Please excuse me while I rant. Blogging takes a lot out of a person. I go some place and I’m like, “Wow, this is so amazing!” And I think, “I can’t wait to share it with everyone.” But then I sit down at the computer and I’m like, “How am I supposed to share this?” I wish you could’ve been there to see the amazing things I just saw and feel the things I felt. Because writing is harder than some of you think. Sharing emotions that don’t really have words is hard. Like when I was in New York – you could feel the energy… and everything… but how do you write about it? You’ve got to experience it to get the whole emotion. And in Chicago where there were people everywhere, all there to see the same thing. And hordes and hordes of people crossing the street. You have to be careful or you might get run over… by the thousand other people crossing the street. So when I sit down at a computer and try to share this with you and feel like bleh, it makes it even harder to share an emotion, a feeling, a place, with you.
But I’ll try.
Chicago…
We had been driving to Chicago for two hours because of the traffic. And it was only supposed to take one… Finally we are a minute away from our parking garage. The police are directing traffic so we are stopped at the light. They blow their whistle and at least 100 people cross the street – it’s amazing. I mean you are hearing this from a prairie girl whose town doesn’t even have a stoplight in it but still, that is a lot of people!!! I don’t even remember there being that many people crossing the streets in New York City! After squeezing into the parking garage that’s geared more toward little cars, and braving the street crossing, we made it to Cloud Gate, or, the bean.
This big mirror, in the shape of a bean, is a piece of art and it was on my bucket list. (See the three of us in front of the bean!?!) But it wasn’t the only reason we were in Chicago that day, we were also there to see Lani! Lani is an old friend from when we lived in Vancouver, and who we haven’t seen for a very long time! She took us around a couple of the Chicago sights; such as the Taste of Chicago (think city blocks of food trucks!!), which was running the week we were there!
I think this fountain is one of the worlds largest! It looks pretty puny in this photo, but in real life it was hugemongous!
Thanks so much for being our tour guide Lani!!!!!! It was so great to see you again, and meet baby Thelia!
On Saturday we went down to the Navy Pier, where we met up with the Shutt’s! This guy was taking advantage of all the waves from boats driving by. It was super exciting to watch – but I’m pretty sure my heart stopped a couple of times…? He would fly up off the waves – sometimes reaching nearly vertical – and land… But everytime I thought he was going to die… or flip… or sink… or fall off… or something!!! But he survived every time – and my heart kept beating. …Although I do believe it took a couple of hours for my heart to find its rhythm.?
We went with the Shutt’s to the bean, so what can I say except, “Bean there, done that!!!!”?
These spitting fountains were kinda gross/creepy. There were kids running everywhere, a couple were even rolling in the water. The creepy part was the faces on the fountain. They just stared, and then spat water randomly.
On Sunday afternoon we visited with some of my Mom’s cousins who were in the area. Unfortunately we didn’t get many pictures. ? We were just having too much of a good time visiting! ?
We also went to a nice beach along Lake Michigan. This was after we drove into the state of Michigan just so Mom could say she’d been there…?The lake was a beautiful temperature and the water was crystal clear. In fact, the colour of the water was almost turquoise. Such a pretty spot! I didn’t know you could have such nice beaches that weren’t salt water or man-made.
So you know how our truck and trailer have had, like, no issues for all eleven months of our travels? Just wait until my next post….