Navy Pier | Thoughts, Tales, and Whatnot

Just like my Batanes thread, this is another late post that I got inspired to making only when I watched an episode of Criminal Minds Suspect Behavior, which was set in Chicago.

I did this trip in June last year as mentioned in this teaser post. It was work-related thus, my visit to Navy Pier was for the welcome dinner for the participants of the event that I attended.

According to Wikipedia, Navy Pier is Chicago’s number one tourist attraction. Its attractions include sightseeing tours, the Chicago Children’s Museum, an IMAX theater, and the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows. It also has a convention hall, which was located at the far end of the pier and was our welcome dinner venue.

We passed by some of the pier’s attraction on the way to the convention pier.

Here’s a panoramic shot of Lake Michigan and Chicago’s skyline at dusk as viewed from the pier.

I love the pastel colors of the sky and the stillness of the lake, which were evident in the above and below photos.

Pardon the photo quality as this was a zoomed-in shot using just my mobile phone, though I’d like to think its composition made it looked like a painting.

More random shots of our view on our way to and while in the convention center.

The sun was already calling it a day when we were enjoying dinner. And what a dramatic exit it was! I had to leave my table when I saw the sky become a beautiful canvas of blue and white and yellow.

Before my very eyes, the brilliant sky changed its color to stunning hues of pink and orange.

Initially, I had difficulty getting good photos because people were crowding around the railing but I got lucky to have taken a shot of a solitary man enjoying the beautiful view before him.

And as I watched, the sky again metamorphosed into deep hues of periwinkle (I’m guessing the color here based on my Crayola kit, te he) and orange and red.

Come night time, the view was quite as interesting.

For someone who grew up in the province with no tall buildings and definitely no skyscraper, it was beautiful to see all the bright lights against the stark darkness of the night.

Our welcome dinner’s highlight was the fireworks display. It was so beautiful and worth staying up late for.

On our way home, our gracious host, a Filipina who had been in Chicago for over a decade, urged us to go inside the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, which opened in 2000 as a permanent exhibition dedicated solely to the art of stained glass windows, of course.

We only passed by here as it was already closing time when we arrived, but the above views were enough to make me appreciate the intricacy with which the artists worked on each individual piece.

Lastly, I’ll end this post with what is perhaps the Navy Pier’s most popular attraction: The Ferris Wheel.

This 150-foot Ferris Wheel opened in 1995 and operates year-round.

For more information about Navy Pier, visit www.navypier.com.

Pardon my looong hiatus from this blog. I was again swamped with work (yeah, I know, it’s always my work). But then, it is also sometimes because of my work that I get to travel.

This month, I was sent to Chicago to attend an event. Though I was there mostly for work, I extended my stay to accommodate discovering Chicago at my own pace and for leisure.

Here are bits and pieces of what I discovered about and experienced in this interesting city.

I watched an amazing show featuring beluga whales, became fascinated with a “cloud” that looked more like a bean, got drizzled by spews of water from a gargantuan fountain, spent some “me” time just looking out the lake, captured night shots from the pier and met a T. rex named Sue.

I also went to Willis Tower (formerly Sears), which is the second tallest building in the USA and the eight tallest freestanding structure in the world. In 2009, it opened its Skydeck with all-glass boxes that allow visitors to look through the floor on the street 1,353 feet, 412 meters and 103 floors below. Whew!

I also enjoyed watching the pastel sky turn into a riotous shade of yellow-orange at the Navy Pier.

And here’s a collage of the Chicago River, the Water Tower (I was told this was the only surviving structure during the great Chicago fire of 1871, but Wikipedia disagreed), and a view of the city’s skyline as viewed from the penthouse of Lake Point Tower, which is the only skyscraper in downtown Chicago east of Lake Shore Drive.

Lastly, here is a photo of what I saw at the Adler Planetarium and of Chicago’s skyline as seen from the John Hancock Observatory. And though I was there during the summer, I did experience Chicago’s punishing cold when I ventured out early in the morning to visit the museums. Even with my jacket on, I felt chilled and couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering. And oh, I went to the Chinatown too (there is always a Chinatown somewhere!) and just can’t resist sharing what my fortune cookie foretells.

You will spend your old age in comfort and material wealth.

Now, that’s something to look forward to. Te he.

More detailed posts later. For now, I have to catch up on some work that piled up while I was away (I just dropped a note since I felt like I needed a break.)

Till next!