The weather in Chicago during the days leading up to the Christmas Holiday was nothing short of beautiful. Although most people would like to see a white Christmas, I was happy that we didn't have to slog through snow and ice during our weekend stay there.
On Christmas Eve day, we took a walkabout the downtown Chicago area. We walked down to Millennium Park and checked out the Cloud Gate sculpture, or what is affectionately referred to by locals as "The Bean." This was the first time we'd been around it during the daylight hours and the mirror image was pretty cool.
The McCormick skating rink at Millennium Park was packed with skaters. The wait to rent skates was over 60 minutes - and that was at 11:00 a.m. The temperatures were in the low 40's and it was a beautiful day to skate.
We walked over to the Pritzker Pavilion and I took this shot from the back of the Great Lawn looking toward the stage. With the buildings in the background, I doubt if there's many other outdoor venues that look so architecturally striking.
Here's a shot of the Chicago skyline and the stage area of the Pritzker Pavilion. This picture was taken from atop the BP Bridge that goes over Columbus Dr. and connects Millennium Park with Daley Bicentennial Plaza.
Here's the Crown Fountain sculptures with the skyline in the back. Even on a brilliantly sunny day, you can still see the video projected faces of Chicago residents on the face of the monuments.
We walked down from Millennium Park to Daley Plaza. They were celebrating their annual Christkindlmarket open air German market festival in the plaza. A number of small shops are set up and vendors sell small gifts from around the world. Many are handmade and one of a kind works. By the way, here's the big Christmas tree in the plaza.
Here's a picture of some of the shops that are in the plaza for open air Christkindlmarket. The market is open from just after Thanksgiving thru Christmas Eve. In addition to gifts, they also sold food there. Cindy and I shared a bratwurst smothered in sauerkraut. It was pretty good, but not quite worth the $5.50 they charged for it.
Here's a shot of the famous Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza with the Christkindlmarket buildings in the foreground. We hung around for about a half hour looking at stuff, but we quickly realized it was probably more of a tourist trap than anything else. Still, it was sort of quaint to see these little buildings at Christmas time.
It was sort of strange being in Chicago at Christmas, but it was neat at the same time. Cindy wants to do it again next year. If we don't have anything going on, we may do it.
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