A long weekend of eating, or my trip to Chicago

I had been to Chicago only briefly a few times before. Once was an astronomy club field trip to Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin and an afternoon in Chicago. The two other visits I had been in O'Hare International Airport for obvious reasons. I really like the crazy tunnel between terminals (mimicked in North Carolina's Charlotte airport).

This time, I got a long weekend. I spent the weekend with one of my roommates from my senior year of college. Her quaint apartment in Lincoln Park was very welcoming.

My flight from Philadelphia was delayed, so I finally got to her apartment sometime around midnight. It didn't take me too long to find my way out of the airport to the train station. I was impressed with my city-navigation skills.

Since my hostess has a real job, I was left alone the next day (Friday). I went to Lincoln Park, which I found on the first try. I wandered around one of the ponds for a while and came upon the zoo. Lincoln Park has a bunch of areas to roam. Before entering the zoo, I stopped the Lily Pool where I smelled some lovely fragrant trees and watched some ducks and turtles.

After the Lily Pool, I found the zoo. I commend Chicago highly for having the sense to make the zoo free. It's really a brilliant idea. I walked around looking at various animals and found my way to a plant conservatory that was filled with some stunning plants, including a whole room of orchids (some--not those pictured--smelled like coconut).

I spent much of the day wandering around the zoo. At the end of it all, I felt much like this tiger.

I met up with my kind hostess, Stephanie, for dinner. We had the best potato pancakes ever as well as the largest matzo ball in matzo ball soup (Frances' Deli). After being sufficiently stuffed we watched a movie then got ice cream. Good planning.

On Saturday, we visited Chicago's farmers' market that's held in Lincoln Park. We waited for something like an hour to get fresh crèpes. It was entirely worth the wait.

The Art Institute of Chicago was the next stop. The draw was taking tacky Ferris-Buehler-inspired photographs (staring deeply at pointillism and such). We looked into some Van Gogh then headed to the children's book illustrations and photography exhibits.

The next stop was Cloud Gate and Millenium Park. We walked around some fountains and statues. There was then a series of ridiculous photographs taken in front of Cloud Gate...The Bean. I include a tame one--namely one only of The Bean.

After that it was time to find some Chicago-style pizza, which we annihilated. Another movie was watched that night as we were pretty much useless from the cold and the over-eating.

Sunday saw a trip downtown to take an architecture boat tour on the Chicago River. We took a lot of pictures of buildings. The tour guide was extremely knowledgable and probably commented on every building we passed. I enjoyed this one because the yellow dome is a dirigible dock. Seriously.

The boat took us to the lock to the Lake Michigan and we had a brief glimpse of the lake and Navy Pier. I'd been to Navy Pier on a previous visit so we skipped that attraction.

We visited the larger-than-life American Gothic statue and took a series of ridiculous pictures there, too (I am tying his shoe).

Then we went to the Hancock building and stared up at it. Another time I will go to the top. That was followed by more eating: cupcakes and Mexican take-out.

I left Monday after breakfast wishing that I could stay longer. I quite enjoyed my visit to both my friend and Chicago. I will have to return to see both again.