What We've Done: Part Four

I guess if I want to be a legit blogger, I better fill in this massive hole that is the month of August.

My brother Rick left on his mission. My parents were really great and flew me down for the farewell and festivities. I am excited for him and my family. Its a first for us.



Danny got to come down for the weekend, but had to return to Chicago pretty quickly to get back to slaving away at work while I enjoyed some time in California. Of course he missed me sooo much, but he had some fun activities to preoccupy him:

1. Leo Burnett's anniversary party





(The name of the guy that started the agency was Leo Burnett. He invented all these little characters we blame childhood obesity on.)

2. Hanson came to the office to perform



Little 90's boy-band loving Annie would have peed her pants over a view like this.







I found this in a drawer at my house. I guess no one has the heart to throw away my/jon/rick/randy/briana's first cd even though it is not even playable anymore.

So anyways. I came back to Chicago. With a drugged out Twinkie on the plane. Which was kind of funny.

We are starting to do the same things. Does that mean we are transforming into locals??

But heres some new for you:



One of our favorite things to do Saturday mornings is go shopping at local farmers markets. Danny likes the cheese varieties. I appreciate farmer Jon and the multitudes of apple hybrids he names after himself.



We went to the planetarium. It was fun.



Views on the lawn outside the planetarium.



We went on a Saturday. I lost count after we saw 10 wedding parties taking pictures at this spot. (It was a really cool spot. My cell phone doesn't do it justice.) I loved it. I can't believe I haven't been to any weddings this summer!



Transformers 3 apparently takes place in Chicago. They filmed in front of Danny's office for a couple weeks. One evening as we went out to dinner, we had a little surprise show. Hello fake swat team, bossy director, and Shia Lebeouf. (I know I have no pictures of him to prove it, but we really did see him!)

And although this was neat, after successfully avoiding the first and second movie, there is still no chance I am seeing the third.

Also this month...







I awoke to myself saying "Danny. It's raining on my face." Because it really was raining on my face. I am discovering "historic," "trendy" Wrigleyville actually means "old," "young kids live here because they are poor" Wrigleyville. Someday I wont be sleeping on a mattress on the floor in 925 Dakin (or as we affectionately call it, 925 Stankin'). Lets just hope that next place isn't Timmy's bedroom.

The first year that rounds up to 30

I've never forgotten the silent film of my future playing on loop in my childhood daydreams. It involved me living in a small apartment in the city with wood floors and white furniture, living with a beautiful man. As I recall, the lead role was filled by Tommy, the green power ranger. Although the furniture part hasn't manifest itself yet, how lucky I am that Danny is making my dreams come true...and not the green ranger.

Happy Birthday my beautiful man. You make my dreams come true.



Montage of the day:

What We've Done: Part Three

Contemporary Art Museum: Free on Tuesdays



(No cameras inside-- my guess is because this art is contemporary, not in textbooks so people could potentially rip it off. Trying to rip off pieces in the Art Institute would just be silly.)

Loved the Calder exhibit.

You've seen these:



mobiles



etc.

I enjoyed the other exhibits. If you know you wouldn't, let me say this: be happy it exists. All that crazy stuff is representational of democracy at work. Refer to art permitted to exist under Nazi Germany and the Communist Revolutions of China and Russia. Free crazy art means free thought, free speech, freedom. Just a thought. And, art since the turn of the 20th century has been more cerebrally focused than optically anyway...so get with it!

Something sweeter

Ghirardelli's





San Fran nostalgia

Right across the street:

Hershey's Factory



Ghirardelli gave us free caramel filled chocolate square samples. Hershey gave us a kiss...bow-bow.



But Danny got a hat!

Water Tower



Only public building to survive the Great Chicago fire of 1871. Symbol of Old Chicago. Also inspiration for White Castle restaurants...but nobody reading this cares about midwestern fast-food chains.



Saturday=Beach Day

...

Cutest thing you'll ever see in your life

Watch the whole thing. You wont regret it.

What We've Done: Part Two

More Freebies:

Millenium Park


The Bean!



Face fountains

There are two. They blink. They become different faces.

Millenium Park has a rotating sculpture garden

These are from China

This is where Danny's subway to work pops out. Wishing Velma and Roxie were here.

Chicago History Museum: Free on Mondays


1 slice of deep dish chicago style pizza=7 slices of thin crust pizza (We are currently the 13th fattest city in the U.S. thank you very much)

For some reason we spent most of our time in the kid exhibit

I didn't know Chicago was famous for hot dogs. What makes a Chicago style hot dog: All beef dog, poppy seed bun, yellow mustard, onions, pickle relish AND dill pickle spears, Tomato wedges, pickled peppers, and celery salt. Intimidating. But alright.

China Town


Danny said it best: I always go to China Towns hoping they'll be like Disneyland.

But of course they're not. So we just ate chow mein and drank bobas.

Catholic church Al Capone went to. Sorry no pictures of Buddhist temple or sculpture garden.

Baseball

Danny's internship program has some activities. White Sox game. Rained and rained and rained. They were playing the Angels. We didn't stay long enough to see them though. We just sat in the rain while it was postponed for 3 hours and ate $40 dollars in free coupons of ball park food.







To be continued...

What We've Done: Part One

Two of Danny's brothers have visited us on business trips.

Being a tourist with Brett:



I pass this walking Twinkie every day

Architecture boat tour



Danny's building is the dark grey one in the center



Willis Tower (Sears Tower)



They built a glass box you can step out onto so it looks like you are going to fall a million stories and die.









Brett loves hot asian buns. No but really, he does.

Hanging out with Matt:





I made an itinerary of all free things to do this summer. Here are what we've done so far:

The Art Institute is free Thursday evenings. Only been there twice.

Cassatt

glackens

Duchamp


Picasso


Pollock


Van Gogh


Seurat

Some random painting no one knows


Hopper

The Aquarium







I always knew sea life freaked me out a little. But I didn't know I had a full blown phobia of it. I burst into tears after this photo. Yes I'm being serious.



Millenium park has free concerts almost every day. People bring picnics and watch. This one was a group from Haiti.



Amphitheater designed by Frank Gehry.

Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory. The Apes were Crazy.





Tiger.



Conservatory. Tropical plants exposition.



Taste of Chicago. The city pays some 2nd tier artists to come perform, a bunch of restaurants have food and you get "tastes" of them with tickets. Leo Burnett gave us 60 tickets. Free food is good food.





and the only photos i have from it are butterflies on my shoulder

The Beach. I didn't bring a camera. So here's an image of the beach we went to I found online. It was not this crazy. It wasn't crazy at all. Ratio women to men, 10:1.



Navy Pier.




The very first Ferris Wheel was right here at the World Fair. Three times the size of this one.




Fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday night.





Much more to come.