The Streets of Chicago

I know this is hard to believe, but except for going to the office 3 days a week I've barely left the house since before Christmas.  When I met Katrina in Waukesha the other day I told myself I had to get over my aversion to winter weather.  The forecast for yesterday might have only been in the low 20's, but our normal windy conditions were absent so I decided to take the train in to Chicago for the first time in almost a decade.

Twenty minutes to the Fox Lake station and then an hour and a half on the Metra which went quickly thanks to the wonders of Kindle.  Once I arrived at Union Station I opted to walk instead of catching the bus.

The Berghoff has been open since 1898 - one of the few neon signs in the Loop

Milwaukee is great, but there really isn't anything like Chicago.  Due to the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 that destroyed 18,000 buildings a lot of effort was put in to rebuilding the city in a way that not only was functional but built to last.  And built to impress.

I noticed a lot of lions downtown, jus tkeep looking up, they are everywhere!

But don't forget to look down too.

Not all the cool stuff is on the outside of buildings, lots of them had impressive lobbies filled with large scale public art.

"The Winged Victory of Samothrace" made from
a mold of the original in The Louvre, Paris

 I was tempted by the food trucks, but only ended up picking up a cupcake at one.  Not the greatest cupcake, I should have probably tried the Cajun instead.

 

But if you aren't in to food trucks maybe you can get a coupon from the guy in the cow suit.

Some of the newer architecture is interesting too.

Reflections

And the Chicago Police have a surprising way to beat downtown traffic.

I took 287 pictures, lots of them were duds, some of them held hidden surprises.

Caught 

The one thing that really moved me was the sight of one of the old Marshall Field's clocks.  I mean, 7 3/4 tons of over 100 year old ornamental bronze hanging off the corner of a building is pretty impressive, don't you agree?  It brought back memories of going to the Walnut Room and Christmas shopping at Marshall Field's decades ago...

More to come from my 5 mile walk up and down the streets of Chicago.  Plenty to keep me busy if I get snowed in!