Obviously I struggled for a title for this one. I think part of the lack-of-words issue is the nature of the really-hard-to-describe experience of attending my first ISTE event, as well as my first trip to Chicago.
So let’s start somewhere. What is an ISTE when it’s at home? Here I am arriving in the Great Hall of the McCormack Centre, Chicago. The convention centre can host upwards of 20 000 people at any one time, and after my time there, I have a rough idea of what 20 000 humans looks like. ISTE is the International Standards of Technology Education, and yearly hosts a MASSIVE edtech conference, in a different US city (presumably ones that have massive conference centres).
So here is a multi-layered post about what I did, saw and conquered in the Windy City, which was quite without breezes while I was there, actually….but here we go.
The Drive in from the airport:
Through dense urban street scenes to quaint old school neighbourhoods, I was very quickly entranced by the city. Some more images:
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You can barely make out the street sign opposite, but it is Irene Sendler Way. Which made me happy.
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I liked the look of this street… and the Car Wash sign.
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….and the tavern sign
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My first glimpse of the fabulous Chicago Skyline
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Some of the tallest structures here
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Iconic buildings like Chicago PD…
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And and original firehouse
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So many vertical lines
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Also saw this horse and cinderella carriage being trucked to an event.
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speaking of icons, the NBC building, and the Chicago Tribune
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Low…ri….der….
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Unsettling “Not Allowed” sticker. On the plus side, guns aren’t allowed in that building…
About the only touristy event I had time for was the Architectural River Cruise. An absolute Do Not Miss. Here are some images of iconic buildings and the story the river tells of the history of Chicago.
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Multiple cantilevered bridges cross the Chicago River as it snakes through the city. The bridges are opened at scheduled times in the late spring and end of summer to allow boats out into Lake Michigan and back.
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The balance mechanisms of the bridge weights are so precise that they can’t even add a coat of paint to a bridge, or it throws the balance off
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So many different styles of architecture, and considering the city rebuilt itself after the fire, it’s interesting that it is so random
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I can’t imagine cars haven’t backed right into the river from the parking garage
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The river has re-greened over the past decades, algae blooming, attracting fresh water animals as ever so slowly one of the world’s most polluted rivers has become a healthy and attractive waterway
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River-side of the Opera House
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This is the original Chicago Post Office, and also the scene of a few movies. It is a building so huge that vans and trucks can/did drive around on the bottom floor.
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As the tour passed under bridges, frequently locals would stand and wave or even yell things at the boats. My favourite was two likely gents who started a “Let’s go Cubbies Let’s go!!” chant
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Part 2 coming soon…..
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