Chicago's a Windy City

Museum of Science and Industry, the Hard Rock Cafe, and Dave & Buster’s. Eric and I spent four hours in the MSI, and we still didn’t get to see the whole thing. We DID, however, see the U-505 exhibit and the Smart Home. While not exactly a smart house in the sense that Microsoft would like you to think, it was a great example of low-impact very “green” construction and engineering. It was actually made from old shipping containers that were joined together. I really liked that house, and would love to live in a house like that. The U-Boat was pretty cool as well. I had to hold way back because I’m very claustrophobic, and didn’t want the feeling of being trapped in there. Fortunately for me, they let me hang back and I was able to overcome my main fear when going into the second section of the sub. It was all in all a very good experience for me. Artifacts from WWII do fascinate me, and being able to go aboard a piece of history like this is really an awesome experience for me. I wish I could have taken pictures, but sadly they stopped allowing people to do that when the museum found out people were selling the pictures and videos on eBay and not getting a cut of the profits. 🙁 Yeah, bummer for me. I did buy a coffee table book while I was in the gift shop, and on the way out of the museum I made a cash donation in the box. It was only $3, but it was my last $3. 🙂 After the museum, Eric and I headed out to North Michigan road area to hit up the main Apple Store in Chicago and meet up with Evan. When done at the Apple Store, we went to the Hard Rock for dinner. Dinner was yummy, and I spent a few more of my precious dollars on swag from the cafe store. 🙂 More shirts to add to my collection. Thursday I also went into Chicago. (That was day 1 in the area, not to be confused with Travel Day 1) I took mass transit in and basically bummed around town for the day. I got to see Union Station and went up the Sears Tower. Union Station was pretty amazing. We just don’t have anything like that in northern California. From the architecture to the sheer size of the place, it’s all pretty awesome. They even have a bloody baggage claim! Several movies have been shot in and around the station. The bit I was really excited about was the grand stairway leading into the Great Room. This is where the famous baby-carriage scene in the movie The Untouchables was filmed. While it was very cool to be there, I was a bit disappointed. In the movie, that stairway seemed MUCH larger. In truth, it’s not all that large, but it IS still every bit as grand to look at. I got a few pictures of both the staircase and the great room and will have them up as soon as I have a chance to touch them up and adjust the color. The Sears Tower was pretty awesome. How often does one get to say they were standing on a man-made platform some 1300 feet above the ground? The 103rd floor deck was closed for some remodeling, but the 99th floor was open. Sadly, I’ve never been up there when the 103rd floor has been open. 🙁 Oh well. I got some decent pix from up there. Again, I need to take a look at them and do some color correcting and I’ll be able to post them up in my gallery. Speaking of color correcting digital photos… Eric has been showing me a bit more about photography. I learned how to use the histograms to gauge the color range for a photo – what I should be looking for and trying to avoid and all that. Once I get a photo editing application installed on here, I’ll get things going and will get them pushed up. I can’t wait to share these photos with everybody. Some of today’s shots really turned out great! Anyway… That’s all from me for now. Thanks for visiting and Keep Coming back!!!]]>