Exploring Millenium Park in Chicago

One sunny afternoon last April during our visit to Chicago, we went for a walk at Millennium Park. We had been through the park a few times before when we had visited the Loop but had not stopped to explore it.

The Millenium is an urban park located in the Loop that was inaugurated in 2004 and has some artworks that have become icons of the city. But come with me to explore the park in search of these works of art.

We entered the park through one of the paths that lead to Wrigley Square where it is the Millennium Monument, a semi-circular monument with Doric-style columns.

When we visited Chicago, there were signs of early spring all over the city, and the park planters had just been planted with lots of flowers.

The view in the opposite direction of Wrigley Square.

Perhaps the best-known sculpture in Millennium Park is the Cloud Gate and the one which most visitors to the city want to be photographed with. However, during our visit, The Bean as it is colloquially called was under maintenance works, and the AT&T Plaza where it is had fences around it.

The Cloud Gate is the work of an artist named Anish Kapoor, who according to Wikipedia, curiously also calls his work The Bean.

But by climbing on a bench, I managed to get a better view of The Bean.

We continued exploring the park and headed towards the concert pavilion.

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is the work of Canadian architect Frank Gehry. It must be very cool to attend a concert there in the park.

A view of The Bean with the Loop buildings in the background. It was a shame that they were doing maintenance on the Cloud Gate during our visit.

And hubby and I immortalizing the moment, hehe.

Reading about the park I learned that the park was built on disused railroad tracks and a large parking area in the Loop adjacent to Grant Park.

Another view of the Pritzker Pavilion.

From there we went to the area known as Lurie Garden, a beautiful garden from which you have a wonderful view of the modern building of the Art Institute of Chicago.

And the view of the Loop skyscrapers from the garden.

We left the garden area and headed to the last point of the park we wanted to visit.

The Crown Fountain, a work by a Spanish artist named Jaume Plensa.

The fountain was not on, they do that in the summer months.

It is an interactive work with two large towers with panels projecting the faces of celebrities and making the effect of spitting water.

We concluded our visit to the Millenium Park by crossing Michigan Avenue to the Loop.

The husband wanted to have his picture taken with the Route 66 starting sign, and we were not far from there.

From there we went to take the train because we had arranged with our son to go to eat in Chinatown, but I will tell you about that in another post.

This is also my post for this week's #wednesdaywalk challenge hosted by @tattoodjay even if today is Thursday ;)

Thank you for reading.

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