Chicago, Chicago...

I was in a suburb of Chicago for a conference. I took an extra day to see some of the sights. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative. I will post the best of the pictures to my Flickr acct. Click on Flickr to see what is there. I did the north side and south side tour. The north side included some fantastic architectural sites included the most guarded place in Chicago-Mayhor Daly's residence. More firepower and security agencies that Barack's house(will get to that later.) Also included a driveby at Harpo studios. Did not see any celebrities. Saw Wrigley field and all the rooftop stadiums. Saw Ganster sites including Al Capone's business,residence, Bugsy Moran's residence. Site of Valentine day Massacre. Had a 20 minute stop at the Elk National Monument. Saw some of the few buildings that survived the Chicago fire and learned that you can not drive more than 4 miles on any street without getting to a hospital. This was done on purpose after the fire. Drove on Lake Shore Drive, saw the lake, etc. South side tour included Hyde Park- home to Barack, Jesse Jackson(whose son owns the Chicago branch of Budweiser), Farquan, relatives of lots of prizefighters, and of course Barack. It was evident it was his house because the street access was blocked off and you had to show evidence you lived on that street to gain access. Chicago police there in addition to Secret Service in full riot gear. This neighborhood of mansions in second only to Newport, RI. Saw two Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Did not go to Navy Pier and my train left from the new part of Union station, so no shopping. Only food there. Will have to attempt souveniers at the airport. Did not do Navy pier, sears tower or hancock tower. Weather too awful at that point. The Donald is building the Spire-will be twice the size of Sears Tower. Overall, beautiful city.

The great beach trip

My senior boy