Chicago Snapshots - searching for spring

I spent a couple days this week taking a quick trip to Chicago with my friend Jenni to celebrate the completion of her dissertation (and she certainly deserved some fun after all the hard work, pain, and suffering she's been through the past few years!). It was a last minute trip and the weather was cold, windy, rainy, and rather miserable. We did a little shopping, some dining, some museums, some attractions, and a lot of walking while struggling to keep our umbrellas from turning inside out.

Looking out at Michigan Ave through the window of the Apple store.

Despite the weather, it seemed warm and springlike inside of Crate and Barrel.

It was "Tulip Days on the Magnificent Mile" and the hotels and stores had beautiful planters and displays.

Lego Man outside the Lego Store in one of the malls. At least it was warm and dry in the malls!

We wandered through the American Girl Place. I think these dollies were out in the rainy weather and needed their hair done. I wish I could have hopped on the chair because my hair was totally limp. This place was a trip - they even had a "doll holder" rack in the restroom stalls.

No pictures of the Museum of Modern Art - free on Tuesdays, though! Not very big, but a couple interesting exhibits.

Navy Pier - Let me say for the record that parking in Chicago is outrageous! Parking here was $20! Unless you spent less than an hour and then it was free. It's amazing how much you can see in under an hour with such motivation!

The Stained Glass Museum at Navy Pier was a free treat! Really just a long hallway filled with all styles of beautiful stained glass windows.

And by the way, the $16 parking fee at the Museum of Science and Industry was quite ridiculous, too. Cost more to park than admission to the museum - something is wrong with that! (Forgive the bad picture - I didn't take many inside.) Favorite part of the museum is Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle - I'd seen that years ago - totally had forgotten how cool it was!

Some hotel and restaurant pictures will be coming!