date night

last month, david and i decided to institute a monthly date night. certain rules apply. we must do something outside of our home, and we can't talk about business of the home. for our first night out, we went to the flat top grill for dinner. because our evening started a little later than we had expected, we decided to bend our own rule (great way to start, eh?) and rent a movie on the way home.

last night, however, we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and headed down to navy pier for dinner and a ride on the ferris wheel, the latter being something i had never done before. we arrived at the pier around 7:30 and made our way to capi's italian kitchen. while the food was delicious, it seemed a bit incongruous to us that we ordered it while standing in line, a la the corner bakery, but paid two to three as much.

after dinner we headed outside to walk the pier and make our way toward the ferris wheel. standing in line for the ride, our attention was drawn to the airspace over the lake. nine p.m. on the lake during "navy fear" means fireworks. for our entire seven-minute ride, fireworks lit up the sky. we took some pictures, but they didn't end up doing justice to the display. we also took some pictures of ourselves as we rode, but my expressions weren't completely joyful. see, until we were half-way up the 150-foot-tall ride, i forgot that i have a mild fear of heights. oops. once we made it past the quarter-turn mark, i was fine, and the ride gave us a beautiful view of our city.

before returning to our car, we walked to the east end of the pier, beyond the screams and laughter of the haunted house, and peeked into the grand ballroom. also at the east end of the pier are 14 flags--ten u.s., one illinois, and one chicago. it was dark and breezy, but i liked how this photo turned out (thanks, david).

before leaving the pier, we strolled through the stained-glass window exhibit. windows inspired by frank lloyd wright and created by louis comfort tiffany were included. having just been on a tour of the frank lloyd wright home and studio, i was interested to take a look.

the following three were some of my favorites on display:

george maher's snowdrop window

richard e. schmidt and hugh m. g. garden's bookcase windows

louis comfort tiffany's two poppies

another installment to come next month!