8 YEARS …. 8 scenes of Chicago!

Monday
A double celebration today, as I celebrate 8 years of blipping, and we welcome Laura back from Kuwait! Laura’s flight was due in at about 2.45, so we had the morning to do some more exploring. It was a slightly cool, but partly sunny morning, and we once again walked down to the river, along the Magnificent Mile, past the Wrigley Building, then kept on going across the river to Centennial Park with Cloudgate, otherwise known as the Bean and the striking Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by architect Frank Gehry, then on to the BP winding pedestrian bridge, also designed by Gehry, which connects Millenium Park with Maggie Daley Park over Columbus Drive, a multi-lane thoroughfare.
By this time we felt it was time to head back to the hotel, stopping for a coffee and snack from Starbucks, then picking our car up from the car park and driving out to the airport. We arrived just about as she was landing, and by the time we had found somewhere to park, she was through fairly soon, as she went through US Customs and border protection pre-clearance in Abu Dhabi, so she came in as a domestic traveler, which worked really well, as we were able to meet her at the luggage carousel, and help her with her bags! Unfortunately our journey back wasn’t as good as going, and we got delayed in a traffic jam, so by the time we arrived home, having stopped for dinner around Indianapolis, it was around midnight.
I started blipping in May of 2008, so clearly there have been many gaps, one or two of them quite lengthy, along the way, though currently I’m on a roll, having completed 7 months now without a gap, the first time in all those years I’ve managed more than a month of consecutive blips, admittedly still not always posted on the day (as today!), but the photographs were always taken on the day! However, I keep coming back to this special community, and value the record it has given me over those years, and the friendships, virtual and real that I have formed. I want to the thank the Blip team for all their work in maintaining this special community and keeping it what it is, as well as those who stop by my journal with an encouraging comment and/or a star or a heart, and share with me in my joys, and help uplift me through my periodic “downs”. Let’s hope this year will be the one I finally manage my 365!
Step count: 13, 755