Here's a shot of the Chicago skyline from the Hancock Towers to start of my post about our trip to attend my niece's wedding. It was one of those trips where everything went like clockwork, flights were on time, rental car got upgraded for free, hotels were pleasant - other than some traffic jams it was stress free.
It was a "do it yourself" wedding where the bride, groom, family and friends all chipped in to put it together. The decorations were lovely with a bird theme to everything. The groom is Vegan, and cooked a lot of the delicious meal that we all enjoyed, a few relatives were a bit scheptical - but there wasn't anything left of the cake. Dancing and general merriment went on long after we left.
One fun thing they did was to have a photo booth for all the guests to take pictures, they even had a box of props. The back of the photo had the bride & groom's names, date and the lovely bird logo that was part of all the decorations.
Here we are all dressed up and squinting with our sunglasses on. Although it was sunny, there was a cool breeze so Kim & I were wearing our sweaters.
Stephanie, the lovely bride, posed at the spot the ceremony took place. It was a decision that morning to have the ceremony out in this courtyard, so no decorations were planned. My contribution was to run down to the local Ace Hardware and purchase 2 pre-planted pots of flowers and those stands you see behind Stephanie which held some lanterns that were taken from inside the building. Don't tell anyone, but I took everything back the next day.
These pictures were all taken by Dave (or his camera). Kim was also taking pictures so maybe she has something I can share later.
On Sunday we tried to see a little of downtown Chicago with the boys before taking them to the airport for their trip home - hit a major traffic jam and arrived at O'Hare 45 minutes before their flight - but they actually made it with time to spare. Kim and I were back to the hotel and checked in before their flight left.
We did a lot of walking around - had to find a special coffee shop Kim was told about. I did manage a few hours at the Art Museum. Kim lost interest so I sent her on her way and continued to browse. I saw a many wonderful pieces, but not nearly everything. There were a lot of groups of school children with their stools and guides setting up in front of the major pieces which was a bit of an inconvenience. You can see pictures of some of their collection at the ArtInstitute Web Site.
