4th of July Weekend

Sean actually had the entire Fourth of July weekend off. A whole three days in a row!! This called for celebration and exploration of our new surroundings, even if there were a million people out for the festivities over the course of the weekend. On the 4th, we met our friends, Joey and Rachel (if you don't remember, Joey is in residency with Sean--they graduated from medical school together and matched at the same place), at the beach for a relaxing afternoon. We packed lunches and visited for a few hours, while trying to keep the sunscreen layered effectively. 

In the evening, Sean and I braved the crowds and went to the Taste of Chicago for about twenty minutes. That was enough. We tried some fresh potato chips with hot sauce and each had a hard chocolate chip cookie. The people were so packed in that you wanted to run screaming down the street. I don’t think we will be attending that fiasco again next year. We were able to stick around and see the fireworks from Grant Park downtown though. The really big ones had been on the evening of the 3rd, but these were still pretty cool. Plus there were far fewer people (we heard that 1 million crowded in like sardines the night before for the "fireworks spectacular").

We were a little more low-key on Saturday, but we did get all dressed up to go to the original Green Mill jazz club in Uptown in the evening. Apparently Frank Sinatra and Al Capone frequented it back in the day and celebrities still check it out every once in a while now. It was kind of disappointing and, once again, extremely crowded, so we didn’t stay for very long. I think we are getting less tolerant of other people in our old age.

On Sunday afternoon, we hopped in our car and headed downtown to visit the Shedd Aquarium. After we parked for a horrible sum of money, we walked by Soldier Field on our way to the aquarium. I got all touristy and forced us to snap a few pictures. As we continued on our way, I stopped at a hotdog vendor and got myself a genuine "Chicago Dog" with all the fixin's (except onions, of course...Dad, I feel your disappointment). 

The aquarium is located on Lake Michigan at the beginning of a little manmade peninsula jutting out into the water. On the far end of the peninsula is the Adler Planetarium. The view of the city from the planetarium is gorgeous, so we strolled out to get some pictures.

The only picture that I snapped in the aquarium was of the Komodo Dragon in all it's splendor and creepiness. Once again, there were a bigillion people there, so we hurried through the exhibits faster than we normally would have. We got a membership so we can go back whenever we want for a year and enjoy it a little more. 

Here is another awesome view of where we now live!!