Another beautiful day in Chicago. Still a little on the cool side, but perfect for an afternoon jog along the lake… less sweaty when it’s a bit cooler! Beautiful sights along the way… but now that I’m home, I’ve got to focus… and get into the studio tonight!!! Gotta get some work done… as I’ve been playing hooky a bit too much lately!!!

Starting with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan from Loyola University…

And the church at Loyola University…

Some beautiful late summer flowers…

And some crazy seed pods on some kind of a bush. Anyone have any clue as to what kind of plant this is?! It looks a little too much like a Coronavirus molecule for my liking. Just sayin’…

And this is apparently what things have come to… when parents need to figure out new ways to take on the role of teaching their kids!

Some wonderfully whimsical “embellishments” along a cement wall at Tobey Prinz Beach. A little tough to see… but wonderful for those with a keen eye!

The cooler weather today also makes it wonderful at the beach…
I practically had the whole beach to myself. Easy to enjoy the natural setting and stay safe & socially-distant at the same time… when there’s no one there to be socially-distant from!!!

And SO EXCITING!!!
I found my very first beach glass MARBLE today!!!

Plus I spotted a little “gallery” of painted beach rocks. It will be interesting to see how this grows over the next few weeks. And I feel as though I might just need to add one of my own in the next couple weeks!!!

So here’s the additions to my new “quarantine collection” of beach glass. I started finding it when I had to mix-up my morning bike ride up towards the beaches of Evanston & beyond. And by now I have quite the collection started!!!

Another morning with that hazy-smoky “filter” across the sky. It’s kinda weird to see the sun rising without a single cloud in the sky… and yet still somehow oddly “clouded” and NOT bright & shiny like one would expect it to be.

And if we’re having this kind of effects from the California wildfires here in Chicago… I can only imagine how much worse it gets as you get closer to the actual fires. Just one more thing making 2020 so “special” for everyone!!!

Another foggy-hazy morning along the lakefront… except we found out yesterday it is neither fog nor haze!!! Apparently the crazy “sky filter” is actually smoke & ash that has made it up into our higher atmosphere all the way over from the California wildfires!!!! Who knew?!

Something new… just to make 2020 even more “special”!!!

Well, it’s been so gray & rainy for the past three days. So when it was gray & NOT rainy this morning I had to hop on the bike and give it a go! Sure, it was dark, gloomy & WINDY with waves crashing all around… I just kept thinking how much cooler they would have looked with a nice sunrise illuminating them from behind. Well, not today. But it still felt amazing to be back on my bike this morning… even with the strong headwinds!!!

Like we even need to say this???…

And now back home, waiting for the rain to begin again for the day…

Dark & moody at the start.
Beautiful sunrise just like art.
Another wonderful day riding my bike.
Just like every other morning I like.

Cute, huh?
Okay… so I never claimed to be a poet.

Two more pictures from this morning… when the colors were sweeping across the horizon. One before, and one after the sun made its grand appearance!

Quiet. Warm. Steamy. Sweaty. It was a quiet sunrise ride with very few people out this morning. Not much of a sunrise to begin the day… with a little “redemption” at the very end!!!

Usually my mornings are very solitary along the lakefront… forever socially-distant. But today I had a little friend stop by to say hello… and he really quacked me up!!!

There were also a lot of helicopters flying around the City breaking the serenity. So I knew something was up?! Apparently there was another night of crazy looting & robberies all over the City?! Obviously organized attacks on businesses all over the City… organized robberies, smashed windows, stolen cash registers, merchandise stolen and so much more! WHY?!!! And we now deal with the crazy aftermath here in Chicago!

As though a global pandemic weren’t enough to deal with already?!

Okay so this morning was pretty clear & cloud-free…
but YESTERDAY…

Yesterday we had some great drama in the skies. Lots of clouds & LOTS of wind! The ride south to the City was amazing… but then the whole ride back home was into a very strong headwind! So strong that the red beach warning flags were waving strong… and a little bit upwards???

And some crazy places where the lake is so “overflowing” that the lakefront path is flooded… with WHITECAPS!!!

We all knew that the incredible run of sunrises had to come to an end at some point… and well, today was apparently that day! Clouds, clouds, clouds! Waves, waves, waves!!! Beautiful in its own right… except when you see how much the waves were overflowing onto the bike trail. Not too safe… but very cool. And a little smidge of sunrise beauty towards the end as we got a shimmer of brightness streaming through the clouds!

Big sky. Big clouds. Big color… and therefore, a BIG PHOTO!