Bosca Dubh

We’re off to Chicago this weekend for a visit to Sue and other attractions that might interest a couple of precocious four-year-old boys who are obsessed with trains, skeletons, and dinosaurs. I’ve got a few sites on my photographic itinerary, too, though they take a distant fourth place to the itineraries of the others on the trip: Millenium Park, the Art Institute lions, Navy Pier, and Lincoln Park Zoo.

Of course, Chicago is already a well-photographed city; so even if I don’t make it to the spots I want to capture, I don’t think the universe will suffer from lack of portraits of the City of Big Shoulders. The 18 below are good evidence of that fact:

• Congress and Michigan from outofcontxt; on our first visit together to Chicago, Kelly and I stayed at the Blackstone Hotel, and we could see this Indian statue from the window. We returned to the Blackstone a couple more times before it closed in 1999; I’m happy to see that the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi sold it and that its current owners are hoping to turn it back into a hotel again–it’s a true beauty.
• Artists from outofcontxt; this is a fabulous little restaurant on S. Michigan, right around the corner from the Blackstone and across from the Art Institute.
• Cut to the Chase from outofcontxt; the lakeshore has never looked so dreamy.
• Leather and Lace from Exposing Myself; we probably won’t take in a game at Wrigley Field this time out, but I thought I should include this nifty baseball picture anyway.
• Towertown from Exposing Myself; the Loop water tower is kind of like the Spoonbridge in Minneapolis: love it and hate it, it’s ubiquitous. And wonderfully captured here.
• Into the Fog from greyscalegorilla; I love the fade into the clouds.
• Brilliant Corners from greyscalegorilla; what clouds!
• Marshall Fields from Jamas.org; it will always be Fields (just like it will always be Dayton’s…); I love the translucent green in this picture.
• Greta, Lakeside from Absenter; great framing of the lakeshore skyline.
• Lady in Art from No Traces; a wonderful moment captured.
• Divine from Take a pix; another of the water tower.
• 900 North Michigan from Whateverland; great toning and shape; broad shoulders indeed!
• St. Patrick’s Day from Reciprocity Failure; we have Irish dance in St. Paul, too, but it pales before Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
• Gargoyle from Manual Exposure; the details in an old building give it so much charm.
• Comparing Reflections from Kristin Pishdadi; an interesting side-by-side from Graceland Cemetery.
• North Loop from talcum; I love the El.
• untitled from imstillthinking.net; I love the curve of the bridge against the sharp lines of the skyscrapers.
• thawed from Whateverland; the city looks so still from far away.