sunset on the last night in Santa Fe

Bird in his puffy coat

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On the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

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Church at Chimayo on the way to Taos

La Posada on the Plaza

First Christmas embellishment at Clay West

Yippy! The tree is done

New Mexico at last

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Day 3 - Texas welcomes us and the sun shines!

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Welcome to rainy Illinois

Stuck at the Land Rover dealer in St. Louis

Michigan Weekend

We spent last weekend in western Michigan with Gary & Linda.  We drove across the state to Warren Dunes State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan where the wind has created huge sand piles.  We attempted to climb this one but it is exhausting. The sand is soft and you can barely get a foothold.

Skipping stones was only slightly more successful

Some of us just had to get their feet wet (brrr)

We did conquer this smaller dune

We headed north to Holland for the night and after dinner thought we would catch the sunset on the lake. This is what we saw.

Ghostly figures in the mist

Gary helps engineer a canal



On Sunday we went to Windmill Island which was practically deserted.  This is way more popular at tulip time



This all-girl Klompen group seemed to lack enthusiasm



They wear about nine pairs of socks with the wooden shoes

For even more pictures and the exact locations visit Cheryl's Panoramio Pics at
http://www.panoramio.com/user/480866



Up & Out

Our last day in Chicago is really only a half-day. We have some more time on Michigan Ave. for shopping. We didn't see a need for anything so we wandered into Tiffany's where we knew we wouldn't buy anything. It was our anniversary so we should have been buying diamonds but ....

You may click on the pictures to enlarge them.

This busy spider spun a web on the 95th floor while we had lunch (John Hancock Center, Signature Room)

Bird's eye view of Chicago Beach

The following are some random pictures I just like.

Old Water Tower on Michigan Ave. that looks more like a church

Cool off spot (normal view)

Buckingham Fountain
This thing shoots above treetops but not over the skyscrapers

The Buckingham at night with lights
Timing was off to get the big blast

The Sun Comes Out

Thursday was a beautiful day and gratefully so because we had a lot of walking to do.  We took a quick stop at Millenium Park and the Cloud Gate sculpture better known as the BEAN.

The refelctive surface provides a sort of funhouse self-portrait effect

This is from underneath looking straight up

Next to  Water Tower Place (shopping) but we walked back down Michigan Ave. to Eddie Bauer. All I bought was a lousy T shirt. We then trodded north again to meet the group and the bus after a little exploring the 5 story mall at Water Tower Place.

The sidewalks on Michigan Ave. are rampant with mini-gardens.  Some even have water features.  The dividers in the center of the street are also planted.

Navy Pier was our next stop where we boarded the OdysseyII for an very yummy lunch cruise.



Right next to the big wheel was this guy "fixing the roof" of a huge tent.  Looks like he's on a ski slope. 

View from Lake Michigan & skyline of Chicago from the back of the boat

After an enormous lunch we walked it and our feet off on the mile and a half to the Chicago Institute of Art.  We left the group at this point and will meet up with them at dinner.



These pictures are out of order.  The exterior shot of the museum garden should be at the end but I am having technical difficulties!

We visited the Impressionist and American Art up to 1900 (2 hours) before heading out for another walk further south on Michigan Ave. to our hotel where we got a taxi to dinner at Tommy Gun's Garage.  I liked it better than I thought I would.  You can check it out here.  No  photography allowed.

http://www.tommygunsgarage.com/

Rainy Day Chicago

Thankfully day 2 was spent indoors or in the bus (they prefer us to call it a motor coach). We had a financial morning at the Chicago Board of Trade and saw the frantic trading going on over corn options and then to the Federal Reserve of Chicago's Money Museum (snooze).  If you are interested continue to the bottom of this post for a fiscal commentary*.

Goddess of Grain

Goddess of Big Macs

No photography permitted inside the Fed or the trading floor

After lunch we headed out in a downpour to Oak Park to the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.

This is Frank's place. Had to move on before I got a better shot

Here is a nini- Fallingwater. Hope those trees never fall on it.

There again was no photography allowed inside FLW's house and the nearby neighbors wouldn't let us in. So no interiors here. Now we head off to Willis (formerly Sears) Tower for a view of the city at night and deep in clouds.

 

This is FLW's design that got altered badly after a fire.



View from the top!



Sitting on air (heavy duty plexi-glass) on the 101st floor

*

Dan and I went on a 4 day AAA tour to Chicago this week and one of the included stops was at the Federal Reserve "Money Museum". You don't really see anything of the building but there is this film and a guy "explaining". His droning low key voice put most of this somewaht elderly crowd to sleep (including hubby) but at the conclusion one alert tourist asked "What are we going to do about this terrible debt situation?"

This guy was not just a an "actor". He explained he was retired from the financial industry and was bored so he took on this little gig. Anyway his reply was "Vote out all the incumbents." And then went on to say that the whole financial meltdown was the fault of "JImmy Carter who insisted that the financial opportunites be opened up back in 1977."

THE END We are escorted into a very silly display about money. I was really irritated as everyone filed out presumably having had an explanation from some real authority. I really wanted to yell out there was another view but could only mutter to Dan how patently ridiculous I thought this was. Yes, it had a very teeny grain of truth, but.....

He said we were on camera and everything was recorded. Creepy!



Over & Done

We returned last night from the Chicago Tour. My intention was to post from there but time and technology issues prevented it. I am going to post some of my better pics and a few comments after the fact.


These were taken at our first stop at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. We had a campus tour by a young student who has mastered the ability to walk backwards for an hour in untied sneakers.

He told us that all of the statues on campus have nicknames.  This is dubbed "The Hand-Off".

Just a bit of the "glamour" in the Basilica.

This is my favorite shot with my spy zoom.  It's always a disappointment when you arrive at a famous landmark and it is covered with scaffolding.  But sometimes it lends to some creativity.

   

                                              

Knute Rockne might have really appreciated roller-blading

  

Guess what !

It's the Studebaker Museum also in South Bend

These old ones were really better-looking