Saturday, January 08, 2011

My kind of town

Chicago is. Since I don't have a lot of new photos of France right now, I thought I'd take us on a little trip down memory lane. In June 1996, Ken and I went to Chicago. He had a conference to attend and I tagged along for fun. While Ken worked, I ventured out and took pictures.

The top of Chicago's landmark Water Tower.

I didn't venture far, only in the loop and up Michigan Avenue a bit. I was on foot and it was hot and humid. But I had fun. Boy, would I love to go back and spend some more time exploring. Chicago has changed a lot since I first saw it in 1982. It's changed some more since these pictures were taken, nearly fifteen years ago now.

This first one is the famous Chicago Water Tower. It's up on Michigan Avenue and was built in 1869. It's one of the few buildings to survive the great fire of 1871. Its base, not in this picture, looks like some fantasy castle. I read on Wikipedia that its design inspired the architecture of the famous White Castle hamburger chain.

So get ready for a series of not-so-recent Chicago photos. These are all 35mm color slides that I'm scanning and digitizing. I am retouching them using Photoshop, mainly to crop and correct the color (the scanning process sometimes changes the original colors). Bear with me.
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12 comments:

  1. Jean08 January, 2011 13:31

    How beautiful. I love the knobbly bits (I think they're called crenellations perhaps).

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  2. Claude08 January, 2011 14:06

    Chicago is my kind of town too! Would love to go back there, really

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  3. Evelyn08 January, 2011 14:36

    I'd love to meet ya'll in Chicago! We'll have a few White Castles while we're there and see if the queen is in town- Queen Oprah, that is;)

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  4. Cheryl08 January, 2011 20:42

    Since, as you know, Walt, Chicago is MY town (not just my kind of town), I am looking forward to photos of sweet home Chicago. Go Cubs! Go Bears!

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  5. Starman09 January, 2011 01:54

    I've never been to Chicago. I've driven past it many times, but never stopped.

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  6. BosGuy09 January, 2011 02:19

    Yes, Chicago is one of my favorite American cities. It has beautiful architecture, interesting and unique neighborhoods and fantastic restaurants.

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  7. Ur-spo09 January, 2011 02:24

    I used to live there; during my younger days, coming out - oh so many happy memories. I miss Chicago.
    I look back on it with many good thoughts.

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  8. Anonymous09 January, 2011 06:29

    I've never been to Chicago but an architectural tour of the city is on my bucket list. Thanks for the reminder, Walt.

    BettyAnn

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  9. Cheryl09 January, 2011 06:44

    BettyAnn... Definitely do the architectural boat tour. Leaves from Michigan Ave and Wacker Drive. It is a must-do in Chicago!

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  10. wcs09 January, 2011 08:17

    jean, right you are!

    claude, has it been a long while?

    evelyn, it's a date!

    cheryl, I think I have a photo of your parents' building coming up.

    starman, it's worth a visit.

    bosguy, yes. And the same can be said about Boston!

    michael, Phoenix must be very, very different.

    bettyann, sounds like a great goal!

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  11. wcs09 January, 2011 09:22

    cheryl, on second look, the building I thought was your parents' turns out not to be.

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  12. Leesa12 January, 2011 08:41

    Walt,

    I'm LOVIN' your gorgeous Chicago pics, as usual... you take such amazing shots!
    Cheers from CR (a very rainy, tropical one at the moment!)

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