A Brief Time in Chicago

I had a brief layover in Chicago, so I took the opportunity to wander around the city a little bit.  I didn't stray too far from the train station though as I only had a couple of hours between trains.

 Fortunately, Union Station is pretty much in downtown Chicago and is pretty close to a number of buildings.  I'm not going to go through the buildings this time though.  I'll pretty much let the pictures do the talking.

 This building is about a block away from the Sears (Willits Tower) Tower.

 One of the things I like about Chicago is the architecture.  There are a number of old buildings sprinkled around town.

 Looking up at the arch on one of those buildings.

 Every so often I find something new when I'm wandering around the city.  This time it was St. Peter's Church.  I'm not sure of the history of this church but I like the building.  It fits in amongst the other buildings.

 A closer shot of the crucifix.  I kind of wish I would have had some time to go inside because I have the feeling it's pretty impressive.

 Another church but I think I've taken pictures of this one before.

 The Cook County Building.  This is the building that was in the Blues Brothers at the end.  I'm so glad I found it.

 The statue that is looking down on the Blues Brothers' car as it falls to pieces.

 Another statue.

 A statue by Pablo Picasso.  It was built in 1967 and is in the Daley Plaza.  It was made with steel from Gary and was made by the American Bridge Company.  There was a fair amount of controversy surrounding it.  Mike Royko who was a columnist in Chicago said, “Interesting design, I’m sure. But the fact is, it has a long stupid face and looks like some giant insect that is about to eat a smaller, weaker insect.” Royko did credit Picasso with understanding the soul of Chicago. “Its eyes are like the eyes of every slum owner who made a buck off the small and weak. And of every building inspector who took a wad from a slum owner to make it all possible.... You’d think he’d been riding the El all his life.”   Damn, I miss him.

 Looking down one of the streets.

 Since I was wandering around on the Saturday before Memorial Day, there was a parade.  This is a group from a local Naval group.

 Some Marines.

 Some members of the Chicago Police.  I love their uniforms.

 Looking down another street.

 There was also a protest against Monsanto and genetically modified foods.  I'm not entirely sure about the controversy though.

 A group of people heading towards the protest.  They tried to get me to go but I had a train to catch.

 The Chicago Board of Trade Bulding.  I was never able to get a full picture of this building with my old lens.  I think I'm going to like this lens.

 A shot of an elevated train as it passes by.

 Another thing I like about this lens is that it gives more dramatic shots of tall buildings.  With my other lens, I don't think I could have gotten the flag in this shot.

 Looking down another street.

 Looking down the Chicago River.

 A pair of boats passing.

 One of the tour boats.  One of these days, I'm gonna have to take one of these.

And back to Union Station to hop on the Empire Builder.  But you knew that since you saw the last post.

Train Trip Day 1 - Wolverine and Empire Builder

After a brief hiatus as I was trying to sort through all the pictures I took during my trip, I'm finally getting around to posting them.  I've decided to break up the train portion of my trip into the daily legs.  I will post pictures of the cities I stayed in as separate posts.  So here goes....

 Every journey has a beginning and my beginning was at the train station in Ann Arbor.  This station was built for Amtrak as the train station that was built by the Michigan Central is now the Gandy Dancer.  It's not a bad station and serves its purpose well but I wish that I didn't have to cross a bridge from long term parking.  The folks at the ticket counter are friendly and helpful.  It is always a pleasure from this station.

 As they made the announcement that the train was approaching, I decided to head outside because I like trains and wanted a picture of the Wolverine.

 Just in case you forgot where we were.  As you can see, there is a bridge to cross for the long term parking.  It's not bad for a day trip but when lugging a ton of luggage it's not so good.  I hope that if they do end up building a new station, parking will be better.

 And the moment of anticipation as the train approaches.  This is now my fourth major trip on the Amtrak and it still stays pretty cool.  There is something about the train and how it seems like a throwback to another era.  It's neat to hear the horn and the train bells as the train approaches the station.

 And the train stops.  We get the all abard call and we are off.

 The first stop after Ann Arbor is Jackson.  Jackson still has its old Michigan Central station.  I decided to use this picture because I liked the reflection of the train in the window.

 After several attempts, I finally got a decent picture of this plane that is sitting outside Jackson airport.

 Between Jackson and Kalamazoo, there is the stop in Battle Creek.  I didn't get any decent pictures there though.  I like the station in Kalamazoo as well.  Shame that we don't have enough time to get out though.  I'd imagine it looks pretty nice on the inside too.

 Since I've done this leg several times, I wasn't really taking too many pictures.  This scene is pretty typical along the way though.

 This is probably one of my favorite parts along the way from Ann Arbor to Chicago.  I believe we are passing over I-94 here.  I just like how it seems like there is always traffic here.

 After a brief walk around Chicago, it was back to the train station to hop on board the Empire Builder.  The Empire Builder is the train that goes from Chicago to Seattle.  It was the nickname for James Hill who used to own the Great Northern Railroad.  It was also the name of one of the routes on the Great Northern.  For the most part, the modern version follows the original route with a few exception.  I think it is cool that Amtrak pays attention to the railroad's heritage by maintaining the names of the original routes.

 This is the car that would take me to Seattle.  This particular car is known as a Superliner and is based on a design that was used by the ATSF in the 1950's.  It is a double level car and can be configured many different ways.  I was riding in coach and as such there are 62 seats on the upper level and 12 seats in the lower level.  Typically the lower level is used by handicapped passengers.  The bathrooms are also on the lower level.  There is a fair amount of space between the seats and they are fairly comfortable.

One of these days I'm going to try the sleeper car though.

 One of the views of Chicago as we were leaving.  We left from the north side of Union Station and this gave views that  I don't normally get.  Not sure what the buildings are though.

 The Chicago River as it slices through the city.

 And a slightly cropped version of that picture.

 And we pull further away from Chicago.  I kind of like this picture because it shows a nice view of the tracks leading into Chicago.  As you can see there are a few of them.  It also shows the signal towers.  These are similar to traffic lights for cars.

 One of the buildings as we were heading into Milwakee.

 A shot of downtown Milwaukee.

 Another shot of Milwaukee.

 I'm not sure what river this is.

 This shot gives you an idea of the space between the seats.

 Passing another river.

 One of the nicest features of the distance trains is the sightseeing cars.  As you can see, there are quite a few windows and you get a nice view of the passing scenery.  There is enough seating for several people.  On some of the cars, the seats swivel a little bit.

 A pretty typical scene as we passed through Wisconsin.

 A similar scene with cows.

 One of my favorite aspects of riding on the train is the fact that we pass many other trains.  This is an engine that belongs to the Canadian Pacific railroad.

 The Empire Builder crosses the Mississippi River around LaCrosse.  This is one of the tugs that I saw.

 The barge in front of that tug.

 And we cross the Mississippi.  This is one of a handful of railroad bridges that crosses the river.  I would hate to think what would happen to rail traffic is this was knocked out.

 The train station in Winona, Minnesota.

 We follow the Mississippi for quite a ways.  Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, so I didn't get my stunning sunset shot this time.

 The stop in Minneapolis-St. Paul is a fairly lengthly one.  That gives some time to stretch out legs, so I took the opportunity to take some pictures.

 A picture of our train.

 Another one of the train cars in the area.

And a picture of the sign for the station.