A Beautiful Spring Day

I should've been busy packing for C12, but this was the 1st nice day of spring, and it simply could not be wasted with any degree of productivity. Instead, I hopped on my bicycle and rode up and down the Lake Shore, singing songs to myself in sync with my cadence. The wind was blowing fiercely against me, but I was like a dog with his head out the window, grinning ear to ear wrapped in the rapture of the moment. I pass by Navy Pier. A family of 6 are riding in a 4 person quadcycle car, laughing at their uncoordinated movements. I spent some time around Millenium Park. It has a very grounding feel to it. People come there to relax and to soak in the beautiful view of the Lakeshore. It's an island of tranquillity in the surrounding downtown turbulance. I took some pictures of the famous "bean" or as I call it "The Legume." Walking under it is somewhat disorienting. The curved surface projects several distorted reflections, which move asymetrically with you. It looks so cool when you take a flash photograph of it. There were a lot of mounted police loitering around the area, because of all the immigration demonstrations going on. Security guards on Segways zipped around the park smiling at everyone they pass. On the way back home, a woman in an huge stoopid black SUV was riding alongside me. She would accelerate past and then get caught at a light, stop sign, or behind traffic. For more than 3 and 1/2 miles we continued at an even pace. Finally at another red light, she asks me "How much did you pay for that bicycle?" I told her and she says "I paid 20x that for this and it's not getting me around any faster... I reply "well the bike may not cost much, but good health is priceless." She smiles in acknowledgement. The light turns green and we continue for another 1/2 mile before she turns off route. It was a simply perfect spring day.jvPS: Some more photos of the Bean & millenium Park can be found in my lj scrapbook.