Chicago Open House Weekend 2024 - Saturday

Posted on Wed 20 November 2024 in photography

A grotesque of an owl on the corner of the Chicago Public Library. High in the sky, an airplane flies over.

SONY ILCE-6700 f/6.3 1/160s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 08:08
A grotesque of an owl on the corner of the Chicago Public Library, a tree in the foreground might make a better perch for an owl.

SONY ILCE-6700 f/5.6 1/320s ISO 320 Taken 2024-10-19 13:16
The Bean, with the sun shining behind it and the Chicago skyline reflected in it.

SONY ILCE-6700 1/1000s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 08:37
The Bean, with the Chicago skyline reflected in it, several people are standing under The Bean.

SONY ILCE-6700 1/640s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 18:38
A view from the Clark Street bridge, looking north. The Dearborne Street bridge can be seen, along with one of the Marina Towers

SONY ILCE-6700 f/6.3 1/160s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 09:53
The State Street bridge, behind it the Wabash Ave bridge is open, and a flotilla of yachts are in the river

SONY ILCE-6700 f/5.6 1/200s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 10:07
The rear of an El train, apparently a Blue Line one, viewed from within the Red Building

SONY ILCE-6700 f/4.5 1/125s ISO 320 Taken 2024-10-19 11:16
The Chicago skyline, viewed from the Red Building, the public library and the Sears Tower can be seen

SONY ILCE-6700 f/4.5 1/200s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 11:19
Many, many piles of $1 bills

SONY ILCE-6700 f/4.0 1/160s ISO 640 Taken 2024-10-19 12:51
Some pleasent greenery in the northern branch of the Chicago River. The skyline of downtown looms in the distance.

SONY ILCE-6700 f/2.8 1/1250s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 14:24
An old train drawbridge over the Chicago river, rusted and covered in graffiti

SONY ILCE-6700 f/10.0 1/160s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 20:04
A forg. Presumeably from a carousel

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Wildflowers, with a rusty train drawbridge in the background

SONY ILCE-6700 f/2.8 1/2500s ISO 100 Taken 2024-10-19 15:15
Various dials on a copper still

SONY ILCE-6700 f/2.8 1/40s ISO 320 Taken 2024-10-19 16:07
A night parade along State Street

SONY ILCE-6700 f/4.0 1/60s ISO 4000 Taken 2024-10-19 18:22

It's only been a week since my last post about Open House Weekend, and a month since that weekend, might as well write another one of these.

Woke up, grabbed some Dunkin and energy drinks a few hours before anything doing Open House, er, opened. Went by the bean and got some more photos of it with less people there. One of the first things on my list, and I figured probably quick to knock out was a museum in one of the drawbridges, and to kill time I sat on a bench by the river for awhile.

While I was sitting around, I heard the sounds of a one of the bridges lifting, looked upriver, and there were several sailboats coming down river, going under a bridge, tying off on the side as everyone in the... flotilla I guess... made it through the bridge and waiting for the next bridge to lift. And I just happened to be standing right near the Dearborn Street bridge while watching this, so I decided to find a good spot to stand with my phone.

And thanks, Youtube, for deciding that's a "short" and making it near impossible to embed without jumping through hoops, as well as moving it to another part of the UI that isn't just the list of videos I uploaded.

Once the boats had passed, first stop was the drawbridge museum. It was very cramped and didn't get many good photos.

Next, the infamous Red Building which is apparently called "333 South Wabash". Open House for that was an unfinished floor, the 19th if I remember. It was hard to get decent photos with glare on the windows, but I got a few.

After that, back to the hotel to drop off my jacket, and to grab lunch. And after lunch, the financial district. The Wintrust building was mainly "Look at this bank lobby", and the Federal Reserve was one room you normally don't get to see, and the Money Museum which is open to the public anyhow. And by the time I did those, the line for the Board of Trade building was around the block, and decided to pass on that.

To the Sears Tower then (I'm never calling it by the other name). Open House was a lounge on the 67th floor, so you basically got to go halfway up for free. Of course the windows out were filthy and had horrible glare, and the inside was very Modern Open Floorplan Office. Meh.

Next up, a green space on the north branch of the Chicago River. I guess it's open normally and it's in Open House to get people to come look at it. It was nice, sat for awhile on the river, watched a few kayakers go by. Then walk to a bus stop for the next place: Rebuilding Exchange. It's an building material salvage place that recovers materials from renovations. Though the most interesting thing there for me was the old railroad drawbridge that was in the back parking lot.

One last stop for the day at a distillery, it was of more interest to my friend who couldn't make it than to me, but the way bus schedules worked out, it wasn't much of a delay to get to an El station. After walking through there and grabbing a souvenir, I grabbed dinner at a Thai place, and rode the train back to the hotel.

Getting off the train, I stumbled into a halloween-adjacent parade that I stood around and watched until my feet had enough with standing, and I finally actually made it back to the hotel, after walking 10.5 miles and 25k steps.

And I really should write stuff like this closer to when I do it so my memory is a bit more vivid.