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We saw “The Bean”! But, officially the Bean is named Cloud Gate. You’ve likely seen it if you’ve seen a few promotional pictures of Chicago. Even though the artist initially disliked the name “The Bean”, he came to accept it after a couple of years. Here is a link to The Bean. Of course The Driveby Tourist sees pictures of the Millennium Park Bean Chicago often but, as usual, pictures just don’t do it justice!
And the first picture of this post contains The Bean! Why don’t people just don’t move away for serious photographers like me! (Just kidding.) Overall, observing the bean among the crowd gives a reality that doesn’t show up in the pictures. Certainly, the bean makes an amazing attraction. By all means, when in Chicago you “gotta” visit the Bean! First thing to remember, Chicago visits make a great trip, either a long weekend or a week. Chicago, The Windy City, Chi-town, The City with Big Shoulders, Paris on the Prairie, and The Toddling Town. Certainly gives Chicago a lot of nicknames. And “back in the day”, columnist Mike Royko said Chicago’s official motto should be “where’s mine” given the corruption in city government at the time. Of course, an early Chicago mayor “invented” the saying “Vote early and vote often”.
Chicago visits
If (when) you go to Chicago, make it a fun time. Typically easy to travel there. With two airports, Midway and O’Hare, and about 20 different airlines, you can usually find bargain flights from anywhere in the US, or outside the US. (I show a couple links on the sidebar to sites that give advice on how to save money on travel.) Both American and United make Chicago a hub. If you like Southwest, they have lots of flights to Midway, which is much closer to The Loop. Below is more information on Millennial Park, mostly focusing on The Bean.
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More Millennium Park Bean Chicago
Besides your regular tourist pictures, getting up close and personal when there are many people visiting really gives you a much different view. And the shape of the Bean shows people and buildings in various “bent” reflections.
Here’s a shot looking at the top of the bean from the inside. The interesting curvature and stainless steel give it an amazing reflecting property. And the shadows give the look of an alien being if you look at certain angles!
Instead of stopping with the pictures, I just keep on showing them! Of course, it’s the bean. Lots of reflection and a view under that bottom of the bean.
Except for the bottom of the picture, the remainder consists of reflections. And the reflections from the bean look different by just moving a few feet.
More bean Total bean – all reflections …and do you like reflections? Kind of like the pictures you see in Chicago literature From a distance, it almost blends into the cloouds Through the bottom!
Had a difficult time deciding which pictures to include, so…. Of course, I needed to add in more of the bean. Don’t worry, I have more than this! But, I’m done for now. And this is all in Millennium Park Bean Chicago!
Want to see a shop for my road trip photos? You can have them printed as wall art or puzzles. They also work on coffee mugs, t-shirts and more! So, take a look. Maybe you'll see something you will like!
Not the bean!
Finally, get around to showing we are actually in Millennium Park. Great visit and a great day. Weather was beautiful. Low 70s, some sun.
Despite all the focus on the bean, we also attended several performances of the Chicago Jazz Festival taking place at Millennial Park. By the way, if you want better travel pictures, use the “merge photo” option available in several photo processing software packages. This was done with Adobe Lightroom.
Overall highlights of Millennial Park. The picture on the right shows an outdoor amphitheater for highlighted performances.
Three more pictures of the Jazz Festival. Specifically, performing “When the Saints go Marching In”. The second picture shows park architecture. Finally, a shelter for more performances.
And the gardens are beautiful as well. Lots of flowers throughout the park.
Of course, no trip to Chicago can be complete without mentioning Mike Ditka, head coach of the Chicago Bears (“da bears”) for the Super Bowl victory in 1985. Would you believe they beat the New England Patriots? But that was before the days of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
Finally, The Bean and Millennium Park summary
While the Bean takes up a lot of this post, several other posts highlight more things to see and do in Chicago. And this group of posts contains attending a baseball game a Wrigley Field, visiting the Museum of Science and Industry (link), taking an Architectural cruise on the Chicago River (link), and a general post on other Chicago attractions (link). But. again, this post is mostly regarding Millennium Park.
Classic Rock Recollection
“Mr. Tamborine Man” by The Byrds
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there ain’t no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you
Though I know that evenings empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming
Written by: Bob Dylan
So, you ask, how does this connect to Chicago?
Roger McGuinn, frontman for The Byrds is from Chicago!
I have picture of Lana during the 25K marathon in Chicago alone by the been. Awesome picture. You look great standing next to Ditka….LOL