A Day Downtown

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you've had a great weekend with a little time for some stitching, too.  I've managed to get a little cross stitch in this weekend, but earlier in the week DH and I took the train to the Loop for a day in the city.  I brought my camera with, and thought I'd share a few photos of my neck of the woods.

It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk up Michigan Avenue, starting at Millennium Park.  

 

This is Cloud Gate, designed by

British artist Anish Kapoor,

but everyone here calls it The Bean.

You can walk right up to it and take a selfie!

 Another fun feature of the park is Crown Fountain,

designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

It consists of two glass block towers

with images of 1,000 Chicagoans projected onto them,

and a little reflecting pool in the middle.

Further north is the Tribune Tower,

completed in 1925 and designed by

Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells.

It's neo-gothic in style with flying buttresses at the top.

One of the many cool things about this building

is the fact that there are almost 150 stones

or fragments of structures from around the world

 embedded in the outside walls of the building.

 Nope, not gonna make you look at all of them!

Right across the street from the Tribune Tower is the Wrigley Building.

This building was designed by the firm of

Graham, Anderson, Probst and White 
for William Wrigley, Jr. (the gum guy).

It was the first major office building built north of the Chicago River

(it was built just a couple of years earlier than the Tribune Tower)

and the first one to have air conditioning in the City of Chicago.

And speaking of all things Wrigley....

Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs)

is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year,

and you can find these decorated seats along Michigan Avenue.

I wasn't going to take a photo, but DH urged me on
(I'm so not a Cubs fan).

It's weird--in Chicago, if you follow baseball,

you're either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan--never both.

I will say that the late Ron Santo was a great guy,

just had the misfortune to play for the Cubs!

One of our newest skyscrapers, the Trump Tower.

Those letters are 20 feet high and the Mayor hates them

and is looking for ways to get them removed permanently.

The Donald, on the other hand, thinks that they're wonderful

and enhance the values of the neighboring property!

It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride on the Chicago River!

And here's the reason we went downtown:

Taking photos was strictly prohibited

inside of the theater, so this is the best you'll get.

The musical was great-- there were over 60 songs

made famous by the Motown artists

of the 60's and 70's.

And here's one last little surprise.

It's stitch-related.

The finishes in 2014 on this here blog

have been few and far between,

not because I haven't been stitching,

but I've been devoting a lot of time

to my larger projects.

But I did manage to finish my funky bird.

This is La D Da's A Bird in Hand

using the recommended fabric and silks,

except for the eye and spots on the bird,

where I substituted Gloriana India Ink.

The recommended color was just too

close in tone to the bird's body. 

It's nice to have a finish once in a while.

I have several other smaller bird designs

which I should plug into what passes for

my rotation these days.

That's it from here.

Thanks for visiting!