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.