Looking out the northern part of my bay window toward Millennium park.
Here's a closer crop of part of the left side of the above, just above the yellow bus in the above -- the Art Institute is between us and Millennium Park. We can just see some of the loops of that structure that is way too fancy to be called a "band shell", over the trees just east of the Art Institute.
This gives you a good idea how big the planters in the middle of Michigan Ave are. So many different heights/textures/colors.
They were working up to having an air show. That smear in the sky, just right of the big pillar (which was partially obscuring the fireworks yesterday) is four planes, practicing.
The bridge players are still standing on the 13th, as one of eight teams still competing on the fourth day of the event (of the original 60-plus teams).
This means they are in a new environment -- playing with barricades between them and their partners, so they can't see each other (and potentially give cues -- purposefully or not -- to their partners).
I'm sorry this pic is so blurry; it makes it hard to tell what's going on. On the other hand, I don't like to blog recognizable people, so I'm glad it's blurry, so I can use it.
Each square table is divided in half, corner to corner, by the barricade placed over it. The bids (on printed cards) slide through the hole. Players can see one of their opponents, but not their partner. No speaking is allowed. If anyone has a question, they must write it down, and the answer is also written down. You can imagine how this holds up play, from time to time............
One partnership at each table plays north/south, and the other (their opponents) plays east/west. Here's a sharper pic that I could crop down to mostly show just one table and its barricade.
It's a rather weird way to play.
Having recorded some of the effects of the bridge players' progress to this point in the event, I am heading for the Planetarium.
Rather fond of this next pic. I suppose I ought to know who the woman is, but I do not. She looks like she is giving a lecture (or performance).
Here're the buildings that let us know we are looking south.
I decided it was high time I got near the fountain and took a better look. Have I mentioned that the sky was amazing on the 13th? Keep your eye on it. Amazing, all day............
That's the blue building we watched the clouds roll across, from the courtyard at the Art Institute.
The fountain and ... the sky!
The lake is just out of view off the right of this next image.
Looking west. Those red letters over the building just left of center say Congress Hotel. That's where we stayed. Those fency things in the bottom right are the barrier between people and the fountain.
I thought I could see red and green on the fountain from the hotel room, so that was something I wanted to see up close.
Yep, definitely red and green.
I can't see all of these little bubblers from the room. I would definitely need that telescope I was talking about, if I lived in that room with that view.....
Tearing ourselves away from the fountain, the buildings, and the sky. Heading on over to the lake, to walk along it to the Planetarium.
Look, there's a pirate ship in the harbor!
Walking along. We are far enough south, now, that the buildings we look south at, usually, are more west than south.
This is the view that is more to the south (though this one is a bit west, too). You can see that same cluster of blue buildings at the right edge, and that's the Field Museum at left. We are east of it, and north.
The Aquarium is between the Field Museum and the Planetarium. We are going to take the lakeside walkway around two sides of the Aquarium. See how big the people are (not!)? These buildings are farther apart than at first it may seem.
Looking back toward downtown. (See how long that walkway is?)
The sky, the sky................... Wow.
We are standing right next to (and below) the Aquarium, at this point.
Note no railings anywhere along this walkway. Pretty odd, I think, in this litigious day and age. All of those white patches near the water side of the walkway mean "no swimming" and "no diving." I bet the water is pretty dirty, and there are a lot of boats coming and going.
We have a ways to go, to get to the Planetarium. We're curving around to the east of the Aquarium. You can't tell in this next pic, but that brown/gray area over near the Planetarium, below the trees, facing north, is giant extremely wide steps. It looks like that area was planned to hold crowds who face north, looking over the water. Watching air shows, maybe? Or maybe not. I do not know.
Pretty close to the Planetarium, now, looking back toward the Aquarium.
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