commuting

I've got one more day of work - tomorrow. Whoopee! So today I thought I'd show you some of the steps I've taken over the last 8 weeks.

Awhile back I brought my camera to work with me. It was pretty silly - me snapping pictures in the middle of a morning commute. My camera is nothing fancy, so I couldn't pass myself off as an amateur photographer or anything remotely like it. And since I was in my work clothes I didn't look like a tourist, either. I just looked like a strange working girl taking pictures. But if anyone asked, I was all ready with a made up excuse about how this was really for my kindergartner son. Of course, no one asked. The whole crowd was much too sleepy to be inquisitive. But it was fun anyway.

Ok, so here we go. Hope you enjoy this!

Here's my view of sleepy passengers taking the metra train in from the suburbs to the city. Actually, they don't look too sleepy here.

A view from my window seat, still at the station. Park & ride to the city.

After 32 express minutes, we have rolled into Chi-town. A mad rush for exits and escalators at Union Station.

Emptying out of Union into the street. The start of my walk to work. It takes me about 25 minutes from here to get to the office building where I was stationed.

There's the Chicago "L" going by. It gets a lot of bad press and always seems to have significant operating issues going on, but when I used to live down here I never minded taking it. Nice people watching view from above, don'tcha think?

If you prefer Caribou over Starbucks, as I do, you gotta look extra hard for one down here in the Loop. Worth finding it, though.

A random look up a city street.

That one was so exciting I decided to repeat it.

Still walking. I really did look like a fool with my camera. But for the blog, there's no such thing as vanity, wouldn't you say?

Something important looking going on at Daley plaza. Maybe a job fair. My mission was too important for me to stop and find out.

Ah, yes. The corner of heartbreak and despair. Macy's in the old Marshall Field's State Street location. You can hear the sobs of Chicagoans walking by as you approach the building.

More randomness here. Look, it's the L again.

By now I've worked up a bit of a sweat. I'm all the way over by Millennium Park, which is several blocks east of the train station and right next to Lake Michigan. You can see that the sky is starting to clear up a bit. Looks like we're going to have sunshine after all.

Another view of the park.

Walking next to the old Chicago public library. This looks like a shot from Paris...or am I exaggerating here?

There's another shot of the park.

Now I leave the street and I'm up on the 39th floor of the office building where I worked. This is the view out my window. Looking due east, and a little south.

Now looking north. You can see a tiny bit of Navy Pier.

And here's a view from the conference room down the hall. Straight south. Birdseye view of Millennium Park.

Now looking a little more southeast. You can see how pretty the day turned out to be.

A couple more shots.

Too bad the view was the best part of the project!

Of course I meant to take more pictures...I should have even snapped some shots looking north on this day. But wouldn't you know, they started asking me to be productive. Nice people I worked with. Miserable project, but really great team.

The next time I go downtown, I'll try to remember to take some pictures. It's fun for me to see things like this, too. You always think you'll remember these shots forever in your mind, but then you don't.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!