Sally Ryan

Travel: Chicago

The Willis Tower anchors the southern end of downtown Chicago, and is the tallest building in North America. It's 110 stories cover 3.8 million square feet of retail and office space, and visitors to the 103rd floor skydeck can see Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.
   
A ride on the Chicago Transit Authority elevated trains around the loop is an inexpensive way to see the architecture of downtown Chicago.
   
Eldorado Claybrooks of Hillside, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, has lunch at Marvin's Soul Food restaurant in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. Marvin's Soul Food restaurant is owned and run by the Pickens family, with three generations working together in Chicago's Austin neighborhood.
     
  
Hyde Park on Chicago's south side became an overnight sensation when Barack Obama's presidential victory made instant landmarks of local businesses and institutions, including Valois Restaurant where servers still don paper hats and food is served cafeteria-style.
   
Local residents pass the Prada storefront on Rush Street in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. Just west of Michigan Avenue, Rush Street is home to high-end clothing boutiques, jewelrystores and fine dining.
   
Architect Renzo Piano's bridge connects the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park on Michigan Avenue.
     
  
A Shoreline water taxi docks at Navy Pier in Chicago after picking up passengers at the city's museum campus on Lake Michigan.
   
A man and his dog go for a late night ride on Lower Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago.
   
Young, single Chicagoans flock downtown to Gilt Bar, a restaurant and bar specializing in casual, fine dining.
     
  
saxophone, cocktails, music, jazz, black tie, tuxedo, Sally Ryan
   
Music lovers settle in for a night of live performances during the Pitchfork music festival in Chicago's Union Park on the city's near west side.
   
A couple embraces at Big Chicks, a gay-friendly nightclub in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood on the far north side.
     
  
The Damen stop of the blue line el in Chicago serves the bustling Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods.
   
Puerto Rico, night, street lights, old car, flag, sculpture, pride, Sally Ryan
  
Jesse Davila, 7, of Manhattan, Kansas, walks along the railroad tracks on the Bloomingdale Trail in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. The three-mile stretch of land that is situated 15 feet above street level cuts through neighborhoods of varying gentrification and development on Chicago's west side.
     
  
Devon Avenue creates the southern edge of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood and is the center of Middle Eastern culture in the city. Many immigrants new to the United States come to Rogers Park, where over 80 languages are spoken, and speciality foods and clothing are plentiful.
   
Many comedians got their start at The Second City theater in Chicago, including John Belushi and many Saturday Night Live alumni. A man donned the iconic suit and hat worn by Belushi in "The Blues Brothers" movie during the 50th anniversary celebration of the theater.
   
A couple finds intimacy in a crowd of thousands during Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park.
     
  
A security guard keeps watch from the roof of the modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. Lake Michigan and boats harbored at the Chicago Yacht Club can be seen in the distance.
   
pearls, old lady, group tour, tour, museum, suburbanites, big city, Jackie O, Sally Ryan
   
The Ledge at the Skydeck on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower in downtown Chicago allows visitors to step four feet off the side the building, looking 1,353 feet below to Wacker Drive.
     
  
airplane window, electricity, light pollution, street lights, night, dark, aerial Photo by Sally Ryan