Chicago, Chicago That Toddlin town

Hey Guys!

I'm back! Fresh from my journey to Frank's kind of town-That's right you guessed it Chicago! What can I say about Chicago? Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well let's go for the "bad" because it makes the "good" that much sweeter. First,traffic was a nightmare-took at least two hours to get where we were going because it's summer time and you know what that means-you guessed it-road construction. So a highway that was normally 4 lanes is now compressed into two. Second,we were going to go to Wrigley's field but my Dad thought that they played the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night which meant we couldn't go-The worse part-they played on Monday night soooo we could have went. Third, Not enough time do everything that I wanted to do.


Okay that's if for the whining. What was great? I always try to find two things when I'm going to a far away place. One, a library and two, a yarn shop. Didn't find the yarn shop but I found two libraries. One downtown at
Here's a little info on it. "The Harold Washington Library Center opened October 7, 1991. Thomas H. Beeby and his colleagues in the firm Hammond, Beeby and Babka, as a part of the Sebus Group, won a design/build competition for Chicago's new Central Library in June of 1988. This 756,640 square foot neo-classical building appeared in The Guinness Book of Records as the largest public library building in the world." (from the library's website).

I was blown away by the sheer size of the building. But what about the inside?
Is this the oval office or a library?
It was absolutely gorgeous-My puny picture doesn't do it justice. I was standing on the second floor when I took that shot. There are 5 floors in all with different divisions on each floor. They had a room dedicated to the history of the library in Chicago. It started out in the 1930's and there are pictures of what it used to look like. The current library is new. It was originally on S. Michigan Avenue. That has now become the Chicago Cultural Art's Center.

If you like a more home town feel to your library experience. My next find might be right up your alley. I stayed in Gurney Mills and was lucky enough to find the Warren-Newport Public Library. They have RFID(Radio Frequency Identification-I had to look it up). So I walk into the library and see how they do book drop. It's right in the open-one of their employee's puts each item in drop and it goes on a conveyor belt and is sorted immediately. How cool is that-You can watch it as it happens-they have a camera in the returns room.(might be slightly creepy?). Another cool thing they have is 24 hour reserve pick-up. The way this works is there is attachment to the building that is unlocked when you punch your card number in. There are lockers inside with reserves in them. Here's the cool thing-The door won't open unless you actually have a reserve waiting for you. Just your locker door opens and the items are already checked out to you. I spoke with a librarian there and they love the system. You're not automatically signed up for this service you have to request it.


Other best thing. Millennium Park was awesome. They have these cool water fountains(not the kind you drink out of) with people's faces on them that spout water. The faces smile and sometimes purse there lips.
The Park also has a silver egg shaped thing that's pretty cool. When you try to take a picture up close you end up taking a picture of yourself.


Funny things? Well I thought these mannequin's were really funny.

One looks like he's wearing a Ladies wig and the other one looks like he's pissed off about his wig. Well that's it for now. I did like Chicago alot. I just want to go when I have more time to explore. And maybe when there's not so much construction going.