I do not recall this decoration, and in any case, I find it very amusing 🙂
Did They Have These Wreaths Before?
I do not recall this decoration, and in any case, I find it very amusing 🙂
Tag: chicago
The First Skating Of The Season
I tried to go on Monday and then on Tuesday, and both times, I didn’t have 1.5 hours straight when I didn’t have any meetings, but I finally went on Wednesday. As usual, I came just in time after resurfacing – just twenty minutes later, the ice was already messy. As it always happens at the beginning of the season, there are way too many people skating, and most of them were doing it for (almost) the first time. I know it will be much better starting from the second week of January, but it’s so much fun when everything around is decorated and the holiday music plays over a skating ring! Besides, I will hardly have any options until almost Christmas!
Halloween For Myself
That was one of the few days for a very long time when I didn’t have any obligations after work: no volunteering, no visits to my mom, and nothing urgent to write about. And I had plans just for myself. The plan was:
- Finally, visit the newly reopened Pret on Monroe
I should mention that Halloween was the coldest day of this fall so far. It was freeing and it was snowing for the good part of the day:
However, by the end of the workday, the snow stopped and the sun came out:
- After Pret, I walked towards the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on North Michigan Avenue. I rarely walk in this direction these days, and I enjoyed every minute of that walk.
Long Bike Ride
Boris is in town. This was going to be a short visit, and I was busier than I would like to be when he was in town, but one thing we really wanted to do, and we did, was a long bike ride. Not the early morning biking, but midday biking on a beautiful sunny autumn day.
OHC 2023
The day started with the pouring rain, and I was unsure whether it was still a good idea to go with our original plans for the OHC Day. Igor said he would go with me or without:), and I decided to go, hoping for the rain to stop later in the day. It eventually stopped, and the trip “to the other side of the world” was totally worth it.
As usual, I hope to tell more about what I saw a little bit later, but judging by my recent level of busyness, it is not very likely to happen, so I will at least mention the highlights of the day.
First and foremost – Beverly Hills is so beautiful! Regardless of the OHC sites being open to public, it was such a pleasure to walk the streets, to see houses and trees, and just take in the spirit of the place.
The Best Big US City!
Listen here – and you know that that’s about Chicago 🙂
Just an opening quote:
If you ask a Chicagoan what they love about their city, they’ll get poetic. They’ll gesture with their hands and grasp for words to describe what makes this “big-hearted and cold-blooded” metropolis so incredible.
But listen to the whole thing!
Chicago At Night
The start of the theatrical season also means that I am walking around in the dark and taking pictures of our amazing city, probably for the hundredth time!
Girl’s Weekend – Saturday
We planned this last August weekend as a “summer in Chicago” thing because, last summer, things ended up so busy that we didn’t have a single beach day together. Also, we wanted to go together to Chalk Howard and create a picture on asphalt together.
We had that and much more, and it was overall a very happy weekend without which the summer would be incomplete.
Initially, we wanted to go to Chalk Howard twice: to draw our own thing in the beginning and then to see what other people had created in the evening, but we ended up doing just the afternoon because everybody was tired by that time.
Grant Park Concert
This summer, Grant Park Music Festival almost didn’t happen for me, with several severe storms ruining performances, me being away twice, me being busy, more storms, and more extreme heat. Yesterday, Boris and I went to the concert, which was almost the last for this season: there will be two more on Friday and Saturday, be we will be away.
And this “first and last” concert was perfect! That was the only time this season I watched Carlos Calmar conducting and listened to his commentary on the program and the composers – always funny and insightful. The program was great, consisting of little-known pieces. The weather was absolutely perfect, just warm and sunny enough not to be too hot and too sunny. And after the concert was over, we headed to Amorino and walked in right before the rest of the audience realized that it would be the perfect ending of the night and crowded the place!
Life is beautiful, and all the stress of the week was lifted :).
Grant Park Music Festival
Finally, after so many bad-weather-rain-too-hot-too-busy – finally, a perfect concert! Cirque Returns presented Troupe Vertigo aerialists’ stunning performance accompanied by classical music. The most extraordinary part was their “Carmen Cirque Spectacular” – a half-hour of extraordinary stuns accompanied by Bizet’s Carmen music.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any videos more than 20 sec long online; if you find some, let me know!!! No words to describe it, something very unique that I haven’t seen before.
Also, after the first number, the conductor announced that Mayor Brendon Johnson was there!
It was a very short speech: Brandon Johnson shared that all his three children play musical instruments (viola, cello, and violin) and he should probably learn to play something to be adequate. He reiterated how important is to make art free for everybody, and how this “free” requires a lot of resources, and he said that the city will continue to support the festival.
As usual, a final look at the lawn before leaving:
Hettie's Reflections 