Chicago Walk: Last hours on State St. & Wabash

I am back in Portland now after a nice long thanksgiving visit with my parents in Chicago, and other family in Ohio. The Midwest is alright, but it's just too cold. It was so nice to take a walk here last night. It was chilly, but not nearly as troublesome as Chicago winter. That being said my last day in town (Wednesday) was pretty perfect, with clear skies...and I don't need to reflect too much on the weather the day before which involved so much wind there were 20 foot waves on the lake. Yeesh.

 

We met my Mom for a lunch downtown and some shopping at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. Dad and I also did some walking along State St. and Wacker, and could check out the progress on the Sullivan Center (formerly the Carson, Pirie, Scott Building,) the new LEED certified dorms for Roosevelt University, and the "Lightscapes" Street decoration for Christmas (pictured above. You can almost make out the purple, green, and red lights here.) I was happy to find a way to sneak in a few purchases from the market in my already packed suitcases, including snowflake ornaments, an advent calendar, and (at long last) a tree topper that fits my medium/apartment-sized Christmas tree!

 

And lastly, of course, we had to drop in Macy's to see the holiday decor. The trees in the Walnut Room were my favorite. I also noticed for the first time that there seems to be a Christmas fairy that goes around the restaurant granting wishes. The decor elsewhere in the building was just as I remember. I'm not a big fan of the ornaments hanging below the Tiffany Ceiling, since that's pretty enough on its own! 

I'll be headed back for another shorter trip right at Christmas time. Between preparing for that, Crafty Wonderland, and the holiday season, I should be pretty busy through the end of the year!

Umbrella Saga

I bought a bunch of new umbrellas the weekend before last, including the two pictured and one (boring black) one for Chuck too. It had been really rainy, but ever since I made the umbrella purchase it's been mostly sunny and much more spring like. So I might as well blog about the umbrellas too, in the hopes of keeping up the trend.

Anyway a while ago, shortly before we moved out to Portland, I had decided I needed this umbrella for this city. It's been sold out on modcloth since I first saw it, but still I needed it. Then recently I decided I was going to get it if at all possible and even sent Chuck to scour the internet along with me to find out who made it, where else it was available, and if I could buy it. We didn't really have any luck with that.

Then over the weekend I decided we should check out Nordstrom Rack for some new sheets, and I figured I would settle for whatever the best second option - some kind of plain bubble-type umbrella - they had available. And they had the umbrella I'd been looking for. Not in the Gold, but still in a metallic silver (and also black) after a few weeks of using it (only a little bit for sprinkles here and there) I think I've decided I like the silver better. I wear a lot of gray stuff and it goes nicely. Plus it was Nordstrom Rack so it was cheaper! 

I also bought myself a purse umbrella, the colorful striped one above. I'm finally prepared for Portland...now I hope it doesn't rain too much.