August 10 -- morning -- the lake, and Millenium Park

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The morning of the 10th was gorgeous.  Walking through the park toward the lake, looking north.

Railroad tracks run through the park.  I believe this is for commuter trains.  Union Station, where Amtrak trains (from other states) come and go, is west of here.

There are several bridges over the tracks.  Most are for vehicles and pedestrians; a few are just for pedestrians.  Looking south.

Continuing toward the lake.  Looking north at Buckingham Fountain.

The lake!  One of the things I love about "big water" is the infinity of the view.  All that space, with hardly any people in it (relative to on land!).  It makes me feel like I can *breathe*................

On the walkway near the water, looking north.

Lots and lots of sailboats.  I wondered how people actually get out  to their boats.  I heard someone tell someone else that they use paddle boards.  I saw lots of boats in motion, but I did not see anyone actually go out from shore to a boat.

Chain, with lock, in what seemed to be a random spot along the walkway.

We walked a ways up the lake, and then turned back in toward the parks.  The newest in the set of parks is meant mostly for kids.  Lots of playgrounds, and these enormous "rock" climbing areas.  It's hard to tell in this pic, but these are BIG.  I wonder how the belaying works.

I wasn't paying attention when I took the pic, but I notice now that the colors of the "rocks" are consistent from bottom to top.  I bet that whoever is going up the yellow ones needs to stay on the yellow ones, and not cross over to another color.  That will help climbers not get tangled up....  My kid did a lot of "rock" climbing in a local gym when she was in elementary school.  She'd have loooooved this, if it had been here when she was that age.

There is a fancy pedestrian bridge to/from Millennium Park, over this busy road.  (You might think I'd know the names of the roads, having walked along them several times, but ... nope.)  We are looking north.

That pink, across the bridge you see above, is flowers.  I bet they are petunias.

What a nice day, eh?

Here we are in Millennium Park, looking at the performance area from ground level.  You can see that the network of pipes over the listeners is dotted with speakers.  I am sure this enhances the listeners' ability to hear the performance!

This is one of my favorite pieces of big outdoor art, ever.  Thinking about the fact that one of my other faves, the Miroir d'Eau (water mirror) in Bordeaux, is also reflective.  Here is one of my posts about the Miroir.  (scroll down, if you click through).

Like the Miroir, one of the things about this piece is the way people interact with it.  The young woman in the foreground is taking a pic of the guy in the plaid shorts.



One of the things I love about this is the curvature.  I totally love the reflected buildings, curving around the edges.....

If you are farther away from it, your reflection is upright, but if you are close to it, your reflection is at 90 degrees.  Ish.

You can walk right under it, as you see the young woman doing, above.  I didn't pay attention to what the shape is like, underneath, but it's clearly quite complicated!

I didn't spend any time actually paying attention to the reflections when I was under there, but look!  We are circled in green.  That's us, over and over and over (rendered easier to spot than we might have been by my green bag -- a souvenir from Italy).

The blue circles are around a guy in a tshirt in a color similar to my bag, who was standing close to us when I took the pics.  Now I want to go back under there, and take a better look at the shape of the thing!

Very cool.

We had lunch, and then it was time for the bridge playing to begin.  It was a team event (two partnerships).  My better half and his regular Ann Arbor partner, and my better half's oldest friend (since they were 10 or 11), and one of his regular partners formed the team.

We walked down to the hotel hosting the tournament (hereinafter called "the bridge hotel").

This plant was in one of the planters along Michigan Ave.

Of course all is not flowers and card play.  Some people were working.  Street-eater, tearing up Michigan Ave.

We had informed our hotel that we were really not happy on the air shaft.  On Monday we were able to move.  But not until after 1:00.  Which meant I got to do the move, as 1:00 was when the bridge started.

So I sat in the room, by the air shaft, waiting until after 1:00, messing with my phone camera, and Instagram, trying to figure out what some of my options are.........

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