We Went to Chicago: Millennium Park and Daley Park

Normally I talk about our trips in chronological order, but Millennium Park and Daley Park, connected by a Gehry-designed pedestrian bridge (which spanned the street that our hotel was on!) were only a few blocks from our hotel in Chicago, and what with walking and taking the bus here and there, we found ourselves there more than once.

I liked it best in the fog, and the kids liked Daley Park's epic playground best:

This first afternoon in Chicago we actually walked over to Millennium Park in order to see Cloud Gate, but stumbled onto this playground in Daley Park, instead. The kids were THRILLED, and Matt and I were pretty impressed with it, as well.

Everyone in this group put on red clown noses for this photo. I'm bummed that you can't see them.

I didn't edit these photos until later, so I had no idea that the fog would look this cool. If I had, I'd be subjecting you to a LOT more photos like these!

But a sunny day was best for playing with the pedestrian bridge and Cloud Gate:

I sent Matt and the kids down the bridge to get this shot, then heard behind me a couple loudly narrating my decision. Chick: "Oh, look what they're doing! I want my photo like that!" Dude: "Eh, you're going to look too small. Let's stand here and see how it works out for them first." Chick: "Hold up your camera, and see if they look too small." Dude: "I don't know; they're pretty small." Chick: "Well, I think it's cool!" After I took my photo and walked on to meet Matt and the kids, the chick ran by me to pose in their spot. I'm pretty sure that I'm walking by in the frame of the photo that the dude took of her. I hope she doesn't look too small!

Because the Bean is open to the weather, you can usually see smudges in its mirror images--but not way down in by the ground, where you have to crawl to go! I let the kids crawl in and take my camera. 

People ALWAYS ask Matt to take their photos. He looks really trustworthy.

You can see them and their reflection, AND see my reflection taking their photo! Cloud Gate is so cool.

Lord, I think both the kids are wearing Doctor Who shirts. We might as well start a fan club!

We did a lot of things in Chicago, but Millennium Park/Daley Park, it was the best of them. We mostly stuck with the playground side over the Bean side, as Cloud Gate was crawling with tourists, but only a rare fraction of them found their way over to that playground. However, the weather was cool while we were there, so the kids weren't interested in splashing around in the super awesome fountain that's on the Cloud Gate side--it displays giant images of people's faces, their lips pursed, the fountain water looking as if it's being spit out of their mouths. In the heat of summer, I imagine that I wouldn't be able to drag them away from that. And in the dead of winter, Daley Park apparently has an ice skating TRAIL!

Anyway, whichever side we found ourselves on, the kids had a fabulous time running around, the city view was gorgeous, and there were--hallelujah!--plenty of benches to rest our butts. We loved it.