Chicago Photo Interlude Pt.2

After leaving the NBC studios, Dave headed to class, leaving the dynamic trio to wander the city aimlessly. We picked up a map (not the popup map that Paul wanted) and planned our day. We decided to head to the Navy Pier and go from there. One of the coolest things about that plan was that there is a free trolley that runs every 20 minutes from downtown. Quite convenient and I wonder if Toronto has something like that. They should. (an aside: the Chicago subway system seems to be fairly effective and efficient. it covers a fairly wide region [going up to O'Hare as well] and makes me lament our very limited subway system even more)

When we got to the Navy Pier, we walked around the main building and headed to the amusement park. I got the chills while walking around there. I remarked that it felt like I was in the video game "Silent Hill," thanks in part to the constant fog we experienced in Chicago, and because there was nobody on the rides.



Correction, there was one person on the ride. I couldn't help laugh at the sight of the one kid going around that swing. The coup de grâce was when the kid shouted "Hi Everybody!" There's no one here kid. No one. Well, seeing as there were no lineups we decided to head to the ferris wheel and see the Chicago skyline.



This is what happens when you try to take a panoramic shot of the city from moving ferris wheel car. Also, there's a black building in the center that blocks the Sears tower which is really what we wanted a shot of. The automated recording in the car stated that our view would be obstructed. Thanks for telling us when we're already up there.
(ed: i lost some of this post...quick tip, don't click on links in msn while editing in blogger...i've lost the will to rewrite all of what i had before. but trust me, it was good. and much much funnier than the stuff that currently exists)

Anyway we headed into the buildings on the pier, and saw a pretty impressive stained glass exhibit. The photos didn't turn out too well, i gotta get a tripod for the slow shutter speed shots, cause this flash business doesn't really work.



After that, we realized most of the day had slipped away. We headed back downtown, stopped in for a drink at the Rainforest Cafe and then made our way home. Wednesday evening we went out and met up with Art & Nate at the club I mentioned earlier (dance music that cleared the dance floor...).

Thursday was off to a lazy start, but the plan was to hit the Art Institute. I'm not big on the classical fine arts (gimme photography, music, poetry, heck, even dance before wandering a gallery), so when our free passes courtesy the Chicago Public Library system were conveniently forgotten at home, I opted to just wander around downtown (where I had my pawn shop story). But before we split up, we passed by the greatest store.



The Segway Store. It was so great getting to try out the Segway...I was following that story back when it was "Ginger" or "It." It's definitely something that has to be experienced as it's like no other transportation I've used. Avery described how to do a panning shot to capture motion in a picture, and I think this one turned out pretty good.



This is a shot from an L platform...I wish I could take good city shots. At least I'm hitting enough cities to practice finally.