Chicago - arrival day

 First glimpses of Chicago from the train ...

 curious part, you go quite a ways into Chicago, and then you back into the station ...

 First thing I snapped a photo of at Union Station, Chicago:

 I found it to hard to resist.

 Not a lot of time to snap photos in the train station, but this is from the Grand Hall as I made my way to the street and my ride...

 I did only a tiny bit of sightseeing in downtown Chicago at the urging of my new friend.  I mostly spent time in the Art Institute's gift shop ... AMAZING things in there.

 I walked around Millennium Park and got some cool shots of the really odd structures and public art.

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And of course, I had a ton of fun taking photos of the bean.  And I found out that its name is not The Bean but something about a cloud?

The park and the view from the park was pretty spectacular as well.

 I didn't want to intrude, so I waited til they finished but I enjoyed watching this woman pose for her husband in front of the fountain.

I am always so happy to see such a large space left "open" or relatively "open" for the use of the people. 

 I stood in this spot and watched a train go through and realized I should have taken a photo, so I waited for the next one to come through

 Finally, before I set off in search of a place to rest and COLOR, I took some pictures of the library, again right across from the park.  And some other really gorgeous buildings with beautiful texture and details: