travels of snand – snand.org

the Windy City, day 3.

today we hit the art museum, had a nice walk through the city, and another trip to the pier for a walk, dinner and now waiting for a boat ride.

for some reason I love the exposed infrastructure of Chicago.

too late for the spit fountains but a beautiful day to walk around.

I’m not one to display pictures of art, unless it’s seeds, but this was really cool.

Dorian Gray, I remember seeing this in back and white in the movie. every bit as terrifying in real life.

I’ve got a lot more to share but it’s on other cameras. here’s a couple more I can post.

thanks to Jake, our awesome tour guide. we’re watching him on the news right now!

caught the moonrise over the pier from the lock.

I no longer drink but had to get a photo of this sign from dessert. just for you Dan.

I’ll try to post more once I go through my photos. else for those of you who want to see more, all of them will be posted on immich.snand.org. so, if you would like a login to see them, let me know.

Chi-Town day 2

low key but we’re having fun. today was the museum of science and industry, one of our favorites.

found this little bit of scouting lore on the way to dinner.

first up though, last night’s dinner. had to stop by for the original.

quick snap looks like it came off a menu.

all these years, I think this is the first one of Michele I have in the tractor.

from here, I’ve got a number of shots taken by the boys. I’ll make sure to credit the photographer in each caption.

E has some talent, he framed up a few nice shots. here’s one of A playing one of the farm games.

another artistic E shot, this time of me inspecting the Mold-A-Rama’s.

half the dang exibits were crashed out at windows error screens. we walked across a windows 11 start menu on the way into the place for cryin’ out loud. luckily E got some picture evidence.

man, I still look fat from E’s perspective 😂

boys getting ready to fly. OMG it was fun to watch.

E, dude, I need to get you your own camera! nice shot.

A loves planes and got a nice dramatic diving shot of this bad boy.

I like the hodgepodge of eras and transportation modes. good shot A!

neat, I think this is my dad’s favorite car, a Duesenberg!

more to come, E and A took loads of pictures with my camera but I’m car posting right now ~~so I’ll need to do more from the hotel~~ (update- done, added a bunch more photos). we ran into some of our very best friends at the museum! unfortunately they were being far more efficient than us so they were finishing up as we were just stopping for a snack. still, always fun running into people you know out in the world :).

ha! not us thankfully but ruined this persons day.

and that brings us up to now. we’re back in the hotel, planning the next move as A puts together his model. check back again later for more 🙂

update- more!

been a lazy day but we headed out for dinner.

nothing like that quality Chicago infrastructure! oh well, didn’t collapse when we headed up.

next up, dessert.

not sure they deserve it but it is vacation so we found the boys a fish. boys, do better tomorrow, you’re welcome.

and that’s it for now. heading back to the room so we’ll see if the spirit moves me to post more.

back in the room, we made a stop.

Chicago!

I’ll keep a running update.

E wanted a picture of the inside of the Adler planetarium dome.

been a relaxing, fun day so far at the Adler planetarium. this is quite a planetarium, so many theaters, lots to do and learn. we saw two shows, the super cool Skywatch Live and somewhat hokey Destination Solar System. can’t complain though, excellent family memories.

we’re headed out for pizza soon, we might head up the sears tower later as well. always a good time here in chi-town.

got to see some living legends last night.

that’s 91 year old Willy Nelson.

M and I went to the Outlaw Music Festival last night with some very dear friends. Wednesday I took my freshman and his friend to the Voyage to the Blue Planet tour launch. both were epic, I will try to expand on it later but I have some stuff I need to do.

terrible picture of Bob, I was pretty close though.

holy buckets Flaming Lips were fun.

Many Point scout camp, that’s the place to be

it’s where the best in scouting goes and that’s the place for me!

goodbye Many Point. so many memories here going back 30+ years for me! now I get to go as an adult, with my wife and kids. It’s still wonderful, peaceful and I still make new friends every time I go up. this is one of my happy places; I can’t wait for the next time.

I’ve got a lot of pictures to get through but I will post an update asap.

having fun

I shall try to remember to post about it.

my office this week. only spot with enough cell signal.

update- man I love this connected stuff. this chunk of coal runs in my basement, several hundred miles from here. I just was able to VPN to my home, reboot my server and bring this junk back online from the beach at Many Point; just to post this dumb update.

love it, I did ok with this setup. now, in 6 minutes I get to go to a New Year’s party :).

update- history center was neat. pretty much what camping used to look like when I was a kid.

goodbye Colorado :(

It’s been a great trip, better than I’d hoped even, but it’s time to head home. thanks Rainbows End for being a wonderful home away from home for the week. I hope we come back again soon.

Stanley Hotel ghost tour

took the Stanley Hotel ghost tour last night; not sure I’m a believer but I do love a good story. what a cool and historic hotel though, I honestly had no idea it was the same Stanley from the steamer cars. cool.

my favorite part was reading the old postcards sent from the hotel dating back to the 20’s at least. I found it incredible that these short messages pretty much read exactly like text messages do these days. I really wish I would have gotten some pictures.

we sure did enjoy the place though, I’ll have to do a vacation recap post when we’re home but I’ve gotta share a couple.