. 

 

It reflects the city in thousands of different ways, depending on where you stand. Luckily, we got a beautiful, clear, cool day for this part of our trip. It wouldn't have been nearly as fun in the rain (though, admittedly, I think that would add an unexpected twist to the photos.

 

Because we were there on a Friday morning in late November, very few people were around. I'm sure this place is completely milling with people in the summer time.

Opposite the Cloud Gate is a very cool pavilion theater designed by Frank Gehry. I'm sure it's a great place to see concerts, when the sky is clear, the stars are out, and the air is warmer than the 50 degrees of our visit.

 

After walking around Millennium Park, we walked westward toward the Macy's on State Street, a flagship store whose floors of clothing and wares stretch into the double digits. On the walk there, we stumbled upon Mom's worst nightmare:

 

See the cars parked on the lower levels of this building? Each car's rear end was pointing outward, and I'd love to know why that is -- and how they do it. But Mom just about had a cow thinking of having to park so close to that edge.

We laughed for a long time.

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/125s to 1/650s, f/4 and f/5.6 at ISO 100 between 10:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.