5 years, time to celebrate

On October 25, 2003 Ben and I got married. It's really hard to believe that 5 years have flown by. Thanks to the generosity of Ben's family to care for our boys, we got to take a brief overnight trip to Chicago to celebrate.

A 2 1/2 hour train ride from Bloomington/Normal got us into Union Station in Chicago.


The train pulling into the station in Bloomington/Normal.


Traveling by train is a unique experience, such a mix of people all in one small space.


Our hotel - the Sheraton, on the river and very close to the lake. Our room was on the 33rd floor. It was a lot of fun to look down on life from up in our hotel room. We could see out to the lake and downtown to the Sears tower.


We traveled to south side of Chicago, to Hyde Park, and toured the Frank Lloyd Wright house, near the University of Chicago campus. The picture above is of the front porch of the house - but it's not where you'll find the front door. Wright liked to hide the entrance to the house, so guests were forced to really look at the house (noticing the architecture) before they could enter the house. The front door to this house is tucked back in behind the tree on the left - just about the last place I would have looked for it.


Circle in a square is a contrast that Wright repeated over and over in the house.


Repetition. The lead glass windows were amazing. By-the-way, photos were only permitted outside the house.


Wright focused on the linear lines. The bricks on the exterior and interior of the house were long and thin. The masonry on the house helped to accentuate the linear design. The mortar in between layers of brick is a light color that matches the limestone. The mortar in between the bricks matches the brick color.




Our silhouettes during the tour.




What my husband thought of all my photo taking.


We ate at Weber Grill. A wonderful place to eat. The food is grilled on HUGE Weber grills. Yum!


The hotel lobby. It was dark, but I loved the furniture and carpet.


Check out the texture on the wallpaper in our hotel room. Really cool.


A live plant in a hotel room - have you ever seen such a thing? Maybe this just goes to show that I don't often stay in nice hotel rooms, but this really impressed me and in a small way, made the room feel more homey.


A self-portrait before we headed into Union Station to catch the train for Bloomington/Normal.


The dark (and scary) world of trains at Union Station.