Snorkeling in Key Largo

This has been a while since my last message on this blog! This is time to give some news...

I have plenty of things to say, of pictures to show, as I made many trips after Chicago. But I would like to show you what can be a regular weekend in Florida.

Thus let's speak about last Saturday. I woke up at 8:00 am (yes, I made it!) in order to drive to Key Largo with a friend, about 1h South.

We arrived there just on time to jump on a boat that went through the mangrove...

...and brought us on the coral reef, 4 miles away from the shore, for 1.5 hour of snorkeling.

The first think that comes to the eyes is the wonderful color of the ocean...

Then we jumped in this cristal-clear water. First sight and first conch for Adrien:

They were actually everywhere.

2 minutes after, he found a lobster:

Then we swam around this beautiful reef...

... watching colorful fishes...

or less nice creatures, like this barracuda...

...or this lion-fish that eats all the small fishes:

Then, we made one of the most amazing encounter I'd ever made:

We spent more than 10 minutes swimming with this sea turtle. I almost fell asleep. This was wonderful, so beautiful.

I also leant that the only enemies of the adult sea turtle are...plastic bags, which look like jellyfishes therefore yummy for a sea turtle. The turtle then eats the plastic bag and die... It is not necessary to see a sea turtle to be scandalized, but once you see that you may be able to kill people who leave their trash on the beach. This had to be said. Now let's go back to the beauty of the ocean...

After this amazing swim with the turtle, it was time to go back on the boat and say goodbye to the reef.

We went back to Key Largo and its mangrove.

We then decided to explore these waters, and that was pretty different than what we saw before! The mangrove trees actually give a yellow-red color to the water that was not as clear as on the reef:

But there is life in there also:

We kept exploring but it was not that easy because we could not see very far...

We met some amazing creatures though...

We saw 7 stingrays, lying down on the bottom. We had to be careful because this can be very nasty if the ray stings you.

But we did not feel really endangered, at least not as much as I felt after, when we were swimming in the black water and 3 nurse sharks showed up 2 meters away of me... Sorry I din't take pictures, I swam back as fast as I could to the beach instead!

Hopefully, everything was ok...

Before that, we had the time to see some cannons and the anchor of a Spanish ship from the 17th or 18th century...

After 3 hours in the water, we felt a little tired and our back was as red as a cooked lobster... We left Key Largo and went back to South Beach with the head full of colorful corals and amazing creatures... I hope I'll have the time to take pictures of sharks!

A weekend in the Windy City

It has been a long time since I posted the last message on my blog... But I didn't do a lot of things after my vacations. It is now time to update you with what I did in February...

And in February my girlfriend and I made a trip we had scheduled a long time ago. As I miss the winter and the cold (yeah it sounds weird but it is true) and hoping to see some snow, we decided to go to Chicago from February 17th to February 20th.

In order to fully understand this city, you need to know that a fire destroyed almost everything in 1871. Before the beginning of the reconstruction, a discovery changed everything: the steel. Some architects discovered that they could design buildings with a structure in steel, which enabled them to design taller buildings. That is how Chicago became what it is today: the capital of the skyscrapers, and an amazing city of architecture...

We departed on the Thursday evening and missed our flight. We took the next flight but arrived too late in Chicago to do anything. But we could notice that there was no snow...

Early on Firiday 18th, we went from our hotel (near the Chicago River and Michigan Avenue, a very good location) to Millenium Park, a couple of blocks away.

Milenium Park is the Chicagoan Central Park. I mean this is one of the most visited attraction in Chicago. It is very different from Central Park in New York though.

First, it is small. But it's amazing by its architecture and public art. A parking lot and a train station are located underneath the park and make it the worl's largest rooftop garden. Also, many companies or rich and thankful citizens donated money to build this park, thus it didn't cost anything to Chicagoans. The different attractions in the park are named after the companies and citizens' names.

We arrived from the North side, and the first thing we saw was the Jay Pritzker Pavillon, named after the Pritzker family who owns Hyatt hotels (where we stayed, thank you mister Pritzker).

It hosts many performances such as concerts or other outdoor performing art events. And everything is free!

But there is a road just next to the Pavillon. Not really comfortable if you are listening to classical music or other...But don't worry, everything was anticipated and the most environment-friendly company gave some money to build the BP Bridge between Grant Park and Millenium Park. This bridge is not only beautiful (unfortunately I don't have good pictures of it) but is also cut the noise from the road.

Another great attraction of Millenium Park is located on the AT&T Plaza: the Cloud Gate. It is the most photographed sculpture of North America, according to a local we met there. And I can understand why.

The sculpture itself, known as "The Bean", is nice. But it is also possible to take really good pictures, playing with the distorded reflections...and, as you can see below, I tried a little bit of everything.

Don't worry, you will see some pictures of the Cloud Gate by night!

The park features other attractions that are more interesting in the summer.

After this visit, we headed toward the Campus Museum. But not to visit any museums (even though I was told they the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum are worth a look) but we didn't have the time. The Chicagoan we met earlier actually told us that this was a pretty walk through Grant Park...

....and that the sight from the planetarium was the best we could find without a boat. And as far as I know, he was right!

It was very windy and cold thus we decided to take a but from there to go back to the Loop, the neighborhood around Millenium Park.

We went off the bus on a couple of blocks before we arrive at Millenium Square, in order to walk between the skyscrapers of the Loop or under the Chicago Metrorail...

We then went back to our hotel, but decided to cross the Chicago River to see the Chicago Tribune Tower which was the result of an architecture competition for the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world. Home of the main newspaper of Chicago and local radios, this gothic building is unique and famous because fragments of other buildings from all around the world are embedded in its walls. You can see some below...

We went around this building and then crossed the river to go back to the Hyatt, where we met a friend of us from Michigan.

It was time to go to eat ant nothing could be better than the famous stuffed pizza from Chicago in the famous Giordano's Restaurant! I have to say it is special but very good, although after 2 slices I was full...

As the restaurant was next to the Willis Tower, better known as Sears Tower (its previous but more popular name), which is the tallest building of North America. See the picture below, this is the black building in the background, with the white antennae.

And the view from the observation deck (108th floor, at more than 400 meters high) is breathtaking. Also, we went there in the late afternoon that way we saw the city in the daylight and then in the night, which is pretty impressive.

And to make it even more impressive, engineers added few years ago 4 glass cages that make you feel like you are walking in the sky...

After this great experience, we walked across the Loop to go back to Millenum Square to play on the ice rink...and it was hard to skate after more than 10 years without touching an ice rink! But for some, it was the first time of their life...

It was alsoan opportunity to take some pictures of the Bean and the Pavilion by night...

After this little workout, we were still full from our late luch. We headed back to the hotel, have some drinks and appetizers and decided to go to one of the numerous Irish pubs of Chicago...

On Saturday morning we headed toward the Navy Pier, the most visited attraction of Chicago, through Michigan Avenue.

We first checked if there were cruises and decided to have a lunch before an afternoon cruise. We ate in one of the many restaurants of the pier and then jumped on a boat that would took us on the Chicago River to discover the architecture of Chicago.

This cruise introduced us the mosl noticeable buildings of the city. Here are some pictures...

The Acqua Building (with the wavy balconies), the tallest building designed by a woman.

The Trump Tower of Chicago.

You may have seen this building in The Dark Knight.

The Sears Tower from the River

We also learnt that the Chicago River has a reversed flow, from the Lake Michigan to the Mississipi: because of the pollution going to the lake through the River, the Chicagoans decided to reverse the flow of the river, thus to send their pollution in the Gulf of Mexico rather than in the Lake Michigan... I guess people in New Orleans don't really like Chicago...

After that, we felt like climbing on the skyscrapers. But instead of paying to go to an observation deck, we chose to have a drink at the lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hanckoc Tower, another notable Chicago landmark.

The view from there was also breathtaking (once again, we enjoyed the sunset and then the lights from the city), but it was even better thanks to the couple of cocktails and appetizers we had! Just look...and, of course, the pictures don't reflect the feeling you have when you are there...

It was then time for our friend Kurt to go back to Michigan before a forecast snowstorm that would make his trip impossible on the Sunday.

After the goodbye, Claire and me walked on Michigan Avenue, in the district called Magnificient Mile, sort of Chicagoan Champs-Elysees.

But the freezing wind forced us to enter a bar in order to get some foods...

We finally went to sleep after this tiring and cold day, keeping some energy for the day after...

...but it was raining dogs and cats on the Sunday (yes I have always wanted to write this sentence, it is the first time I say it since I learnt that in Junior High School).

So we decided to go to visitt the Shedd Aquarium which is supposedly one of the best in America. But, as we we went off the bus, we saw a loooooooong line at the entrance of the aquarium... People were waiting in the cold, under the rain...because on this Sunday the entrance was free. But we didn't really want to wait under the rain, thus we decided to go to a good restaurant. And we got good foods and wine for a good price thanks to the Restaurant Week of Chicago.

After the lunch, it was time to take our luggage at the hotel and to take a cab to the airport.

As you know I am very nice so I left my wallet (with everything inside) in the cab... As if it wasn't enough, our flight was delayed for about 4 hours due to bad weather conditions. Therefore, instead of arriving before midnight and getting some sleep, we landed at 3:00 am and I spent the next hour calling the banks to block my credit cards...

Despite these issues, the weekend was very interesting. Chicago is worth the visit, as this city can be surprising with its architeture. It may be even more beautiful in the summer or with a layer of snow, but we had a really good time there and I hope I made you want to visit this city...

Thank you if you read till the end...