Oh yeah! I made it! Chi-Town, aka Chicago, was here. I woke up, and drove into the north side of the city to where my friend Abby lives to claim a parking spot. Though she lives about 10 miles north of the city, I didn’t mind the long bike ride as it went down the majority of the waterfront trail. Bag stuffed full with essentials for the day: bike repair kit (learned my lesson), climbing gear, photo gear, rain gear, food, and water. Destination: Millennium Park.
Cold morning air extenuated by the great lake just a few blocks away ensured that even while pedaling hard, I didn’t get too sweaty, but stopping for copious photos kicked in my goose bump reflex. With a 10 mile trip just to get to the city, I had ample opportunities to get beautiful panorama shots of the city at all scales and sizes. Thankfully Chicago knew this and seemed to have designated photography jut outs for some amazing vantage points along the way. Arriving to the city, I couldn’t stop looking up.
The gargantuan buildings shooting straight out of the ground filled with every assortment of glass, cement, granite, and every other material that I can’t name. Known for its architecture, I certainly wasn’t disappointed, except that I was stuck on the ground to try and capture them. Staying close to the water, as that was my only means for sense of direction, I arrived at Millennium Park with my legs only feeling kind of like Jell-O.
As is usual when in new places without a map, I got lost. To be fair, there was a ton of construction going on, and I was looking at just about everything except the trail and where it was headed. As a result, I got to know the downtown a little better as I wandered around the river-way for a bit and found some dead ends with great views. But after finding my way, getting lost again, and remembering to stop staring at all the buildings, I finally made it to the park.
Millennium Park was established in 2004 in downtown Chicago as a tribute and reminder of the city’s devotion to art, architecture and give inspiration. It’s also home to some of the most iconic photos of the city. I parked my bike and set off on foot to take in all the amazing and crazy sights. There’s a video water fountain that will have a person spit on you. Giant flattened faces, a massive reflective bean and gardens. An amazing amphitheater, skate park and even full outdoor rock-climbing facility. This place was amazing!
Taking in all the sights and trying to find new angles to shoot from was difficult. As almost every perspective and shot that is possible has already been done. But I still tried to capture it as best I could. Happy with the shots, and the park, I went over to get my climb on! The clouds had finally broke and the day was scorching hot now. A quick run in with the city’s most passive aggressive security guard, and I was lined up to get the low down on climbing. Basically, if you paid a tribute of your first child, your second and third could climb. They had auto belay’s, but a 1 hour restriction on their use. Realizing this was just a 10 and under party place, I left, sad to not have climbed, buy happy I had the time to explore more instead.
While getting some shots, I ran into a professional photographer and model doing some work and chatted them up for a bit. They gave me some awesome locations to check out for more shots. Now seemed like a good time to hop on that! Riding further south, I made it past a marina and ended up at the Aquarium. Another jut out (I think it’s a peninsula technically?). Here I got some more shots, and took a minute to relax. I had been running around all day and was exhausted, my legs especially. Just hanging out on the lawn, the great lake breeze keeping me cool in the mid-day heat as seagulls gawked all around.
Ready to roll again, I slowly meandered north, with one last stop before heading back to meet up with Abby, the Navy Pier. An amusement park on a huge pier, it’s another one of the many great attractions in Chicago that you have to see. Unfortunately there weren’t any events going on today, but that at least meant free admission to wander about. Some amazing photos of both the pier and more perspective shots of Chicago kept my interest as the day started to wind down.
I slowly began to make the long haul back to Abby’s house to meet up and hopefully not kill her with my stench. Along the way I was distracted by a group of people slack lining in the park. I’ll always go up and at least chat people up about slack lining because it’s a blast, and the community is always welcoming, especially if you’re even kind of descent. We chatted, and one of the people was actually a yoga-slacker. Meaning she does yoga while balancing on a slack line. Its basically awesome, and really difficult. She offered to show me a few basic positions, and I spotted her as she attempted handstands. Wicked.
From there I made it back to Abby’s, only a little late. She lives about a mile from the end of the lake shore trail, meaning I have to risk life and limb to stay on my bike to make it back to her place. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but the combination of not knowing where I was going, nor where the bike trails lead meant that I often found myself riding with traffic. Luckily I could usually keep up with them as it was the afternoon congestion, but it’s still nerve racking being a bicyclists in the road.
Thankfully I made it safe, put my stuff away, gathered a few things, and headed up. We chatted for a bit before I took a much needed shower to blacken the bath tub. A quick frozen pizza made for a great dinner as we caught up for the evening and planned out the following day’s adventure.
