Chicago trip

My aunt and I had a wonderful time in Chicago last weekend. She lives in Detroit and Chicago is roughly a 6-hour drive for both of us, so it was a great meeting place.
We stayed in the Grant Park Best Western and it was within sight of the lake and walking distance of nearly all of the things that we wanted to do. Our first major stop was the Shedd Aquarium. We saw some stunningly beautiful (and stunningly ugly) aquatic life. Both of us were inspired to "someday" start a coral tank.
Once we had had our fill of fish and coral, we headed to Navy Pier. It was a beautiful day and we walked the 3 miles along Lake Shore Drive to the Pier (you can see the Pier at the far right of this photo).

We were, of course, very hungry and tired by the time we got to the Pier. But after a refreshing lunch and rest in the crystal gardens, we hit Ferris wheel and the stained glass museum. The stained glass museum had many wonderful pieces. Unfortunately, the museum is part of the walkway from the parking garage into the main section of Navy Pier, so it was a little hard to admire the artwork while groups of people rushed to and from their cars. But still, they had some lovely pieces and the key exhibits (such as the Tiffany glass) were off in quiet niches.
We then grabbed some dinner and saw "Doubt", the movie set in a 1960's Catholic school. I had heard that it was a good movie for promoting discussion and boy was that correct. We spent a lot of time that evening AND the next day dissecting the characters' actions, decisions and motivations.
Sunday we had breakfast at "Yolk", a favorite Chicago breakfast spot. The food was good, but not great. Then we went to the Chicago Art Institute, who were surprisingly offering free admission for the month of February. We managed to take in most of the European painting collection; I ended up buying a Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir print. We had just a few minutes left so we made the snap decision to check out the "Thorne Miniature" collection. Wow, these were so neat. My pictures don't do them justice; check out the official site.
These are a whole set of 1/12 scale rooms from various times and places. The attention to detail was amazing: tiny clocks, books, rugs, art work. Mind boggling. I wish we had had more time to look at those.
And then sadly, our trip was over. It was great to spend more time talking with my aunt and getting to know her better. We are going to try and plan another visit soon. It would be great if some of our other family members could join us next time! There are more photos here.

General Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. Last weekend I had a great weekend in Chicago with my wonderful aunt. I will have a separate post describing our adventures.
My life these days is very absorbed with work, but I'm trying to maintain some semblance of a work-life balance. I just don't see how my coworkers who have families manage to get everything done. I come home, spend an hour or two getting everyone fed, managing household tasks and then usually sit at the computer and work for another 3 hours. And even with all of that time spent working, I'm still very far behind on several of my projects. I realized this Wednesday that since I was out of town for the whole weekend, it had been over a week since I sat on my couch or turned on the TV. I'm a big fan of "Lost", but I missed the season premiere and haven't yet had time to get caught up.
But despite being so busy, I'm enjoying life. The stained glass class is a nice diversion. Next week we finish our first project and then the week after that we start our NEW projects. Our new project will involve the "copper-foil" method, which is the technique used in making Tiffany glass. I'm very excited and can't wait to pick out the glass for my new pattern. Here's a picture of my nearly-finished current project, with more detailed photos here:
I've also been attending some of the ISU Women's Basketball games. One of my coworkers had an extra season ticket and I bought a share of those.
In my last post I described all of our snow. Well we had a blessedly lovely warm spell early last week and nearly all of the snow melted. It was so nice to be able to see my yard again and use my circular driveway. On Monday I was able to take Sheba for a nice 90-minute walk and I didn't even need to wear my coat! But sadly it has cooled off again and we got more snow last night. It's supposed to be pretty cold for awhile, so I guess I won't see my yard again anytime soon. But at least we are moving in the right direction and the days are getting longer. It will be so glorious when spring arrives in full. My neighbor and I (and two friends) are going to plant a vegetable garden in my neighbor's yard and I'm envisioning nice long summer evenings spent outside working in the dirt. It will be a blast.