jilldupre'design: Chicago conference-vacay.

After camp drop off Josh and I flew over to Chi town for his annual summer AMIN conference. Will he conferenced, I took in the sites with an architectural tour from the Chicago River. Lovely cool day. Spectacular skyline in Marina City.

The famous Water Tower from the river.

My favorites were the Corncob buildings. Built in 1964 by Bertrand Goldberg, a student of Mies van der Rohe.

This view was from the Hancock building where we had a conference dinner the first night.

The city at sunset.

I also did some walking down the Mag Mile and shopped a few Anthros, as well as Allsaints, which I really adore. All my colors represented :)

Also found some fun graffiti to enjoy.

I stopped at the Jonathan Adler and came home with this, shall I say, not quite tongue in cheek spoon holder. JA makes me smile.

The last night of the conference we took in a Cubs/Mets game. But did not sit in Wrigley field but on someones rooftop stands. Pretty cool up there with dogs and burgers and drinks included. Josh was cheering for his team the Mets. They lost though.

After the conference I booked us into the Public, an Ian Schrager hotel near Lincoln Park for some us time. In what is called The Gold Coast area. This was my hotel heaven, around every corner.

First, the lighting. Absolutely perfect. Old chandeliers clustered together in the entrance.

The mega ball chandies in the Pump Room restaurant.

The lobby lounge was very cozy with fireplace and sofas. The photographs seemed like classic Vermeer until you got a closer look. They are pictures by Dutch artist Hendrik Kerstens of a girl, with not a pearl earring, but soda cans for curlers. While another had bubble rap for a head scarf. Josh and I loved them so much. Silliness.

The rooms are my ultimate. White on white. Come to Momma. Josh shows his minimal side in our loft.

We asked our chef friend David to give us some rec's for dinner in Chicago and our favorite was Blackbird. Yummy drinks, too.

We also really liked the taco lunch spot Big Star. It seems like a whiskey shot kind of a place, at night.

By Thursday, the heat wave was upon us, so we whizzed by the Millenium Park Bean.

And headed straight to the Arts Institute where the Lichtenstein Retrospective was. It was a great show. Not to miss. A few of my favorites.

Black and White Head 1966-ceramic

Varoom! 1963

Imperfect Painting, 1986

On our last morning we borrowed bikes from The Public (very nice) and took a ride around some of Lake Michigan, from Lincoln Park to Lambo stadium. Which is pretty cool to look at. Like a flying saucer landed on a centuries old building. I loved it. Afterwards Josh took a dip in the lake.