David and I traveled by car from Knoxville to Chicago (about 9 hours with small stops) in early August for the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual convention. I presented a paper about teaching media ethics at an early morning session on the last day of the conference. I received some great feedback and met other scholars from across the country as well as caught up with some friends who are now at other universities.
Since we haven't had a real vacation in a while, we were able to take in some of the sights in the Windy City, including a visit to the John Hancock Observatory, which the locals say is a better view of the city than the Sears Tower even though Sears is taller. The observatory though has an open-air Skywalk that is 94 floors above the Magnificent Mile known for its hotels, shops and restaurants. We ate lunch on the 95th floor at the Signature Room.
Below are some photos from our trip.
This is our view from the hotel room, at the downtown Marriott.
The Chicago River, which they dye green on St. Patrick's Day each year.
All the sight-seeing tired David out, so we took a brief nap high above Chicago.
We visited the observatory during the day and purchased a bonus ticket to return at night, a beautiful sight!
You can see the Sears Tower in the photo above. It's the really tall black building on the left.
Chicago has a gorgeous waterfront that overlooks Lake Michigan. It's unique in that it's a large city without the industrial clutter and factories on the water that other cities such as Boston and New York have.
They even have a man-made beach with quite a few visitors on a warm August day. Speaking of warm, the temperature was great. It stayed in the upper 70s most of the time we were there.
Another waterfront view!
A view of Chicago!
We left Chicago Saturday afternoon and drove halfway home, stopping in Convington, Kentucky, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio. We dined at the Waterfront restaurant in Convington, looking across at Cincinnati.
We returned home from the Chicago trip on Sunday afternoon and left again Tuesday morning for David's research trip near Columbus, Ohio. David was working most of time, but we did drive into Columbus and see the Ohio State University campus and the downtown area.
The only photo I took on the trip was of the Tennessee Welcome Center on our return Friday that didn't look very welcoming. It wasn't directly off the interstate, but off an interstate exit and then to the left, to the right and up a hill. I should mention they are remodeling the actual welcome center, and the one we visited is a temporary location.
We're back home again for a while without any extended trips planned until next year!
2 comments:
Looks like you had a great time. Sara and I love Chicago; it's definitely our favorite city to visit.
Some of you may notice my Van Dyke in the picture of me on the beam. I have since changed it into a classic goatee. Quite a change. And something you don't see as often anymore.
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