Passing through the Prudential / Amoco cluster, I emptied out into Grant Park, where the Taste of Chicago happened to be in progress. The "Taste" is an annual event, held by the city, that features selections from many of Chicago's most popular restaurants and eateries. It consumes the park area between Lake Michigan and Chicago's Loop and on the 3rd of July it concludes by having 1.5 to 2 MILLION people file into the area to watch the orchestrated fireworks display. If you've ever heard the song "Saturday in The Park", this is what the musical group Chicago was singing about.

At the north end of Grant Park, lies a new area known as Millennium Park. At this moment it was still under construction, but its unveiling was not far away. Although most of Millennium Park has been sealed off from the public during its development, one could not help but view the twisting silver forms that define the stage of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a 4000-seat outdoor auditorium. These bizarre contorting shapes are the trademerk of legendary architect Frank Gerhy, designer of the celebrated Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

At left I wanted to include a few other random artifacts that came out of my trip to Chicago. First were the fanciful yellow, blue and red trio of apartments that someone had built near the freeway. I have enjoyed these for quite some time and fully expect them to show up on TV at some point in the future.