Magnificent.
This past weekend was spent largely in Chicago. We left Thursday and just got back yesterday evening, and the whole trip was AWESOME.
Thursday night we grabbed a taxi to get to the Ramada, which was only a few minutes from downtown (thank God, I thought it was farther) and crashed after watching some Schindler's List on TV. Friday was more interesting.
Started off walking down to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was so full of awesome I can't even begin to describe without having pictures to upload/show. My camera apparently doesn't feel like talking to poor little Ubuntu and I'm having trouble figuring out how to get it to work. I think I need a new card-reader. ANYway, that museum had the U-505 German submarine in it, as well as tons of miniatures and LEGO buildings and actual NASA spacecraft that was either used in drills or actually launched into space, etc. I wish we had enough money to see the Harry Potter exhibit, because I'm sure that would have been awesome. We almost spent most of the day there, and we didn't even see everything. That museum...man, you really could make a day out of going there. No time for that, though!
After that we took the 6 (bus) to get to the Museum Campus, where tons of cool stuff is. We went to the Shedd Aquarium, after getting Chicago-style hot dogs (which were DELICIOUS: tomatoes, relish, hot peppers, mustard, onions, celery salt, all on a Vienna beef doggie on a poppyseed bun, mmmm). Took tons of pictures of bizarre and wonderful fish, not to mention the Belugas and penguins! :B Once that was done we walked to the Willis Tower, previously known as the Sears Tower. On the way there we stopped to get Giordano's "famous" stuffed pizza, which was unique and filling and awesome. They made it like a regular pie, and ours was full of cheese and spinach with a layer of crust on top of that, and sauce over the whole thing. Man I love food.
The Willis Tower has this crazy Sky Deck where there's three little plexiglass boxes you can stand in and look down to the street right below you:
I wasn't gutsy enough to do so, however -- I walked out on it, but couldn't bring myself to look straight down. My willpower just isn't that strong. :( *wimp* Then we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Saturday was INCREDIBLE. We got up early and grabbed the free shuttle from the hotel to get to the Field Museum of Natural History, and started off strong with some gigantic totem poles, taxidermy'd elephants, and "Sue" the T. rex. Lots of pictures from there, but again I'm having issues with my stupid camera. We spent a while there (and almost got kicked out thanks to me and my coffee and the sign saying no food or drink being turned so you couldn't see it as you left the cafe), then walked out to the Adler Planetarium and the Galileo Cafe for lunch. The Galileo has an awesome view of the city, with telescopes so you can look over at Navy Pier or whatever you wanna do with 'em. Mmm, falafel chili wrap...the rest of the Planetarium wasn't nearly as interesting, but we did get to see two shows there in what were essentially omnimax theaters. Got a few pictures from there too.
Our goal was to make it out to Navy Pier before the end of the day (since we'd be leaving Sunday morning) but that didn't end up happening. We made it to Grant Park and Millenium Park, took pictures, went back to some free Celtic Festival and the Buckingham Fountain, then went back to Soldier Field.
The stage for this 360 tour...good Lord. I have to post a picture of it, even though I didn't take it. It looked like some kind of spacecraft.
This thing is HUGE. It took up well over half of a football field, on the ground, and went up so far you could see the spire in the middle from just outside the stadium. Just...WOW.
Snow Patrol was the opener, and it was awesome being part of that atmosphere. I enjoyed them much more than I thought I would, especially when he asked the whole audience (which was only about 30% of who eventually showed up) to sing along with this one song, Shut Your Eyes and Sing to Me. I only took one or two pictures for that. What happened next, however...
First off, they uncovered those bridges you can see in the picture above that reach across the top of some of the general admission audience. Then they took down a section of three lights off each of those "legs" and had these poor guys strap themselves in there to man the spotlights themselves for the entirety of the U2 portion. There were also people in the middle spire working with those lights up there. There was a gigantic mirror ball on top of it. The LCD screen expanded and contracted vertically. It was just...incredible. I have never seen anything like that before in my life. Pictures and video are the only things that could possibly do it justice.
They opened with this song, counting down to the appearance of their drummer, and the rest of the band coming up through the stage. Awesome opening. They had fog and stuff coming out of the spire in the middle, and I can't wait to freaking upload the video of the whole opening sequence and song (Breathe).
They also did a rave-like, trippy version of I Know I'll Go Crazy (if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight) and Bono and Edge sang Stuck in a Moment with just acoustic guitar accompaniment, uhmm...they sang a bit of Stand By Me, and a beautiful Irish lullaby of some sort...and my favorite quote of the night was from Bono, near the end of it:
"All you need is love! ...and a spaceship. The spaceship is very important."
SO MUCH AWESOME. Thankfully, after the concert, we ran into some locals on the bus who helped us find a quicker route from the bus stop to the hotel. Took a cab the next morning to get to Union Station for the MegaBus, and we were on our way back.
Oh yeah, the MegaBus stop in Toledo was a sign stuck in a bucket of concrete, murky water, and cigarette butts. Laaawl.
All in all, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. WOOOOOO
Thursday night we grabbed a taxi to get to the Ramada, which was only a few minutes from downtown (thank God, I thought it was farther) and crashed after watching some Schindler's List on TV. Friday was more interesting.
Started off walking down to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was so full of awesome I can't even begin to describe without having pictures to upload/show. My camera apparently doesn't feel like talking to poor little Ubuntu and I'm having trouble figuring out how to get it to work. I think I need a new card-reader. ANYway, that museum had the U-505 German submarine in it, as well as tons of miniatures and LEGO buildings and actual NASA spacecraft that was either used in drills or actually launched into space, etc. I wish we had enough money to see the Harry Potter exhibit, because I'm sure that would have been awesome. We almost spent most of the day there, and we didn't even see everything. That museum...man, you really could make a day out of going there. No time for that, though!
After that we took the 6 (bus) to get to the Museum Campus, where tons of cool stuff is. We went to the Shedd Aquarium, after getting Chicago-style hot dogs (which were DELICIOUS: tomatoes, relish, hot peppers, mustard, onions, celery salt, all on a Vienna beef doggie on a poppyseed bun, mmmm). Took tons of pictures of bizarre and wonderful fish, not to mention the Belugas and penguins! :B Once that was done we walked to the Willis Tower, previously known as the Sears Tower. On the way there we stopped to get Giordano's "famous" stuffed pizza, which was unique and filling and awesome. They made it like a regular pie, and ours was full of cheese and spinach with a layer of crust on top of that, and sauce over the whole thing. Man I love food.
The Willis Tower has this crazy Sky Deck where there's three little plexiglass boxes you can stand in and look down to the street right below you:
I wasn't gutsy enough to do so, however -- I walked out on it, but couldn't bring myself to look straight down. My willpower just isn't that strong. :( *wimp* Then we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Saturday was INCREDIBLE. We got up early and grabbed the free shuttle from the hotel to get to the Field Museum of Natural History, and started off strong with some gigantic totem poles, taxidermy'd elephants, and "Sue" the T. rex. Lots of pictures from there, but again I'm having issues with my stupid camera. We spent a while there (and almost got kicked out thanks to me and my coffee and the sign saying no food or drink being turned so you couldn't see it as you left the cafe), then walked out to the Adler Planetarium and the Galileo Cafe for lunch. The Galileo has an awesome view of the city, with telescopes so you can look over at Navy Pier or whatever you wanna do with 'em. Mmm, falafel chili wrap...the rest of the Planetarium wasn't nearly as interesting, but we did get to see two shows there in what were essentially omnimax theaters. Got a few pictures from there too.
Our goal was to make it out to Navy Pier before the end of the day (since we'd be leaving Sunday morning) but that didn't end up happening. We made it to Grant Park and Millenium Park, took pictures, went back to some free Celtic Festival and the Buckingham Fountain, then went back to Soldier Field.
The stage for this 360 tour...good Lord. I have to post a picture of it, even though I didn't take it. It looked like some kind of spacecraft.
This thing is HUGE. It took up well over half of a football field, on the ground, and went up so far you could see the spire in the middle from just outside the stadium. Just...WOW.
Snow Patrol was the opener, and it was awesome being part of that atmosphere. I enjoyed them much more than I thought I would, especially when he asked the whole audience (which was only about 30% of who eventually showed up) to sing along with this one song, Shut Your Eyes and Sing to Me. I only took one or two pictures for that. What happened next, however...
First off, they uncovered those bridges you can see in the picture above that reach across the top of some of the general admission audience. Then they took down a section of three lights off each of those "legs" and had these poor guys strap themselves in there to man the spotlights themselves for the entirety of the U2 portion. There were also people in the middle spire working with those lights up there. There was a gigantic mirror ball on top of it. The LCD screen expanded and contracted vertically. It was just...incredible. I have never seen anything like that before in my life. Pictures and video are the only things that could possibly do it justice.
They opened with this song, counting down to the appearance of their drummer, and the rest of the band coming up through the stage. Awesome opening. They had fog and stuff coming out of the spire in the middle, and I can't wait to freaking upload the video of the whole opening sequence and song (Breathe).
They also did a rave-like, trippy version of I Know I'll Go Crazy (if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight) and Bono and Edge sang Stuck in a Moment with just acoustic guitar accompaniment, uhmm...they sang a bit of Stand By Me, and a beautiful Irish lullaby of some sort...and my favorite quote of the night was from Bono, near the end of it:
"All you need is love! ...and a spaceship. The spaceship is very important."
SO MUCH AWESOME. Thankfully, after the concert, we ran into some locals on the bus who helped us find a quicker route from the bus stop to the hotel. Took a cab the next morning to get to Union Station for the MegaBus, and we were on our way back.
Oh yeah, the MegaBus stop in Toledo was a sign stuck in a bucket of concrete, murky water, and cigarette butts. Laaawl.
All in all, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. WOOOOOO