Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
You could win one of two $50 gift certificates to Auntie’s Beads!!!
Who would have thought that a hurricane would come to Chicago? Me, I always thought that hurricanes preferred palm trees and therefore would never roll into my great city. But then I remembered that someone in the Streets and Sanitation Department had the fabulous idea of planting palm trees at one of the beaches (North Ave., I think), and so then Friday made a lot more sense.
On Friday, I brought my camera with me to work with the idea of a downtown picture taking tour during lunch. Instead, I snapped these pics when I should have been working, so now I can call myself a paid photographer. That makes me a professional.
Far off in the distance, underneath those dark blue clouds, there’s a high rise. And in that high rise, there is a condo that I lovingly refer to as my home in the sky. That condo has it’s windows open, although you can’t see that in the picture. These things happen because I don’t watch the morning news.
Here’s another picture of the storm, one that taught me to be very careful how I aim the camera. Other pictures had leaning buildings, despite Chicago being nowhere near Italy.
That black building on the right? The one with antennae? It’s not a robot, it’s the John Hancock Center. Here’s another:
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera outside during lunch (and if you remember, that was the whole reason why I brought my camera to work on Friday). Had I brought my camera to lunch, I could have shown you all a picture of a tour boat getting stuck on the Chicago River between bridges. The boat made it all the way from the Lake through the LaSalle St. bridge, but then the river rose so fast that it couldn’t get through the Wells St. Bridge (the famous double decker bridge), and had to turn back. Here’s a picture of the water level about 20 minutes after that event. Once monsoon season is over, I’ll post a picture of normal water levels for reference:
I played around with the exposure in taking these pictures, but alas we have this fancy pants automatic lighting system at work. I couldn’t turn off the lights, so the glare wreaked havoc on my poor little point-and-shoot. The sad little camera couldn’t cope with artifical light all around it, while metering at a dark, dark subject.
In fact, it was so dark outside that my friend described it as spooky, which resulted in a texting debate over whether or not the anti-christ had been born. This, in turn, lead to two of my coworkers and me scanning Upper Wacker Drive for the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man. We wanted smores. Sadly, he was nowhere to be found.
Love your pictures! I Loved working on the 70th floor of the AON Building, had my camera with me all the time.
Awesome photos! LOL @ marshmallow man. Isn't the signature room at the top of Hancock?
Those are some pretty cool photos of the clouds over Chicago, now I want marshmellows…
*iclw*
OMG What cool pics! I see from this post that these were taking from work. LOL!!! I have been to chicago several timnes, and that is so cool!!!
Cool pictures. We started out honeymoon in Chicago and was on one of those architecture tour boats. Wow!
great pics! i love that city so much…and i know exactly what you mean about the lake.
oh, and now i want some s'mores, but sadly i am on the low amylose diet for pcos and won't be consuming sugar for at least another 2 1/2 months. (or, 82 days to be exact..but who's counting?)
iclw
Cool storm photos!
Hope the kitties didn't get too wet
Holy flip – once again you had me rotfl! Man, Shanz, you STILL crack me up! Gee, you gotta get published!
Great pics!
Thanks for stopping by.
ICLW
iamstacey: H&H and the window: Yeah, I worry about them all the time. One day I'll post the story of Howrah falling off the balcony. She sprained her paw, otherwise was fine. Me? I lost 10 years off my life. It was 4 years before I let them on the balcony again – 4 years of them begging and raaaAAAaaawing before I relented. I usually keep the windows open about 2-3 inches, just enough for a breeze, so they can't get out. Sometimes, though, I leave them open a little too far.
Kewl pics, FC! Thanks for sharing.
Earlier that morning…oh, I'd say about 3am or so when the first wave of storms rolled thru…Mother Nature got a little too close for my comfort. I've heard the sound of close lightening strikes before but nothing like I experienced this night/morning. Both my bed partner and I literally jumped out of bed from deep sleep, each of us uterring those seven words George Carlin taught us can't be said on TV in a conjoined exhalation of whatever air ramained in our lungs. I've never heard Mother nature any louder. The hair on my arms stood on edge.
The next day I found out exactly how close that strike had come…one block over directly parallel to my townhome…a great elm tree seared in half, its' bark charred off.
I normally enoy a good thunderstorm…this one scared the you-know-what out of me.
Great pictures! I'm in Chicago too and am still amazed how the temperature went from 60s-70s to mid 90s. I'm not prepared!
haha… now i want smores too!!
fun post! 
Great pictures , AND you crack me up. What more could I ask for?
yummmm, smores…
do you ever worry about H & H falling out of an open window?
Love the pictures! My office is merely on the 3rd floor, but since there's nothing higher around (except for the trees), we get to see the storms rolling in like that too.
Sorry about those open windows…hope the kitties didn't get too wet.
Love the pictures. Great job taking them. Thanks for sharing.
That last paragraph has me rolling.
Wickedly cool pics to go along with the story.