davidseater.com | Pictures - Chicago

Album: Chicago (270 images)

In mid-September I flew to Chicago for a business trip. While there I took a day off to play tourist, visiting downtown, the John Hancock Center, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, Millenium Park, and (of course) the Sears Tower.

Click a picture to see a larger view.

A neighboring plane at Sea-Tac on the way out.

It was a busy morning at the airport.

Lining up for departure.

Heading North after takeoff.

Mercer Island and downtown Bellevue.

I-90, the Seattle end. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure we flew over the Chicago portion a few hours later.

Mercer Island.

I liked the wake trails made by the boats.

Foothills and Mount Rainier.

Mt. St. Helens (?) and Rainier.

A small part of the Motorola office in Libertyville.

Here comes my ride to downtown. Metra commuter rail.

It's an imposing train.

I snagged a seat on the upper level.

The Sears tower on the way into Union Station.

In the Great Hall at Union Station.

The other side.

Peeking at the Sears Tower from the bus outside Union Station.

The Carbide and Carbon Buidling. I liked the architecture and colors.

NBC Studios.

Looking up the Chicago River.

A new Trump tower being finished.

The John Hancock Center hiding in the distance.

Another tour boat.

Heading into the Locks to get into Lake Michigan.

I didn't know it before, but apparently back in the day the flow of the Chicago River was reversed, which if why they need to Locks.

Starting to fill up.

A lighthouse in the distance.

The Hancock Center, Chicago's third-tallest building.

The North Shore of downtown Chicago.

The tall white building in the center is the Aon building, the second-tallet in Chicago.

Navy Pier.

Navy Pier and downtown.

About to get run over.

The Hancock Center behind Navy Pier.

Sears Tower.

Sears Tower and a water taxi.

The Adler Planetarium.

Soldier Field, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Field Museum.

Hancock Center and the Ferris Wheel.

The Locks.

Back in the Chicago River.

The new Chicago Spire is being built here. It will be 2000 feet tall, more than 500 feet taller than the Sears Tower.

The Aon buidling.

A fountain. Apparently once an hour it shoot s jet of water all the way across the river.

The Trump building.

There were a ton of these bridges.

The Wrigley Buidling.

Weird.

There was a circular rainbow in the air over the United buidling.

This building was enormous.

Apparently it was the first buidling in the US to get its own zip code, and has its own police and fire departments. Over 4 million square feet.

Big and blurry.

The Boeing buidling. So this is where they moved to.

Sears Tower.

Sears Tower.

Sears Tower.

Looking up through one of the bridges.

There's that giant buidling again.

Looking up from the base of the Hancock Center.

Navy Pier from the Hancock Center.

The Sears Tower from the Hancock Center.

This was really high.

You could see realyl far away.

Rooftop grass.

Looking North from the Hncock Center. Looks like a nice beach.

This made me dizzy.

It's to see, but there was a helicopter out over the lake, LOWER than the buidling I was standing in.

Helicopter again, with more perspective.

That's a lot of apartments.

Back outside.

Sears Tower from Grant PArk.

This run down little shack looked really out of place.

Onward to the Museum.

The Field Museum.

Sears Tower from the Shedd Aquarium.

Shedd Aquarium.

Birds in the Aquarium.

Turtle.

Tiny little monkeys. At the Aquarium. Go figure.

Weird monkey.

Giant turtle.

I think this was a shark.

Cute sleeping otter.

This snapping turtle looked mean.

He really didn't seem to like me.

I thought this turtle was a rock until I took a second look.

Turtle or rock?

Spiky Creatures.

A blue iguana.

Grumpy fish.

Chameleon.

It moved very slowly.

These were the laziest eels I've ever seen. They looked dead, and didn't move the entire time I was watching them.

Still playing dead.

Well hello there.

Weird fish with a prong nose and big mouth.

Lungfish.

The little yellow fish were trying to steal the turtle's food.

I was hoping he would eat one of them, but he didn't.

You are an ugly fish.

This little guy was very interested in my camera.

Sleepy seahorse.

These seahorses looked like sticks or seaweed.

Shark.

Giant crab.

Spider Crab.

Back outside.

The Field Museum.

They had this creepy fake town inside.

Sue, the largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton.

This is a rock, even though it seems like it might be alive.

Jade flutes.

This reminded me of the one I have at home.

I thought this would give me nightmares. It was probably half again as big as me.

Thank goodness these things are extinct.

Sue again.

The Lawn at Millenium Park.

The Cloud Gate, which looks like a giant shiny bean.

Reflecting the skyline.

I got a picture of myself.

Underneath the bean, weird optical effects. That's me upside down in the center.

Me again.

Looking out.

Another reflection.

At the base of the Sears Tower.

Night view, looking South from the Sears Tower.

Catching the tail end of the sunset.

The Hancock Center has some very bright white lights at the top.

My camera is not so great at taking pictures at night.

This building was very bright.

Back outside.

Looking up the River at night.

Heading back to the train.

My ride back to Libertyville.

Look out, a dinosaur at the airport!

Copyright © 2012 David Seater