July 2010

July was, by far, our busiest month this year! We went to a couple of neighborhood street festivals, the Taste of Chicago event, Navy Pier for fireworks, and the Lincoln Park Zoo for our entertainment. We stalked the filming of the "Transformers 3" movie, too!

All of these events were free, except for the cost of tickets to try foods at the "Taste". Here, you purchase tickets instead of exchanging money for the food. The participating restaurants serve their signature items, so they have a limited menu, generally 5 or 6 things. They also do "taste portions", which are about half the size of a full order. We much preferred doing this, so we could try something without having to commit a bunch of tickets to something we weren't sure we'd like.

So about our trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo: they just opened an entirely new section to the Zoo, which has been closed off since we moved here in November. It is still a little bare, but is a nice area for wildlife. During the slideshow, you'll see a momma duck and 2 ducks on one side of a net, and two or three other babies on the other side; they got separated somehow and we were able to watch the drama from above, unable to help. So what do I do? Start taking pictures while being super-sad for them... they were a bit frantic about getting back together, but not petrified. Sadness at the zoo.

November and December 2009

I took up residence in Chicago the weekend before Thanksgiving, so I was still getting my bearings. December was more interesting, as I learned the Lincoln Park area, where we lived temporarily. We found great ticket prices for the Blue Man Group, and found out that the theater they perform in is two train stops from our home.

We had our first guests, both of our parents and one of my best friends from back home in Georgia. While we had our company here, we visited the Field Museum, the Sears (Willis) Tower and Navy Pier for New Year's Eve fireworks. We wound up walking almost four and a half miles to get to the Pier (on accident) in the December 31 temperatures. Lesson learned.

I have also learned that, no matter how certain you are of where you're going, you should learn another train or bus stop nearby, just in case you get "temporarily mislocated". This helps considerably more if you know the streets and intersections for which you're aiming. Again: lesson learned.