Tourist in your own town

Last weekend Kevin and I decided to be tourists in our own town.  Kevin grew up in the city of Chicago and I lived there for about 7 or 8 years after growing up about 20 miles outside the city.  It has only been about 7 months since we have moved (learn a little about that here), but there is always something new to see in the Windy City.  With summer quickly coming to a close (can you believe August is already half over?!), we needed to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

After we met our friends for Sunday brunch (and bottomless mimosas & a bloody mary bar), we headed to see the Tall Ships:

Tall Ships at Chicago Navy Pier

Look at all those ropes!

It was really cool to see the pirate-like ships against the back drop of the big city.

Ships at sea

There is so much to see at Navy Pier (I suppose that is why it is the biggest tourist attraction that Chicago has)…

Beer Garden where a live band was playing

There was also a sailing regatta going on...

The above pic doesn’t show it, but the water was really rough;  I thought some of the sail boats were going to tip right over!

Ferris wheel on a very windy day??

I love this photo of the ferris wheel that Kevin took.  Read more about the first Ferris wheel at Chicago’s Worlds Fair in 1893 here.

Navy Pier also has a stained glass museum that has some beautiful works of art.

Unfortunately I can not recall the artist, but it is so detailed and unique

Stained glass of St. Patrick

Original work from Dale Tiffany

The Tiffany windows were just amazing.  Kevin can make stained glass windows so he knows quite a bit about the art.  Apparently the glass Tiffany used was very unique.  He created a way to bake the color into the pane of glass (it looks like it is painted on, but apparently the color is inherent to the piece)…it was really quite beautiful.

After Navy Pier we headed back to the train station, but saw something interesting on the way:

Marilyn Monroe!

A gigantic Marilyn statue.  How funny is that?

I guess it is pretty windy in Chicago!

Maybe this weekend you can be a tourist in your own town!  Let me know what you have planned =)