Day 6 - Adventures Anew.
The bus took forever today. The #3 should come every 8-10 minutes; I waited 36. Ouch.
Today had some of the most interesting sessions so far. There was one on the major hurdles to a mission to Mars (extended political support, nearly unlimited financial resources, a switch to nuclear propulsion systems, breakthroughs in radiation protection technology, and ways to counteract long-term zero-gravity effects on humans...), another on modeling fluid flow of nasal sprays through the body to better deliver medicines (this one was for you, Robby!), and retro-thrusters for the Mars descent vehicle - basically turning the rocket's engines around and firing them backwards to slow the vehicle down!
My new friend Marco presented today too! He did an excellent job, easily handling some very difficult questions at the end. He was going back to Italy early, so we said our goodbyes. In his broken English, 'Even for me, it has been, uhhh, a pleasure. Perhaps, uhhh, we will meet again? This conference next year? Maybe, uhhh, Hawaii I think?' One can only hope!
. . .
Tonight was the night to explore the Taste of Chicago in more detail:
On the way in, a guy on the way out gave me some free tickets he had leftover. Nice! Wandering around, I ran into a significant symbol of my past:
As well as the Buckingham Fountain:
Afterwards I picked up what was most likely the unhealthiest (least healthy? Apparently unhealthiest isn't a word...) dinner of my life:
Hmm, I wonder if there's a gym at the hotel?? It would need to be open from midnight to 6am in order to do any good... Anyway, I took my dinner and found a nice grassy spot facing the stage.
While I waited for Matt Kearney to take the stage (did I mention it was free??), the sun was setting behind the skyline:
Boy, this is getting romantic... catch some ice cream and a ride on the ferris wheel out on the pier after the show... then end the ideal date in the E.R. with a heart attack from those potato/grease chips hitting my bloodstream. Perfect.
A friend of mine recently described what she called being 'invisible' - going completely unnoticed, alone, among a huge crowd of people. None of them know you, none of them have any reason to interact with you at all - you're free to roam around aimlessly or simply sit and watch the people go by, just you and God, yet able at any moment to reach out and connect with someone else that's perhaps doing the same exact thing at that very moment...
Today is a good day for going invisible. I popped in my headphones, had my phone set to camera mode, and headed for the Magnificent Mile.
Magnificent Mile
River Front
Camera tweaked taking a picture of
all the people on the boat waving at me on the bridge.
Looks kinda sweet!
This guy stole my idea AND his name is cooler than mine.
'The Water Tower' - my fav pic of the trip!
3 floors of my favorite store
Church courtyard
Chocolate Wars - Hershey's vs Ghirardelli
Fireworks - I like this one a lot too!
Tonight was a good night. Lots of walking, lots of cool pics, an awesome concert... A great way to spend my last night in Chi-City. A little time spent working on posting pics and probably at least a start on the packing, and it'll be time to call it a night!
To be continued...
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