Alright, I am definitely responsible for a little lack of blog updates. I guess the moment I turned this into a true blue photography blog, I seem to realise that I have that amount to blog about but then again, I am the number procrastinator when it comes to processing photos and getting up on the blog let alone sending them to the printers to get them printed.

Here is a continuation from my previous post, talking about when I was visiting Chicago City which is still a fond memory in my head. We started the day with an Architecture tour in mind, the tour mainly revolved around us going up and down the river whilst listening to some lady talking about how old some buildings were and what design the architect had in mind. To be honest, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be an architect. Mainly because I wanted to design the next "Death Star" or something cooler.



Every day had to always begin with a great breakfast and where else to have breakfast at the local bakery in the village.



I was quite happy as I could finally try out bagels and cream cheese.



But to be perfectly honest, it was nothing to shout about. Kinda regretted not ordering the large breakfast set which came with toast, scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. After going about on the river cruise, we decided to walk along Michigan Avenue which was crowded with shoppers.





After spending a lot of time walking (my feet was already aching!), we decided to look for a place for lunch and since I am a fan of 1901 HotDog's and my favourite hotdog is Chicago Beef, why not try the actual Chicago Beef Hotdogs in Chicago itself. High and low searching and using our iPhones to search for nearby restaurants, we ended up at Portillo's.



Where I ordered a huge chilli dog with curly fries. (Pity there wasn't any rootbeer available)



Next stop for us was the Aquarium which was located all the way down south of where we were. After taking the metro line (subway), we were still quite far off from the aquarium and walking there seemed the best alternative (also the cheapest). At the same time, it gave me some opportunities to shoot a little bit of the Chicago scenery. Apparently they worship feet over there since they have plenty of monuments dedicated to it.



Note the guy in the orange shirt above? Yes, he is on a Segway! He is part of a Segway tour group, how cool is that?  Its basically a tour where you get to ride your own individual Segway around the city with a bunch of other people guided by a tour guide. Do that in Malaysia and you get run down by cars and "mat rempits".





I am amazed that they even have signs to state "dog friendly" areas as well.



More random stuff which I took whilst making our way to the aquarium.





After a long walk, we finally arrived at our destination.



Only to be welcomed by a huge crowd and the fact that we only had 2 hours before they closed. I am so not used to seeing everything closed by 5pm!



The main attraction of the aquarium, other than seeing loads of sea creatures, is their collection of beluga whales.



After the place closed up, I took even more random shots of the surrounding areas.



I still can't believe how large Lake Michigan is!



Yes it is a lake! Possibly larger than the entire land mass of Peninsula Malaysia.

By the way, the myth about cops and donuts ain't true. I caught a couple of them eating hot dogs.





They (the police, duh!) seem to be riding everything possible now, bicycles, horses, and motorcycles. Soon they will be riding one of these as well!



Only thing is that they probably needed to put power sockets around the city to charge up their Segways.



Funky looking bench with interesting art on it.



Last but not least, a shot of my colleague whilst we took the metro train back to our hotel.



Chicago, definitely a city I would love to visit again. I think I will spend a little more time there the next time I am in Chicago for training.

Before anyone asks where is Day 2 of the WeddingStory Langkawi trip, I decided that I definitely wanted to post up some other photos of my recent trip to the US. Back in May, I flew to the States to attend a training in Chicago for a week where I planned a short break after the training session. Since I was already at Chicago attending the training, I thought it would be great to stay a couple of nights in Chicago with a bunch of my colleagues over in the City whilst taking in the sights.

The bus ride from St. Charles all the way to the city was horrendous. We were stuck in traffic for about 3 over hours for what should have been a 45-min bus ride. By the time we arrived in Chicago, it was already 5pm in the evening and we had little time there to enjoy the sights.



Chicago City itself, home of the mafias and also known as the Windy City.



This is a view from my hotel room. The building next to the hotel had a very interesting concept, it was totally round and had built the parking lots below the rooms. Look at the parking spaces, there are no walls at all! I can't imagine parking my car there overnight. I would probably be having nightmares about my car falling off from the building.



Chicago has a river running through the city where they have plenty of water taxis and Architecture tours available for tourists to ride up the Chicago River. Look how nice and clean the water is much compared to our own wonderful Klang River which runs through KL City. The secret to this is not only civic minded folks who don't throw every single bit of rubbish into the river but they actually have a processing plant to clean the river's water.



Before I went to Chicago, a friend of mine, CWCW, told me that I have to try a deep dish pizza. After checking out with some of my colleagues during my training session, I was told that I should check out Giordano's for some of that awesome deep dish pizza. I guess Giordano's is sort of like those franchise type stores, much like Domino's or Pizza Hut.



As it's name suggests, this pizza is definitely a thick crust! The pizza is so thick that after 3 slices I was totally filled up to the brim, of course the extra added cheese did not help at all. The crust itself isn't like the usual pizza crust you might get but it had a combination of pie crust in it. If you ever are in Chicago, I would highly recommend that you try out a deep dish pizza.



After stuffing ourselves crazy (with plenty of leftovers), we decided that a nice long walk would be suitable and since Grant Park was nearby we headed there for a walk. As light began to disappear, shooting in low light was going to be a tough challenge. The weather itself was just awesome, nice and cooling without any hint of humidity.



As we were walking, we chanced upon this interesting monument. I love the fact that it was rather stylish and interesting, mainly because it was totally reflective!



Which means I could take a photo of myself!



I loved how the syline of the buildings behind were also reflected on it the monument.



This was the skyline of buildings behind it.

After snapping a couple more photos, we headed towards the Sears Tower where the attraction there would be to head up to the upper decks or the "Sky Deck" to catch a 360 view of the Chicago City.



The one thing that caught my eye is how straight the roads were! Everything is so nicely planned out.



The SkyDeck definitely showed us all how large Chicago is. By the time we got down (we stayed till it was closing time), we were totally wiped out and proceeded back to our hotel.

Day 2 of the Chicago trip to follow up!