Pictorial: A Tourist In My Own City

I love it when people visit, not only because it means I get to hang with my friends/family who I don't get to see that often, but also because it means that I get to be a tourist in my own city. This past weekend, I enjoyed a visit from five of my E-Vegas friends (VBG, Evilducky, the Bibliophile, the Apathetic One, and RabidMonkey). We played board games; ate tons of food; I feel asleep first (as usual); we did a lot of siteseeing, including three attractions that were knew to me. Here are some pics of our adventures:


First, we went to the Frank Lloyd Write home and studies in Oak Park, IL (just a mile over from my suburb). This isn't a picture of his actual home or studio, but this is a picture of an ENORMOUS house that he also designed located on the same beautiful tree-lined street that FLW lived on.





Here's another FLW designed house. Remember, people actually live in these homes. I hope they don't mind having their picture taken. LOL



Ok, its true folks. I've lived i Chicago for over three years now, much of that time I lived less than a quarter mile from the Art Institute. A year ago, I got married in the south garden of the Art Institute. But, until last Friday, I had never actually been inside (other than the pee on wedding day). So, I went, I saw, I heard (yay audio tour), I got grumpy b/c the Warhol exhibit wasn't out. This is an example of some of the "you must look at this cuz its famous" pieces I saw. When I saw this painting, there was an actual french person standing there looking at it with me... I found that amusing.




My favorite attraction (and the one I'm most upset about not having visited before) was the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Its like a huge park with really awsome gardens (and signs telling you what all the plants are). Here's a picture of the beautiful landscape, some flowers, and yes, that's me petting Nick's head.




The CBG is the home of an awesome vegetable and fruit garden exhibit (which I will have to discuss in more detail later) , also apparently including the world's biggest (and really beautiful) cabbage.




The sheer size of this cabbage gave it a slightly demonic feel.. so Evilducky + photoshop = this:





A pergola made of totally awsome and also freak'n huge grape vines.




We ate some awesome (apparently "awesome" is my word of the day) Italian desserts in honor of the RabidMonkey's birthday.



And now for some randomness... because she has yet to make it on the blog, here's a picture of our dog Maggie (with Bohdi's butt in the way... and some random legs and feet of people apparently.)




And a picture of the Bo-Dog




And, to wrap it up.. some kitty cuteness.. yay!