..in the town of Chicago

The reason I haven't posted at all in the past week is because I've been in (if you hadn't guessed from the title) Chicago!

I stayed at the Hilton Chicago, which was the most gorgeous hotel I've ever been in. Chandeliers everywhere, giant ballrooms (they were closed off to the public though), and fountains. Absolutely beautiful. Our view form the room was a bit shit, but you could see a lot of tall buildings and at night they looked great all lit up.

Day 1- My sister was actually in Chicago at the same time we were. So we went to a place called Yolk and had lunch with her and her boyfriend.

After visiting with them, we slept for hours. When we woke up the sun was still out, so we went across the street to Grant Park and I took pictures of these funny leg statues.

Then we ate dinner at Giordano's, which our taxi driver said was the best Chicago-style pizza in town. Which ended up not being that great. Our waiter was a very interesting person though. I liked him a lot. Since his kids are all grown, he moves every 5 years to a new city just because he wants the experience. I forget all the places that he's already lived, but after Chicago he's going to Denver. He also worked 4 jobs, to keep up with expenses. After that, we walked to Millennium Park. By that time, it was already dark out. The park was absolutely stunning at night. Almost no tourists, just kids playing in the 'face fountains' and teenagers hanging out under the Bean. I loved it.

Our first day there also coincided with Spring Awakening, which is an EDM music festival in Chicago. All day I had seen girls walking around with flower crowns, bedazzled bras, furry boots, and neon everything, with hot guys in tow. Around the time we were walking back to the hotel, the festival ended, so it was just crowds of drugged up and tired teenagers everywhere. It was pretty cool actually.

Day 2- The next day, I went to the museum campus. That's where the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium are. The Field museum came first and it was very interesting. I went into an exhibit about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and another about the history of life on our planet. Both very interesting. I have lots of pictures of weird animal skeletons on my camera now. Another thing I found, was a contraption called 'Mold-a-Rama' which is a machine that you put quarters into and it makes you a wax figure of something. The literally had one at every museum I went to. Of course I got one, because my Dad flipped out when we saw one. Apparently they had them around a lot when he was a kid and then he started getting all nostalgic. I got one of a blue Triceratops and he got a green Apatosaurus.

After that, I went to the Shedd Aquarium. Now, normally aquariums are some of my favorite places on Earth. However, when I got there, I was unaware of the fact that day was freaking 'family day' so the entire places was swamped with little kids and their parents. I tried to make it through the main parts of the aquarium, but it just got so awful that instead I went straight to the jellyfish room. That was much quieter. After staring at those for a bit, I went on to look at Beluga wales, sharks, penguins, eels, various colorful fish, etc. The absolute highlight of the entire thing was the Stingray touch tank. I was there for a good half an hour just petting Stingrays. They're so cute and friendly and slimy. I love-love-loved it.

On our way back, we ran into a humungous crowd that had all gathered in a field to watch the World Cup. It was really cool. People brought flags, painted their faces, dressed in the appropriate colors, and someone even brought a grill. The game was US vs. Ghana and it was being played on this huge jumbo-tron screen. I didn't stay to watch, but once I got back to my hotel then I did for a bit. The last thing we did was go to this awesome diner, that I must recommend to anyone going to Chicago, called Eleven City Diner.

Day 3- This entire day was basically spent at the Chicago Art Institute. It was a lovely place, and I got a new journal, some mini Andy Warhol notebooks in the gift shop, a postcard with [this] Magritte painting on it, a copy of 'Alice in Tumblr-land', some Andy Warhol quote pencils, and a 'C'est Ne Une Pipe' pin. The latter two are for the best friend. Unfortunately the photography, architecture, and print galleries were being renovated so I had to miss out on those, and I stumbled into an exhibit entitled 'Clown Torture', so I left the Institute with a sour taste in my mouth and a phobia of clowns. I also got barked at by a security guard for sitting in the wrong place. I don't think I'll be going to an art museum for quite some time. I think the only calming moment I had at that place was the Impressionist gallery, which was absolutely wonderful.

After that we walked next door to Millennium Park again because I insisted on seeing it in the daylight. It did not disappoint.

Then we made a decision to go to Skydeck, which was cool but not really cool. Definitely nice seeing the city from over 100 stories up. Very peaceful and a great photo-op. Once I actually got into one of those skydeck box things, I didn't really have the time to enjoy it because the line was so demanding and the woman next to me just HAD to take one of those corny jumping pictures (3 times?!?) and then her friend had to as well. I mostly sat against a wall in between a group of teenagers from some European country and an old Asian man. Great day amiright?

Day 4- My last full day in the city it rained like crazy all morning. We got a taxi to the Museum of Science and Industry and I was pumped. The only reason I was going was to see their new Walt Disney archives exhibit. The museum itself was pretty cool though. The main lobby/gift shop part is actually underground, and that's where you have to go first. The Disney exhibit was something you had to buy a timed ticket for, so went went and saw an IMAX movie about butterflies (at my mother's request). It was shown on this spherical screen, which was way cool. After that, we went into this interactive exhibit about storms and weather. It literally looked like the dream mansion of a mad scientist. There were crazy color reflections, this cloud vortex, a giant electricity conductor, hot air balloons, it was crazy. We meandered and messed around with stuff in there until it was our turn for the Disney archives. The guy at the entrance asked what my favorite Disney movie was. At first I paused and went "That's a really hard question." he laughed and I finally answered Peter Pan. He said he'd heard that a few times today and let me in. Then I started contemplating that question and immediately regretted my answer. I love Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, and Cinderella all so much more than Peter Pan. Regardless, that exhibit was beautiful. It was divided up into parts. Walt's life and career, the process of making animated movies, about various movies, and then Disneyland. I tried to soak up as much as possible and I took pictures of almost everything I could. They had clips from certain movies playing as well. At the very end there was a guy teaching people how to draw Mickey Mouse's face. I got my mom to go into that with me and I think our Mickey's turned out pretty nicely. We stopped and talked to this guy named Kyle, who was doing photo orders for the exhibit. He was really young and pretty cute. He'd only been working there 2 months and it was only his second job ever. His first was at a doggy day care. Kyle you adorable human being.

After realizing the museum store had no Disney stuff at all and staring at a fro-yo serving robot, we left the museum and went to Hard Rock Cafe. I ate, admired the memorabilia, people watched because they were having some business people networking event, and then left to go back to the hotel. I watched the fog and rain, and slept.

That sums up my 4 day vacation to Chicago. After that we drove 5 hours to Kentucky for my Uncle's wedding (which was beautiful and I wanted to cry from the cuteness). We stayed for a few days for that and to see family. I got to meet some really cool family members that I had never met before, got lots of hugs from family friends who hadn't seen me since I was like 7, and spent some serious bonding time with my sister. But now I am back home, and must adjust to normal life. I've already spent today sleeping until 12, watching Netflix for hours, and seeing the boyfriend, so I think I'm doing fine.

*I'll add more pictures later, I don't have them ready at the moment.

Song of the day- [Peace Frog] by The Doors

P.S. Am I the only one who thinks Lana's 'Shades of Cool' sounds very James Bond-esque? I would love for her to do the intro for the next one, she'd make a perfect Bond girl.