Farewell Chicago

You'll all be pleased to hear this is the last photograph I have to post of Chicago, well at least until the next time I head back there! I really enjoyed my time back there and had some fun times with work colleagues. The next time I go back though, I want it to be a fun visit, not a work one.

This is the view facing north from the Hancock Observatory on the 94th floor. If you knew where to look you'd be looking at Wrigley Field and Lincoln Park with the Chicago Zoo.

Farewell Chicago for now. It was fun!

Another Childhood Memory

 This is a photograph I took on Navy Pier in Chicago of their big wheel. I just loved big wheels as a kid, well at least when I got over the whole scared of heights issue. I was pretty bad on one big wheel on Clacton Pier, along with one of my childhood friends. We got stuck at the top while they loaded and unloaded some people at the bottom. Well us being bored 14 year olds we decided it would be smart to spit off the top and see what happened. I know what you are thinking "That's so disgusting" and yes looking back it was, but hey, I was 14. So there we were spitting off the top of a big wheel, half way along a pier that extends out into the North Sea. So every time we did our spit just caught the wind and headed out to sea, well except for one time, the last time. This one last time I gathered up the saliva in my mouth and launched it. The wind caught it and it was heading to sea, then the wind stopped and it started heading straight down. Straight down at the gentleman sitting on a bench. So imagine the horror as I watched my spit not only hit him, but hit him right in the eye. I was mortified, my friend burst out laughing and the other man on the bench pointed up towards the sky or was it us. We were never caught, but I still remember how bad I felt for doing that!

Trashy Shoes

When we came down from the 94th floor of the Hancock Tower we thought we'd walk along Michigan Avenue to take in the sites. Just along the sidewalk from the exit is this trash can full of old shoes. Now some of them look to be in pretty good condition, but search as I may I have not been able to find any information on how they got there and why? I have two thoughts on why and how they are there. One, that it is kind of shoe tree that appears all over California and I'm sure the country, where people just for fun hang their old shoes. Or two, that people leave their old shoes that aren't in such bad condition, so that homeless people can take them. Anyone got any other ideas, let me know.

My Coming Weekend

This weekend I will be back at a photography class in Joshua Tree National Park. This week it's all about macro photography, so next week I should have some up close and personal photographs of plants and bugs and stuff. Today though I will share with you the sunset of the last class I took in Joshua Tree. I hope you like it.

Navy Pier

In Chicago there is a place that reminds me of somewhere I grew up and had lots of fun. That place is Navy Pier, an amusement park located on Lake Michigan, right next to Downtown Chicago. The place I had fun at growing up was Clacton Pier, another amusement park, that I spent many hours as a kid riding the rides and playing the arcade games. I remember going there in the summertime by train with my grandmother. She used to buy the ride tickets for me and my sister and let us ride in the bumper cars or on the big wheel. I did not get to see much of Navy Pier as we were there late, but one day when I go back to Chicago (preferably when it's warmer) I will go and spend some time there and remember those childhood Sundays of fun. 

My Toy Fire Engine

What little boy didn't want to drive a fire truck? Well me, I wanted to drive trains, but I always had a fascination of fire trucks. I remember being 3 years old with my grandfather in the nearby town of Brightlingsea. We parked the car close to the fire station that was letting kids go and sit in the fire engine. So my grandfather asked me if I wanted to go and sit in it and I said, "No, but I would like a toy one." So my grandfather says, "Wait here in the car and don't get out!" (Imagine doing that in this day and age, crazy huh?) So off goes my grandfather to the toy store just across the street and leaves me in the car. Now to say that I was a brat as a kid would be an understatement and telling me not to get out the car, yeah right! So what do I do? I got out and lock the car doors. Oops! Then, my grandfather shows up and finds me standing next to the car. I was in trouble, eventually though he got the car open and we went home. I never did get to sit in a fire engine, but I got my toy one.

This photograph was taken in a field across the street from the fire station in Ranchita, which is somewhere between Borrego Springs and Warner Springs.

Earth Curvature

I took this photograph from the 94th floor of the Hancock Tower. The sun was setting and it was just perfect. The one thing I didn't notice at the time when I took it though was that the curvature of the Earth was so clearly visible. Now I guess this could be an optical illusion that the lens of the camera created, but my guess is it's the curvature of our planet. The calculations I did says that the horizon line in this photograph was about 40 miles away. So in conclusion I think we can say it's safe to assume that the world is in fact round!!!!

All Tyred Out

Ok so you got me, it's a play on the English spelling of the word "tired". Isn't it amazing that words in the English language can be spelled in different ways and mean the same thing. Now in England we use the word tired to mean worn out and the word tyre for the rubber thing on a wheel.

So anyway this photograph was another taken in Joshua Tree National Park at Keys Ranch. The junk that was laying around in that place was amazing to say the least. There was old cars, bits of old cars and even an old truck. There was a windmill and even a big workshop there. The 'A' Team would have a great time if they ever got imprisoned there while fighting the bad guys. 

Where's Bubba??

During our evening adventure to Hancock Observatory in Chicago, we headed over to Navy Pier and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant. I always wondered what the tie in with the Forrest Gump movie and this restaurant chain was? Well it took me taking this photograph and posting it here to look at the history of it. It would appear that Paramount Pictures partnered with a restaurateur, to create the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. making full use of the Forrest Gump movie back in 1995. The food was good and so was the atmosphere. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about the restaurant chain.

Chicago From Above

For the best part of the past two weeks my photo posting has been a little sporadic, at best, and I apologize for that. I had to spend 11 days living out of a hotel room in Chicago for my work.  We were finally signing off on the system that Motorola is going to ship and install for us at the County.)  It was a major milestone in a project that I have been working on for over three years and it went off without a hitch!  The first 4 days there the weather was wonderful; a nice 60+ degrees, then Friday night it snowed, got windy and dropped to about 20 degrees. So, the Saturday photographing in Downtown Chicago got snowed out but, I made up for it on Wednesday evening when five of us headed to the Hancock Observatory; 94 floors up Hancock Tower. The view was spectacular and the photograph above was taken just after the sun had set. (This is looking south with Lake Michigan off to the left.)