Running Errands--City Style!

Yesterday was my errands day.....city style means no car....so I set out with Sarah about 9am and headed to ballet camp. It takes us about 15 minutes or so to walk over and once she was dropped off I backtracked a block to catch the brown line up to my new chiropractor. I'm still not as confident as I will be at navigating the transportation here and usually have a few post-its with details as well as my little laminated maps in my purse. My goal is to be like the majority of the commuters: reading a book while listening to their ipod/cellphone and magically knowing when their stop is approaching. Then, being able to swiftly move to the door without losing or dropping anything would be the icing on the cake!

Once I exited the train, I had another 15 - 20 minute walk to the office. Such an interesting walk though! In one block I saw a peach tree, a Starbucks, an Iglesia Christiano, a double decker bike (two frames, one on top of the other) being ridden by a guy with purple spikey hair and two moms pushing their toddlers in strollers. Some of the little courtyard gardens were lovely....and some were not. Mixed zoning at it's finest. It is also interesting to note that with cell phone headsets, it is difficult now to tell the Probably Crazies apart from the Could Be Crazies----everyone (except me!) is talking to themselves! But it did occur to me that this walk might not be so interesting in the dead of winter so I'm gonna try the bus next time and see if that reduces the walking.

After my chiropractor, I took the brown line back into the Loop and got off at the Library stop. Headed for the Barnes and Noble to get a couple things for school and then met up with Dick for a quick Thai lunch. I continued on to another appt and Dick went up to ballet and walked Sarah home. As I walked home thru Millenium Park, the filming helicopter was very busy getting shots of the Lake, river and park again. Honestly, those guys never stop. We see them multiple times each day.....and often so close to our windows that we can see the guys IN the copter. They're still blowing things up a couple of blocks over at Michigan and the river so booms and smoke are part of the background up here in the clouds!

Here's our only pic from LaSalle street which Dick shot before we found out they are CRAZY serious about no pics on their set.......note Pritzker Pavilion in the background.....

We found out that Transformers 3 is in town shooting, and this past weekend, they were in my backyard! We were up and out at 7am hanging around the park across the street waiting for helicopters and parachuters. Apparently, alien robots are coming to a theater near you, but they start out life as (crazy) big guys in black jumping from helicopters in very narrow spaces among the downtown high rises. We saw the five jump and steer through the neighbor buildings and land in our park. They then dragged their chutes to the fenced playground and re folded them in the middle of the swings. Pretty cool...though making movies seems to involve alot of sitting and waiting and then some fast action.....the guys in black will be digitally erased and replaced with the bad robots. I'll have to bone up on this Transformer stuff....

After the parachuting, we headed to the Loop where LaSalle and several cross streets were completely closed. Large concrete debris, burned out cars, smoldering piles covered LaSalle. But, they're all made of foam! Well, the cars are real...some with and some without engines....We saw them shoot an explosion from a block away (that was as close as we could get, and believe me, I tried). They shouted "Fire in the hole!", and we covered our ears. Big, loud bangs, small fireworks, two flipped cars and a VERY low flying helicopter (probably 2 - 3 stories above ground) filming it all....we clapped and cheered, and I made a mental note to see Transformer 1...or whatever the first one is called.

On our way back, we cut through Millenium Park where the Chinese American Museum was hosting the family activities in the Target Family Tent. Sarah completed a dragon craft, and had her name written in Chinese calligraphy.

Is this a GREAT city, or what!!!!

Wow....they're making a movie in my backyard!

painted forest

In our walks around town we've come across these groves of orange and yellow painted trees. It was so pretty and eye catching, but puzzling! Hitting google told us that it's a joint project between the Chicago Park District and their landscape firm. It was installed late last fall to provide color and they used over 100 dead trees sourced from area nurseries. I think it's a great way to add color and use dead trees!

Not to be outdone by those artsy-folks, the Field Museum dressed one of their residents in a Blackhawk Jersey.....quite a time of celebration after the Stanley Cup Win.....

Finally, here's a picture of the Lions with the Blackhawk helmets that greeted us on move-in day!

Being green.....

Last Wednesday, after reading about the forty something weekly farmer's markets in Chicago, I headed out to the grand daddy of them all, the Green City Market, held up in Lincoln Park. I entered the address into the RTA trip planner and it told me exactly what buses to take. I left about 7:30am and by 8:00 was enjoying a beautiful spread of local and sustainable harvests. Oh my goodness was it pretty! So many different colors of tomatoes, fat blueberries, greens galore and homemade breads and sauces and desserts. The people there were equally colorful--moms with stroller tykes, older folks, suits on their way to work, overwhelmed newcomers (me), dog walkers with beautiful dogs (almost all were big dogs BTW---and I petted each one!). I circled the whole thing twice before getting a game plan. I ended up with blueberries, fresh( not dried) pasta, fresh shelled peas, one pound ground beef, portabella spaghetti sauce, and a non-dairy berry smoothie for my breakfast! I would have gotten more, but I ran out of cash! It was great to talk with the farmers themselves--they're pride was obvious and they couldn't have been more helpful. It was also quite a "community"---I got the feeling the customers and the vendors were all regulars---they all seemed to know one another and were asking after each other. I suppose, this might have been what it was like before the big superstores.....kinda nice...

I also found a small indoor farmers market between the apartment and Sarah's ballet. Great place to stop for items to fill out dinner. They also referred me to the Pastoral Cheese shop, and they fixed me up with some shavings of parmesan when I realized that I didn't own a grater here and couldn't grate their wedges. Super nice folks...

Funny to think that in the heart of the city I have access to all this wonderful, healthy food with more choices than in Atlanta! And, I get to walk to it!