The last of the Chicago pictures finally...This was taken outside of the Shedd Aquarium. Chicago's harbor was very pretty full of boats with the cityscape in the background. It was a beautiful day. We walked all the way to the buildings in the background to get to Millenium Park where they have several interesting sculptures. Keep in mind - we did not have a stroller, so Nick carried Laedyn almost the whole time - & this was after touring the Aquarium. He'd run the Sunburst Marathon the day before too...talk about Super Dad!!!There are several adjacent walking/biking paths along the edge of the Harbor. We followed those along for awhile, and eventually crossed a road to get to what seemed like a string of city parks. Apparently it's just one long park called Grant Park. The park was built on fill created by debris pushed into the lake after a fire in 1871.

In the first park area we ran across this impressive fountain called the Clarence Buckingham Fountain. It was modeled after a fountain called the Bassin de Latone at Versailles near Paris, France. It sure is reminiscent of the grandeur of old world Europe. Brandon & I walked all around it so I could take bunches of pictures. Laedyn had fallen asleep over Nick's shoulder, so they sat at a bench waiting for us.
A slightly closer view from a different angle.
Brandon was having fun ducking in and out of the perimeter fence. I think he felt like he was getting away with something by entering the fountain grounds...
I liked the visual line of the fence and the shadows it cast on the gravel. It looks like many countless people have leaned on that fence!After our close examination of the fence, Brandon and I got everyone ice cream from a little coffee shop/ice cream parlor. It was homemade, hand dipped and really yummy. I had a rootbeer float, Nick had mint chocolate chip and Brandon had chocolate. Laedyn had a little bit of each! By the time we got done with our ice cream treats, the fountain had begun shooting up this tall plume of water. The plume shoots up as much as 150 feet. Nick and Laedyn came over for a closer look this time. When we moved further around the fountain it even created a rainbow for our viewing enjoyment!
Further along in our tour, we found a lovely flower garden leading into Millenium Park. The garden is called the Lurie Garden and it covers 2 1/2 acres. Brandon enjoyed playing with his new binoculars there while I took pictures. That was his choice of souvenir from the Aquarium. He showed them to many people we met on our walk through Chicago...
There's a huge performance venue in the middle of the park. The pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry and is called the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. It can accomodate 11,000 people between the actual seats and the lawn seating. Looks like it was almost to capacity on this day for the Chicago Gospel Music Festival. It was PACKED as you can see. We didn't stay long, but were able to enjoy the music as we continued on our walk.
See? Nick didn't have to carry Laedyn all day, sometimes he had to carry Brandon!

This sculpture is the main reason Nick wanted to come to Chicago & it was really neat! I could have stayed there all day taking pictures. What an interesting and unusual thing to build. It's called the Cloud Gate, but I guess mostly people call it The Bean. The Bean is 66 feet long, 33 feet high, and weighs 110 tons!!! The arch that you walk under is 12 feet high. It's made of polished stainless steel plates and was designed by Anish Kapoor, a British guy. The Bean from another angle.
Brandon & Nick reflected on The Bean...
Family portrait on The Bean!
Brandon took the exploration of The Bean reather seriously. Honestly, this made me a little nervous! What if it moved somehow???
As I said ... The Bean presents many opportunities for interesting pictures.

Here's another sculpture / fountain / wading pool / reflecting pool called the Crown Fountain. It's made of glass blocks and stands 50 feet tall. The faces change periodically, and are just random Chicagoans. There were lots of kids playing in the water. Brandon was terribly disappointed that we didn't let him pay in the water too. There's another pillar just like this at the far end of the reflecting pool. All around the perimeter is a disappearing edge over which the water drains. I don't think it was more than a couple inches deep anywhere.
I guess the wading pool needed some refilling. Isn't that funny??? Apparently the spitting water is meant to give homage to gargoyles of old. True gargoyles had open mouths that spit water in a similar manner to assist in draining rain runoff from rooftops. "Gargoyles" that are purely ornamental and do not function as waterspouts are actually called grotesques or chimaras. You learn something new every day I guess!!!
Brandon isn't in this shot because he was still mad we didn't let him play in the wading pool / fountain!
This is what makes Nick a true Super Dad. He carried both of them like this for quite awhile - this was about 6 hours into the day and it was the day after he ran a full marathon. WOW! I told Brandon I would keep this picture for display when he graduates from high school. He was terribly grumpy by this time. We were all tired, but I imagine Nick was more so than the rest of us. After this we drove for about 5 hours...