I actually drove in from O'Hare on I-94. Coming into Chicago was an experience. It was snowing and dark, so the sky was hazy and lit by the city. Everything was flat and featureless. Then out of nowhere you see the faintest outlines of the skyline -- which rapidly grow closer and closer, clearer and clearer, until you're looking at downtown Chicago literally rising out of the mist.
I ended up stopping off at a well-rated diner for a bite to eat, so I went right by the Loop. Chicago's actually a very beautiful city. Sprawling, but well-planned enough that all the buildings (with the exception of the fugly John Hancock) look proportionate and placed, and not so large that you kinda lose track of its edges (i.e., LA). Also, sitting on the curved edge of a lake really helps. Any city looks better reflected across water.
After dinner my phoneGPS routed me back up north along I-94 to cross the river into River North, where Mag Mile and my hotel were. Since that took me almost right past 520 Kingsbury, I made a small detour, really intending to just snap two pics and then retire to the hotel.
That's not what happened. *LOL*
First pic is ... you guessed it, 520 N Kingsbury. This pic is taken from the northwest side. A certain blonde Shadow Lord kin would reside somewhere up near the top of that pic, sorta around the corner. I.e. you would be able to see the north bedroom there, but not the living room/main bedroom:
Second pic shows a nice view down the river, looking toward the Mag Mile area:
This pic is a pic of the base of the tower. You can see its adjoining ... I'm not sure what that is. Parking garage? Something. Anyway, there's also a nice little area where you can hang out and look at the river. Of course, no one was actually out there because it was 200 below zero. Actually that's not true -- I saw a couple of joggers go by while I was freezing my fingers off snapping blurry cameraphone pics.
Anyway. Base of tower!
This is the front of the building. There's a little circular driveway, which is where I parked, and a parking structure to the left of this pic. I'm pretty sure that's a security desk in there. I'm pretty sure I also looked like a complete stalker. Either that or someone very, very interested in renting:
And finally, this is a look up the west end of the building. Arrows indicate a patch of vaguely resolved inky darkness that represents 23C's living room windows *LOL*
After that, I decided I'd terrorized the denizens of 520 King enough and drove on toward the Mile. My hotel is literally half a block off the Mile, so as I was headed over I crossed Michigan Ave and was so wowed I decided to go back around for a look. Unfortunately, one-way streets somehow directed my ass onto Lake Shore Drive --
which, btw, they abbreviate LSD here. As in, "LSD North, Left Lane. LSD South, Right Lane." MASSIVE CONFUSION.
-- and at point, I decided I might as well drive down a bit for a look-see. At some point I must have crossed the river, because by the time I decided to hang a U I think I was either in or close to Grant Park. Regardless, the place I pulled over to take a U-turn in just happened to be this:
-- so of course I took a pic. It's actually more impressive in person, all stately stone facade and all. It's closed for the season, though. Turning around from the yacht club, I was faced with this gorgeous view of the city:
-- that's looking more toward the Mile/lakeshore. That roundish tall building on the right is, in fact, the address where I've got Ivan living. However, the penthouse he actually lives in is imported from SoHo *LOL*.
This is looking more toward the Loop --
In both of those, you can actually see Lake Shore Drive. It's this huge street, like 4 lanes on each side, but oddly enough it was almost deserted at like... 7:30pm. Then again, maybe it's because it's a Thursday night, not a holiday, and assfreezing cold outside, and no one else was insane enough to be zipping around playing tourist *LOL* It was kinda cool, though, because it almost felt like I had this big city all to myself.
Anyway, heading away from the yacht club, I happened to glimpse this and immediately pulled over to take a pic:
If it's not immediately obvious what I'm taking a pic of -- focus on the tiny blue glow in the middle of the pic. That's W. Really. :]
At THIS point, right after taking that pic, a cop pulled over next to me. Turned out I was in the middle of a bus route *LOL* He was uber-nice, though, when I explained abashedly that I was taking a picture. So then I went on, and on my way back toward the Mile, stopped off when I saw this:
It's all bright and carnival-y and cheerful! That's some... children's museum or something. I think the Pier itself is pedestrian-only, but there was a long street down the back side or something, which I drove down. This street was COMPLETELY deserted, but not in a scary way -- just in a wide-open way. Not very far down the pier, I came across ye olde ferris wheel that Alex broke into:
This is about halfway down the pier, looking lakeward:
And this is allll the way at the end of the pier, looking downtown-ward:
Now, I took this next pic specifically for those chilltankers who claimed lakes the size of Michigan don't freeze over.
THE LAKE DOESN'T FREEZE OVER, MY ASS. Here's another one to rub in various faces. This is looking eastward across open water:
Now, I will say that in places where cruise ships and/or shipping lanes run, they've obviously plowed the ice aside to make room. But yeah. Lake Michigan does, indeed, freeze. And it freezes hardcore, not just a couple feet at the edges but really, really far out.
OK, from there I pretty much finally found my way back to the north end of the Mile, and drove south to get a good look. Sadly, this actually impressed me less than a 1 second glimpse while crossing Michigan. Turns out my hotel was in the heart of the Mile; driving down the whole length made it seem kinda less crowded/impressive/magnificent. I think it's about comparable to Market in SF, except SF's actual designer stores at in union square and on maiden lane.
Still, this was pretty -- just a church randomly there in the middle of the Mile:
And I tried to get a pic of the heart of the Mile, but it was apparently too magnificent for my dinky cell phone cam to capture:
...annnd that's it for now! Tomorrow I've got plans to hit up Stickney, and maybe walk around Grant Park a bit if it's not too cold. I might also go get some daytime shots of MM/Kingsbury/etc :D
0 comments:
Post a Comment