Brit Word of the Day

Todays BWOTD is a BBC 'Top Gear' fave:

"I'm getting absolutely mullered!"

'Mullered' = beaten to a pulp!

Yep this is when there is absolutely no doubt you have been beaten, or thrashed, by something or someone! It is also a slang term for being very drunk.

My World - Sears Tower

The morning of our last day in Chi-town was spent in part up the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the US.

It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular. This was looking out to the north, Lincoln Park and Wrigley Field.

Looking south down the shoreline of Lake Michigan, along the Chicago River and across the industrial area.

The Museum Campus to the south east is out on the peninsula. In the foreground the Shedd Aquarium and in the distance the Adler Planetarium and harbour area.

To the East is the lake, Magnificent Mile and the green area just before the lake is Millenium Park.

To the north east on the right is the Trump Tower and on the right is the Hancock Tower, which we preferred to the Sears as it was less crowded.

And how high up were we? Well here's the Hubster holding his GPS to show our altitude above sea level was 1776 feet!

To join in the fun go to My World Tuesday

Chicago Thursday

Thursday morning was one of the Hubsters highlights of our holiday, as he got to tour Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. For those of you not in the know, the Cubbies are like a less successful version of Man Utd back home. They have a similar history to the club and a legion of lifelong fans, but they have not won their championship for 100 years.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about Baseball and to be perfectly honest, I find it pretty boring. But even I enjoyed this tour and found it interesting. The Hubster is one of their loyal fans and so he was enthralled. One of the things the Cubs are best known for, is the often celebrity led sing-a-long of 'take me out to the ballpark' during the 7th innings stretch.

When we first knew they were going to be out of town the week we were there, he was not sure about doing the tour. But I convinced him it would be very worthwhile, having done a similar tour of Old Trafford and been thrilled myself. It was however hotter than haides the morning we did it, with crazy humidity and the first part was almost like a torture as we sat in the bleachers for a talk!

The humidity under the stadium was unbearable, as they had spent the morning hosing the walkways down! So it was a major relief to get up into the Press Box (despite the climb!) and finally find some kind of breeze. The view from here was great and I advised the Hubster that if we ever come to a game, we need to be either in there or a cheap seat in the shade!

He got to visit the team locker room, where alot of their personal stuff is on display in their lockers. Even I was impressed by how much was shared on the tour and the personal aspects.

Here he is in the home team dugout, waiting to be called into bat!

The last remaining manually operated scoreboard in the league. Apparently on game day, they will have 16 staff inside it making sure everything runs smoothly. The only air-conditioning is the open vents on either end!!

Our tour ended with a few piccies outside, including this one next to the statue of the famous Cubs commentator Harry Carey, he of those glasses!

After the Hubster squeezed in a quick geocache find back at the Museum Campus, we headed to the Chicago Art Institute.

We had a quick look around the new 'Modern' wing, but to be honest we're neither of us big fans of modern art.

So we headed off into the more traditional galleries to see some of the wonders of the art world. Here is Van Gogh's self portrait, it seemed like his eyes followed you wherever you moved!

A fabulous piece of Sevres pottery, of which I have always been a big fan and this vase was huge and so vibrant.

And then we had a gallery of Monet paintings, I could have put in a dozen pictures here, but 'Water Lillies' is my personal favourite. But seeing them close-up we were enthralled by the tiny brushstrokes and luminosity of his colours - just stunning.

This magnificant Indian Chief headress was from the Cheyenne tribe and originated from our neck of the woods.

And finally a beautifully designed English silver art deco rose bowl caught my eye.

We only managed a short visit to the Art Institute after our very energy sapping visit to Wrigley Field. We headed back to our room to finish the pizza pie and have an early night in preparation for our final day.

Caught - Red Pawed!!

"Oh look what I found"

And right here is the reason you never leave a glass of unattended drinking water in our home, and then return to drink it!!

Bon-Bon maybe more than a year old now, but her water fixation is still strong and any water in the house is considered fair game!

You can also expect feline company when showering, but I'm not about to publish proof of that particularly odd quirk!

Happy 4th July!

Wishing you all a happy & safe Independence Day and yes I do join in the celebrations, despite being a Brit. Although you'd be surprised at how many Americans ask me if we celebrate it too in England! My response is usually "absolutely, we celebrate getting rid of y'all"!

Today we have 'big doings' going on just 25 miles away. A historic day for our little area, as we are visited by a former President here! Yep, George W Bush will be in town later and we won't be there. I'm afraid we're just not that fussed to fight thousands of people, 100 degrees and 50% humidity.

So we are going to go and set a geocache and name it 'Born on the 4th of July', then later visit our towns celebrations. We have a beautiful lake here and our Fire Dept put on one of the best firework displays around over it, so we'll be there at dark. It's rather nice actually to do what we want, as this is our first 4th July without family or guests.

And up top is the Red Velvet Cake (his fave) I made the Hubster for his birthday, made from scratch for the first time and I am NOT a baker, boy it was good :-) We also surprised him with a hamburger grill at our good friends, he had fun.

Enjoy your 4th of July, what are you up to?

Happy Birthday Hubster!

The Hubster gains another year of maturity today and like a fine wine, he improves with age.

He is a precious man for many reasons, one of which is his sense of fun and ability to laugh at himself, as demonstrated above!

But he is also not afraid to show his emotions and love for friends and family, another wonderful quality in a man. I wouldn't have moved 4,700 miles for just anybody, but he makes my life worthwhile everyday.

I have a couple of surprises up my sleeve today for him, which I'll share tomorrow. He always says being born on July 3rd is a bit like having a christmas birthday, slightly overshadowed. So I am going to do my best to make him feel special.

Skywatch Friday - Chicago

'The spectacular Trump Tower on the Chicago River'

Double click to get the full effect

To see more wonderful skies from around the world or to join in, go to the Skywatch site.

Brit' Word of the Day

Todays BWOTD is a phrase even my gran sometimes uses!

"Will you do that for me?"
"Not on your nelly!"

'Not on your nelly' = a heartfelt 'not likely'

This is just a funny Brit phrase, I have noticed tends to be used more by northerners and the older generation. The younger generation have their own less polite version!

**Chicago holiday posts will return later today with a Chi-town Skywatch, and then continue with the final Thursday/Friday piccies on Monday & Tuesday.**

Chicago, Wednesdays Wonders!

Our Wednesday started with a bus to the museum campus, bringing us in past Soldier Field stadium, a really impressive sight.

We were off to the famous Field Museum of natural history, a big draw and a beautiful classical style building.

It very much reminded me of the Natural History Museum in London, with a similarly impressive grand hall.

The star of this area is undoubtedly 'Sue' the T-Rex, the largest and most complete dinosaur skeleton in the world.

In fact her actual skull weighs so much it's too heavy for the rest of the skeleton! So it is displayed in a seperate case upstairs and a lighter duplicate is on the full skeleton.

We then headed into the exhibit hall of stuffed mammals, some of them were extremely realistic!

These are the infamous 'Lions of Tsavo', two male man-eating lions who killed and ate 140 railworkers around 1900 in Tsavo. Friends had lent us the movie of this true story 'The Ghost in the Darkness' before we visited. We were both surprised at the size of these lions, considering the havoc they wreaked, we expected them to be larger I think.

The view of the main hall from above is impressive and we enjoyed our visit here. However we were a bit tired and there were a few too many noisy children running around, so we moved on!

We escaped to the relative quiet and calm of the Adler Planetarium, as I have never been in a Planetarium before.

We enjoyed the fascinating displays and then caught two of the shows, 'The Night Sky' which really was very interesting, but the dark and warmth made us both nod off for a few minutes quiet kip! We did manage to stay awake through the more action packed 'Cosmic Collisions' though!

The Adler Planetarium has been voted by Chicago residents as having the best skyline view and we concur with their opinion.

After another bus ride back to the hotel, we headed out to a Giordano's, of Chicago Pizza Pie fame.

It was delicious, but extremely filling and we had enough leftover for dinner on Thursday night too!

We decided to walk off dinner with a bit of geocaching and en route we passed the Trump Tower.

We had a quick gander inside this very impressive new skyscraper, it's quite something close up.

Then we followed our GPS directions through a riverside walk with lovely views.

Down the side of the famous Wrigley Building, which has some really beautiful architectural features.

Before arriving at our final destination, another famous Chicago landmark. This was a 'virtual' cache, where you just have to find it and then log a photo of you at it holding your GPS. This was our second find of the night, we finished the trip with five in total.

The we walked back down the Magnificent Mile to the Hancock Tower and ascended once again to see the city lit up at night.

We also had an ulterior motive, to see the Navy Pier fireworks.

After our visit the previous day and wanting to avoid the huge crush on the actual pier, we decided this would be a superb vantage point and we were right.

We were not the only people to think of it, but it never got really crowded and we easily got front row seats for the show.

It was a great decision, we had a drink in the cafe, then had a birds eye view of the wonderful weekly display. It was just a really special highlight of our holiday.

After the show we did a circuit of the tower again to capture the night views. This was looking down on the beach and shoreline.

Looking across the city away from the lake, it was easy to see the block layout.

And finally looking down the Magnificent Mile and across all the skyscrapers, what a view to end our day!

Tomorrow join me to see a highlight of the Hubsters holiday, Wrigley Field home of the Chicago Cubs, a bit like Old Trafford/Anfield if you're a Brit!. Followed by the Art Institute and some of the wonders of the art world, like Monets and Van Goghs close-up.

And in case you are wondering, yes we walked miles everyday and were a little foot weary everynight!