The last time I was in Chicago I was 16, and that’s not today or yesterday, is was 1976. I stayed with distant relatives in the suburbs and what I recall is as follows. It was the first time I saw an American Style fridge, it was huge and it was in the garage and stuffed with Coke cans. Lovely suburb with large gardens and no walls. We went to a few concerts, one an outdoor concert, apparently on 14 August 1976 at the Hawthorne Race Track with over 75,000 people and starting big acts at the time like Yes, Peter Frampton, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Gary Wright (amazing what you find out on the web!). I bought my first Thin Lizzy LP, Jailbreak.
Finally, I was the front seat passenger in my cousin’s Mustang when it was slammed into by a guy who was high and drunk and came screaming around the corner and hit us in the front, spun around and caught us in the back as well. His girlfriend was taken out screaming and shouting at him for being drunk and high! I remembered being scared I was going to bankrupt my family by having to go to hospital for treatment!
Anyway it was nice to return with Sharon and Aislinn to see Chicago again. It is a lovely City, great architecture, easy to get around, clean and felt very safe. We were lucky with the weather mostly bright, not too cold and dry. The city is on a huge lake which gives a lovely Lake shore just like the beaches at the sea and you don’t realise how huge the lake is until you get to see if from on high like we did from the John Hancock observatory deck. We did some shopping, sightseeing and had some nice meals. Only problem was losing my iPhone at the departure gate!
Here are some of the shots I took. My first time to really use my Fujifilm X-E1 and I enjoyed it. I see the X-E2 is now out with some improvements that should be interesting to see.
For those with Flash