Memorial Day Parade and Millenium Park

Today is our last full day here in Chicago. The morning began with my last class on how to train and control your volunteer boards. When that was over I met up with Chuck and we went outside to watch the Memorial Day parade. It was right in front of our hotel. Every high school and middle school in the city and county was in it along with the local police, fire and veterans organizations.

If you click right below, you should be able to watch a small portion of the police bagpipers. They were pretty neat to listen to. This is my first video, so if it doesn't work, don't be mad.

Our next venture was supposed to be to an antique market on the southwest side of town. I had looked it up online, printed the directions and bought our subway passes. We boarded the correct train (green line) and we rode it to the last stop. On the ten minute ride we watched the downtown fade away to become the umm how do I say this nicely, the part of town you don't want to be in as a tourist after dark. We got off the train and looked around for anything that would resemble this huge antique market. I told Chuck that we would have to walk a few blocks from the station. He informed me that we weren't walking anywhere but back upstairs to the platform. We asked the clerk behind the thick bullet proof glass where the market was but he really didn't have a clue. We got back on the train (luckily it hadn't left yet) and rode back to the safety of downtown where we knew the homeless by now. We decided to walk down to Millenium Park by Lake Michigan instead. It is a very nice large park with many different sections to it. There are two famous sculptures in the park. The clouds and the bean. Underneath the clouds is a stage where concerts can be held. In front of the structure is a very large grassy area. The bean is a very interesting item and everyone wants their photograph in front of it. While we were there, three different wedding parties stood in front of it for photo shoots. After strolling through the park, we headed back to our hotel area. I had not ventured into Macy's but Chuck had, and he insisted we go inside. It was 9 stories tall and amazing. I picked out a very nice outfit but I think there clothes run small. I had to buy a size 3 in the capris. We ended the day at Pazanos Restaurant for some homemade pasta and cheesecake. I couldn't finish all of mine so we had them box it up and Chuck was discouraged, there were no homeless outside to give it to this time. We are back in the room and packing up for our flight home tomorrow afternoon.