Exploring Chicago: Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park

We have been blessed this week with some really beautiful weather in Chicago. To talk about Chicago is to talk about its weather. Every day you are in for something new, be it cool breezes and clear skies, 100% humidity and 105 degrees, or 40 degrees and rainy, all of these can happen in the span of one week. The weather was cool at the beginning of the week but started to get hotter yesterday, but it was still breezy, clear, and not too hot - perfect weather in my humble opinion. 

During the summer Millennium Park hosts a large number of events. There is something to do there every single day from yoga at sunrise, lunchtime concerts, to movies and the Grant Park Music Festival and all free! Every Monday is the Downtown Sound series, which began a few years ago and brings in all sorts of bands. In recent years, I've seen The Head and the Heart, Iron & Wine, and even She & Him (so awesome). Pritzker Pavilion is one of the best places to go in the summer. 

So last night, my friend Jessie and I decided to head down to the Pavilion for a picnic and a simulcast of the Paris Opera Ballet's opening night production of Giselle. It is "the nation’s first-ever free, outdoor simulcast of a live ballet performance by a major international company." Giselle has never before been produced in the United States. We arrived at about 5:30 (the lawn fills up really quickly and you don't want to be one of those people who arrives as the show is starting only to have to weave through the maze-like crowd to find a 2x2 patch of grass to sit on). There was a small part of the lawn to the west that was shaded so we hunkered down and unpacked our food. At 9:30, the Navy Pier fireworks started blasting directly east of the Pavilion. We could see them through the trees and it just reminded me how awesome this city is. There are always countless options on how to spend your night. If you are bored in this city, you are doing something wrong.

Jessie had gone to Big Jones in Andersonville for lunch earlier in the day and had their Boarding House lunch, which includes biscuits, cornbread, fried chicken, mashed potatoes (and gumbo gravy), greens, red beans and rice, and snickerdoodles, all for the low price of $16. She went with a friend and they had this much chicken left over! So she brought this and let me say it was really good, even cold. I could not stop eating it. She also made homemade sweet tea and brought that. A perfect summer picnic!

This is Jessie. During the show she asked me what the name was of that one opera where the sad clown sings (her words)? So we Googled sad clown opera and, what do you know, it came up. It's Pagliacci. People are funny.

This is the lawn when we arrived. I cannot say how much I appreciate the city of Chicago for commissioning Frank Gehry's first building in this city. It is a major draw for out of towners and city dwellers alike.

The architecture of the Pavilion makes for awesome pictures.

Suddenly the lawn is packed! Everyone looks so cute in their summer clothes and their picnicking gear.

This is my attempt at getting a close up of the screen - cell phone cameras are not too good for this sort of thing, but you get the idea.