Chicago

This post comes very, very late, since it tells about our vacations in Chicago in July. On popular demand (well, on a complaint from Ceren :-) ), I will post some pictures and stories about this wonderful stay we had there. It was short, something like 9 or 10 days I think, but it was just great.
Unlike San Francisco (here, here, here, here, here and here), we did not go there for a conference or something, but on real vacations, to visit our friends Cerevren. Most photos here are of buildings, views of the city, some food ... it does not really reflect how nice it was to spend these 10 days with our friends. But it will give you a taste of what a journey in Chicago can be like.

A main feature of Chicago is the architecture - the city is famous for that. And it's true that walking in the city (I mean, downtown, the "city" itself is like 30 km long, several millions people, etc.), you see nice buildings. It's not only the rectangle-shape straight tower made of glass and/or concrete. It's a whole variety of styles, shapes, colors ... Proof by the pictures :

Sears tower (I think this is the old name), it used to be the tallest building in the world, I think. Views from the top are quite nice !

I also like to take pictures of the windows :-)

We walked quite a lot in the streets of downtown - and not only downtown !

Apparently, going left is not allowed :-)

Of course, one very nice thing to do is to go up in the tallest buildings (Sears tower, Hancock tower, I'm not sure of the names :-) ) and enjoy the stunning views of the city.

Sears tower : looking south

Sears tower : looking east

Sears tower : looking north

Scary, right ?

 

View from the lake. The skyline is also good looking.

In the boat

Night view from Hancock tower

Looking west

 We also visited some "special places" :

An exhibition about jellyfish at the aquarium (yes, like in San Francisco !)

This square (with the Picasso in the middle) appears in the Blues Brothers movie !

Although the US are not famous for the food, we actually tasted some good stuff. In particular some local specialties ...

Corned beef (now that is a sandwich ! Well, actually, only half of it)

Manny's, the famous place for the corned beef

A deep-dish pizza : this was actually the small one, which we shared and obviously could not finish.

Queuing for ... donuts !

The famous donuts of the donuts vault, really good !

And some fried onions ... this was also the small portion ...

If all this food makes you thirsty, you'll be glad to learn that we also enjoyed good drinks (I don't have many good photos of these, though).

Some colorful shakes

And some cocktails ...

... in the cocktail bar

Another nice thing about Chicago is that there are lots of music bars, theaters, festivals and so on. We went to some jazz concerts (open, outdoors, free !), and others. It was very nice to enjoy this and discover these places.

One photo ...

... and the same with flash. Can you tell it's the same picture ?? :-)

One-eyed girl and white-eyed boy ... ok we were waiting for the concert to start !

Pitchfork festival

A tatoo

Although we spent most of the time in Chicago, visiting museums and walking in the street, and biking and doing lots of things, we also enjoyed a swim in the lake near Cerevren's place almost each day, if possible in the morning and in the evening. Summer in Chicago is very, very warm, and the swim was more than welcome !

Yes, it's a lake, not a sea ...

Lake Michigan is so large that it looks (and sometimes behaves) like a sea or an ocean. If you thought that Lac Leman ("Lake Geneva") was large, you will appreciate the fact that Lake Michigan is larger than the whole Switzerland ...

Finally, we went a little bit North, out of Chicago, towards Wisconsin, to see a little bit of the surroundings and the countryside. We went to Milwaukee, which seems to be a place where the main activity is ... drinking :-)

The bar association

A mobile tavern !

So, I think this post is much too short compared to all the things we have done. It was such a nice holiday that we spent there ! After it, we considered looking for a job there, it's really a place where I could live. The city is very large, and has somehow a bad reputation, but we never felt "in danger". So, if you consider vacations in the US, Chicago can be a nice and unusual destination.