Stop at the Sign of the Lemon

Vacation began by visiting my grandmother’s house in Rhode Island. Anyone that’s tried it, knows that Del’s Frozen Lemonade is UNREAL (aka very delicious). I cannot go to her house without stopping at Del’s.

Family Time

My family and I went to Chicago to visit my brother who started working there last September. We spent the weekend and early this week hanging out; going on architecture cruises, bike tours, seeing Beyonce (she was staying at our hotel!), going to the beach and then some.

The Big Bean

We went to the bean, which is a huge stainless steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor (and is actually called “Cloud Gate”). Cloud Gate is a staple of Chicago’s Millennium Park. My brother tried to convince me that it was made out of one piece of steel, I believed him until I just read the Wikipedia article and found it’s made of 168 welded steel plates. It looks so seamless though.

Jay Pritzker Pavillion

We also walked around the Jay Pritzker Pavillion. The band shell is like it’s own sculpture!

Barefoot Sailors

We went down to the harbor to look at all the sailboats. Many of the sailors were readying their boats for the Chicago Yacht Club’s Race to the Mackinac, one of the longest fresh-water sailboat races in the world. If you downloaded Youth + Constellations you may have read that my Dad used to race sailboats, which is part of my obsession with all things nautical. (Not to mention that I think it’s really cute that most of the deckhands go barefoot.)

Carved Turtles

I took a visit to the John G. Shedd aquarium. The architecture there (much like the rest of the city) was amazing. They even had sea turtles sculpted into the ceiling.

Underwater Garden

At the aquarium my favorite exhibit was these sea anemones that looked like an underwater garden. I love the colors! I was bummed that the aquarium didn’t have any huge sea turtles. But they had baluga whales!

96th Floor

On my last night in Chicago, I went to the top of the John Hancock building, to the 96th floor and looked over the city. It was an incredible view, and a perfect ending to my vacation.

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