chicago in photographs

Back to Chicago. I wanted to share some of my vacation photos. I wish I could have had more time to see the sights.

Our first day in the city, we walked up to the Navy Pier and took an architecture cruise on the Chicago River. I snapped this picture before we boarded the boat.

This was my favorite skyscraper I saw on the cruise. There are two identical buildings and they're called Marina City. It reminds me of the Jetsons. I think it's really cool because each building has condos, plus parking, a grocery store, bars, dry cleaners, restaurants, and even a bowling alley. It's really a mini city.

After the river cruise, we walked up Navy Pier and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant right by the Ferris Wheel. I really enjoyed the pier, even if it was a bit kitchsy.

This is the new Trump tower, right near our hotel. It is really a sight to see.

We of course went to the Art Institute and I was very excited to see Grant Wood's American Gothic.

We also saw Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

I love Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and this is one of my favorites of his, Au Moulin Rouge. It's a self-portrait of him at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. I love the lighting on the dancer's face.

I accidentally set off the alarm trying to get a picture of this, Vincent Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles.

And of course I saw Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte. It is very striking in person and absolutely enormous.

It was very foggy and cloudy when we drove out of Chicago. All the skyscrapers were completely covered!

the sweetest place on earth

I love roller coasters. I also happen to love chocolate. What better place to satisfy both desires than Hersheypark? I took my first trip to Hersheypark when I was in 8th grade. In Northwest Arkansas, the places to go were Six Flags over St. Louis and Silver Dollar City. They are great, fun parks, but Hersheypark was so different than the others. It was clean, shady, and I swore it smelled like chocolate. It had lots of roller coasters, but lots of other rides, too. A park for everyone.

This was my third trip to Hershey since moving to Pennsylvania. It is still as great as I remember, but growing rapidly. There is now a water park and another new coaster since my last visit. The other impressive attraction is the Zoo America, which is included in your park ticket. It's a small zoo park featuring different animals and habitats from North America.

But one of the best things about Hersheypark is known as Chocolate World. The Hershey Chocolate factory doesn't offer tours, so Chocolate World was born. You take a ride through a colorful, musical world of chocolate-making. Chocolate smells are pumped through the ride and animatronic cows sing about the joys of milk chocolate. It is so dark and cool and sweetly-scented that it is hard not to fall asleep.

Just when your eyes are fluttering closed, you're ushered off the ride and through a labyrinth of hallways until you reach a very bored teenager handing out fun-sized Hershey Bars. Free chocolate! What could be a better ending to a hot, sweaty day at the park?

I've been to many parks, but Hersheypark remains my favorite.






It should be noted that I seem to be getting older and therefore unable to withstand the jerking, twisting, dropping, spinning and banging of your average amusement park ride. Somewhere within the last five years, I seemed to have develop a gag reflex. No, I didn't vomit, but I sure felt it was touch-and-go at times. I'm hoping my tender stomach was merely a side effect of eating bad food and getting very little sleep the night before, but it could be the simple fact of age.

I guess I will need to visit again soon? For experimental purposes, of course.

some favorite vacation photos

I love these mermaid fountains at the Place de la Concorde. The spot is infamous for being the place where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined.

This is my favorite photo from my trip to Paris. It's from the gardens of the Musee Rodin. The gold dome is the Invalides, where Napoleon is buried.

I got lost in Montmartre one day (not hard to do) and stumbled upon this. It is Paris's only vineyard.

My camera doesn't take very good nighttime photographs, but I loved how this one turned out. The Eiffel Tower is really an eyesore during the day, but the night changes everything.

The Notre Dame gives you many great photo opportunities. These are prayer candles inside the cathedral. They are everywhere and it makes the interior just as enchanting as the exterior.

What an amazing city.

If you are ever in Paris, taking the Notre Dame's gargoyle tour is a must. Yeah, the ancient, crumbling steps to the top really start to suck after awhile (there are over 400 of them), but once you get up there, it's so worth. You can see the whole city.

Every Thanksgiving my Dad takes us the Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and every year it continues to wow me. It's definitely something everyone should see in their lifetime.

The Sacre Coeur is my favorite landmark in Paris. Everything about Montmartre is wonderful...

Walking up those God awful steps to Montmartre. They may not look bad in this photo, but just get a glimpse of my face and you'll understand.

What's a vacation without taking cheesy tourist photos? This is at the Louvre in Paris.

I found this great fountain in an alley behind an art studio in Laguna Beach, CA.

I love food. This was a delicious peach melba at a quaint cafe in Montmartre. Yum.

Despite the fact that this is an incredibly creepy photo of myself, I like it. It's somewhere in the Belgian countryside at a farm where they produce honey and beeswax. It makes me look brave.