Chicago, Illinois

I went up here one weekend while still stationed in Corpus Christi. The most I had ever seen of Chicago were pictures like the one above and the city from a distance while landing at the airport to switch flights. The city is remarkably clean and friendly with tons of people walking / biking / running around. I was only able to stay for the weekend, but it was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go back.

First stop after the airport was a park with a decent view of all the buildings. Too bad this random girl ruined the picture. Just kidding. That's Jenn Kwon! Hooray! You can read her blog about weird things here: http://jenniferkwon.wordpress.com/.

Here's a view from my hotel room. And here's another:

And another! I was having fun messing around with all the functions on my camera.

The next day was a lot of walking around the city. In the two days I was there my phone (the crappy Sony Ericsson W580i) recorded my pace count and estimated I walked about 19.5 miles. The first attraction was Millennium Park to see the giant "Bean". The bean ended up being a giant shiny...thing that distorted everything, which made pictures look pretty cool.

Can you find me? How about now.

After that it was a lot more meandering to wherever we felt like. The day went by too fast and soon it was time to head back to Corpus.

I think the greatest feeling was realizing we were old enough to go off to strange cities unrestricted, but having none of the day-to-day responsibilities that come with getting old and boring, even if it was only for a weekend.