Day trip to Chicago......
My dad had a meeting in Chicago on Monday but he couldn't get a flight home until Wednesday. So, I took advantage of being a graduate student and drove to chicago on Tuesday to spend the afternoon being a tourist with him. First we went to Millenium park to see "the bean" (AKA Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor) - which is the one of coolest pieces of sculpture I've seen. Millenium Park also has a fountain with LCD screens that shows the faces of average chicago residents. Every few minutes, the face puckers its lips and spits a stream of water onto the kids (and adults) playing in the pool. Then the face changes and the cyle starts all over again. I really like how the art at Millenium park is so interactive, it doesn't feel pretentious or overbearing like some of the other outdoor sculptures in the city - the average person was meant to enjoy it. After Millenium park, we went to the Sears tower to see the view. It was a sunny day and the visibility was good so it was worth the cost of admission. I've been to Chicago a number of times since I've been in grad school but I hadn't spent enough time being a tourist - it seems I was missing out on a great city. Now I just need to get Jeff to take me to see Wicked before we leave and there's a few architecture tours I'd like to do so I guess I'd better get going since I'm graduating next May.

Crown fountain by Jaume Plensa and the view from the Sears tower