Holy snap and good gravy, i can’t believe i’ve forgotten to post these. These are from my vacation back in, what, August? Clicky to view parts one and two.
Okay, so my parents picked me up at the train station after my nice long ride on Amtrak. I had a funny little moment where i thought i was going to wind up being over an hour late; turns out that my phone hadn’t bothered to change time when we crossed the time change line. Fun stuff.
It feels like i didn’t get as many pictures of Chicago as i did of Michigan, but my dad, stepmum and i did take a few trips to various parts of Chicago and East Chicago specifically for the purpose of taking pictures. So without further blathering, here are some pictures behind the cut.
My stepmum had seen some pictures that i’d taken of an old run-down factory in Atlanta, and thought i might enjoy taking more pictures of similar things in Chicago. She was quite right. We drove to East Chicago (which is actually in Indiana) and went mildly insane with our cameras.
My stepmum is a far braver woman than i: you couldn’t pay me enough to sit down on any manner of train tracks. I don’t care how good the photo-op is, that’s a great big hell AND no.
I’ve always admired flowers that have the ability to grow in the unlikeliest of places.
I do not have any issues with putting my camera on train tracks: cameras are replaceable.
Eep. Even looking at this picture makes me nervous. I like being on trains, but i do not like being around trains or train tracks.
Eventually we decided we were done with that particular train yard, and we started back. It was a nice long ride, and we stopped to take pictures of assorted factory bits. Behold: geese. I couldn’t decide which of these next two pictures i liked best, so i’m posting them both.
Believe it or not, this next picture was the main reason we’d chosen to go towards this part of town. One of my dad’s friends or coworkers had mentioned this yard to him, and said they had no idea what these things were – old factory equipment? Broken down exercise machines? Industrial sheet music stands? This is, unfortunately, the best picture i have of them, so it may well remain a mystery.
After all that driving and picture taken, we decided we were peckish. We went to Manzo’s, which has the best damn pizza in Chicago. Yes, really. There’s almost never anyone actually eating in the restaurant (whenever we go there, we tend to have the place to ourselves), but they seem to have almost a dozen delivery drivers.
We drove around a wee bit more after dinner, and passed by the Opera Lofts. The Opera Lofts are built in an old building that used to be a storage place for props and scenery for the Lyric Opera. The outside of it is even decorated with some old props; my dad could (of course) tell us which production each prop came from. The man simply cannot be stumped when it comes to anything related to opera.
A night or two later, after my dad, brother and i had gone out to dinner, we walked around what i think is called the Prairie district. In this area are some of the oldest (and most beautiful, IMHO) houses in Chicago. This one was delightfully spooky, and the only one of my pictures to come out from that walk. The lighting was not behaving properly.
And to wrap it all up, the most helpful sign ever:
