When my husband and I visited Chicago this past weekend the city was all in bloom with tulips!
We stayed in a hotel a few blocks from Michigan Avenue, which is nicknamed "The Magnificent Mile." In the photo above my husband was checking the street map to see where we were about to walk along the famous boulevard. (You can enlarge this photo and all photos in this post by clicking on them once and then again when they re-open, so you can see more detail) .
It was fun to see the many honorary street signs that were along the way that were named for famous Chicago residents .
Every spring, through May 31, The Magnificent Mile celebrates the bloom of hundreds of thousands of vibrant tulips, signaling the start of spring in Chicago. Each year over 500,000 tulip bulbs bloom in the parkway and median gardens along the avenue.
I saw lots of photographers taking photos of them, as I was.
The tulips were a beautiful assortment of colors, varieties and sizes.
Each block had a different way to display them.
Another honorary street sign that I liked.
Chicago is a bustling city with lots of traffic, and car horns were filling the air similar to here in New York City, so the flowers were a welcome buffer and distraction..
The first few days of our visit the city was in the 80's, the last few days in the 50's but the tulips didn't seem to be effected by the change in weather.
I particularly liked these ruffled pink and white tulips.
Aren't they pretty?
There were all white tulips in front of the iconic Chicago Water Tower. The castle design limestone Water Tower structure, and nearby pumping station, were the only two buildings in downtown Chicago that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1781 which razed the whole city to the ground.
The Magnificent Mile is also a shoppers paradise, as it is lined with high end stores, boutiques and malls.
There are also many fine dining restaurants located on the boulevard.
White tulips also adorned the front of The Chicago Tribune newspaper building. The statue is of the American patriot, Nathan Hale, and was erected and dedicated on June 4, 1940 by the Chicago Tribune at ceremonies held in connection with the annual parade and review of the Chicago high schools' R.O.T.C. cadets, serving as a constant reminder of the great sacrifice Hale made for our country.
I found the exterior of the Tribune building fascinating, as embedded in it are stones from famous places from around the world! I'll be blogging about that on a later blog post.
This block had different beautiful assortments of spring flowers that were displayed artfully.
The Magnificent Mile was so beautifully maintained and so clean.
Even on a misty, cool day it was a joy to behold!
Chicago is an interesting blend of old and new and I have much more of it to show over the next few days. Go over to this post to see the wonderful food blogger that I met while I was there! I know there will be a cookbook in her future, as she is so talented.
I'm adding this post to Susan's Outdoor Wednesday event of her blog A Southern Daydreamer and Beverly's "Pink Saturday" event on her blog How Sweet the Sound.
