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Chicago

The sun helped a little on the next day, but even the Germans, who usually warm themselves on ice blocks, felt the pinch and pinched their eyes.

We arrived in Chicago the night before we picked up my parents at the airport and decided to check out the Navy Pier by night. This was a mistake! They don’t call it Windy City for nothin’. Actually ‘Arctic City’ would have been a better epithet. Even though the pier was only a few blocks from our hotel, we where two icicles when we got there. Check out the frozen smile on Amy!

The last third of our “death march” (as Amy put it), included a view from the Sears Tower, the largest building in the world (which, depending on the measuring methods used, is contested). All in all our third trip to Chicago was as magnificent as the first.

The Navy Pier got its name during World War 2, when it fell into disuse as a municipal facility with the rise of the automobile and was used for training by the Navy in the thirties. Today it is the place of exhibitions and tourist attractions. The pier will soon be expanded and renovated extensivly.

Rock? Paper? Scissors!

Our princess had some difficulties removing her royal hairtie from her pony tail. And instead of asking the king or queen for help, she thought: ‘No problem, scissors will solve this quickly!’ Snap snip, the tail goes zip!

Now she has a Roaring Twenties hair style and dances the Charleston…

Garden of the Gods, Illinois

Finally some pictures from our visit at the Garden of the Gods. And I mean the park in Illinois, not the cheap imitation in Colorado.

Here is a view on the common sandstone formations you can see almost everywhere on the tour.

Dan is pointing to Eagle Rock, which looks astoundingly similar to an eagle’s head. The illusion works best when visiting in person, but can be simulated by blinking at your monitor.

To the left you can see the Devils Column, to the right the Rain Dance of the indigenous Biligaana. We really were lucky to see the tribal elder perform this unique ceremony, and, as you can tell by the low lighting of the pictures, the rhythmic hopping efforts were rewarded with success.

Oh Holy Night

Since my dear mom is in the Christmas spirit again (or still? She asked me what we want for Christmas in the comments to the last post…), I just have to post my all time favourite rendition of this famous Christmas song. You have to listen to all of it! When you think it can not get any better, it just does!

Here are three copies. I hope everybody finds one that works:O Holy Night ( MP3, MP3, Real Audio), Performer unfortunately unknown