Daughter of the King: Chicago Style

Before the Tribune Tower was built, people who worked with Chicago Tribune were bringing back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world. Many of these reliefs were incorporated into the lowest levels of the building and are labeled with their location of origin. Stones included in the wall are from such sites as the Taj Mahal, the Parthenon, the Great Pyramid, The Alamo, Notre Dame, Abraham Lincoln's Tomb, the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall among others. There are 136 fragments in the building. Recently a rock returned from the moon was displayed in a window in the Tribune giftstore although it could not be added to the wall since NASA owns all moon rocks, so it is on loan to the Tribune. This piece from the Twin Towers was added more recently, obviously.

I don't recall what this building is.

This is the NBC building. It looked so familiar to me when I was asking what building it was.

More shots of the Wrigley Building.

Kiss a moose day.

Tribune tower

There were four of these beautiful monuments on each corner of the bridge.

Tribune Tower

This reminds me of Lord of the Rings.

This is the Hotel Intercontinental.

The Watertower

So this will be my castle someday.

A view down of the elevators from the 7th floor of the Watertower shopping center. Outside was an interesting lady flipping everyone off and muttering in jibberish. That was something I have never seen before. WOW

A pretty fountain below the Hancock Observatory.

Our view from the 95th floor lounge on the other side of the building is the skyline.

Sears Tower from the Hancock Observatory 95th Floor lounge women's bathroom. Yep an awesome view from a bathroom.

One of Al Capone' s most formidable foes Hymie Weiss was crossing past this church when Capone and his croonies shot them up and most of the bullet holes that struck the Holy Name Cathedral were covered one is left.

Holy Name Cathedral

The mighty Sears Tower. Which is the tallest building in the world if you take off the antenna from them all. With their antenna a building in Taipei and one in Kuala Lumpur( the one they rob in Entrapment) are taller than the Sears.

A statue of Christopher Columbus.

The Field museum. I will visit it one day.

Shedd Aquarium

The Chrysler Building. Makes me think of Annie, except that one is in New York.

I am not sure how we got this filtered effect on my camera.

To the left is the back of the aqarium and the dolphin tank is right beyond the glass.

The lake looked so clear cool and refreshing.

The huge kimodo that ate us when we went up the steps.

I loved all the nautical details in the ceilings and over the doors and on the doors.

This whale sculpture was created by a friend of my Aunt Patty. He is on her underwater hockey team and he is also makes beautiful jewelry and has made like all of the engagement rings for the people on her team.

his otter kept diving down to this spot and rolling around and rubbing his nose against the side. It was really cute. But once again because of his movement I could not get a good shot.

They had an awesome show with the dolphins but on the other side of the tank was a massive window that overlooked the lake and the sun was glaring off of it so the pictures were a horrible strain on your eyes. Rachel did get some footage of it though.

You know I started giggling when we came to this exhibit. Oh they are so cute and they were just coming up and staring at me.

This is my absolute favorite shot. Pengi face.

Patty and Jessica play with the lizard puppet hands. They show the different textures and features of different lizards hands.

Mr Bright and Beautiful Cameleon. I love how their hands work.

Loved this little speckled guy, he was just hanging out on the wall.

This guy obviously doesn't walk but rather drags himself along.

Mr Kimodo shows off his skills for me.

All she needs to do is hold up some numbers and then off to her cell.

I just love this girl!

This crazy looking white thing is some sort of fresh water ray and he is laying his underside up against the glass.

Nemo! Nemo.

This tank extended above us. So the fish were swimming over us. How cool is that.

This tank was so bright and beautiful.

Creepy vicious eel.

They move too fast and with the poor lighting I have to use a slow shutter speed therefore blurring photos. Sorry, no flash photography allowed.

Ah the shark tank in the Wild Reef exhibit. The wall of the tank curves over you so if you get close enough the sharks will be swimming over you.

I think these fish look shocked and confused.

Rachel named this guy crush. When we first came up to the tank he was circling around and then when I whipped out my camera he decided to hang out and hide in this corner, so the picture is not very good at all.

This amazing looking creature is a seahorse. God is so amazing in His creation. I could easily see how this little guy would be mistaken by predators for some seaweed.

I will call him my paddlenose fish. Could come in handy for those times you are up a creek without a paddle.

When we first arrived at Buckingham fountain in Grant Park.

Then the water shot up. I was so glad we came in time to see it go. It shoots up like this for about 15 minutes.

Loved the rainbow in the fountain.

I love getting different angles and perspectives. I am still working on my Photographers eye.

This is inside the Bean it really caused some vertigo to stand under it and look up.

Here we are under the giant bean.

The Bean. It was made so you could see the skyline beautifully. I think they did a great job.

Some beautiful columns in Millenium Park

Jennifer, Jessica, Dorothy, Kim Rachel and Patty. Dorothy looks a little guilty because when she was trying to pull her feet up she sort of swung back and almost fell off backwards and grabbed on to Kim which would have brought them both down, but Patty was back there to balance them.