Selfies & Sculptures at Millennium Park

Everyone knows that when you visit Chicago, you must go see the Bean. So being the good tourists that we were, my buddies and I zoomed around Millennium Park and posed with cool sculptures, admired the beautiful scenery, and you know it – selfied the hell out of that Bean.

Coming from the south side, we first passed through Grant Park.

We forgot that we were wearing scarves…oops

I cannot emphasize enough how much I love fall here!!

Passed by the Art Institute of Chicago again.

Ah yes, you know you’re in the right place when you see Crown Fountain. For a good part of the year, these two facing towers shoot water out of their mouths. The concept behind these “spitting fountains” was actually really cool:

“The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens, a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where faces of mythological beings were sculpted with open mouths to allow water, a symbol of life, to flow out.” (Source)

I guess we came too late in the year to see that happen, but it was also rainy, so I was ok with not getting any wetter.

Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa

Ok, moving on to what we were really here for – the Bean. When I arrived on AT&T Plaza, what really grabbed my attention was this:

So sweet!

People watching is the best.

Now the selfie-ing begins:

Yep, we’re in there.

That’s not even all of the selfies, but I bet you’ve seen enough. How can you possibly resist being trigger happy when you’re surrounded by a gigantic mirror in the shape of a bean?! That’s right, you can’t.

The real name of the sculpture is “Cloud Gate” by Anish Kapoor. Fun facts:

“The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above…Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.” (Source)

In the end, we got a photo with the actual sculpture. Pics or it didn’t happen, right?

There was some kind of fashion event a little ways beyond the Bean/Cloud Gate. Of course us girls went in to take a look…and to strike a pose.

Pretending to be a celeb

Back outside, we toured the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, an outdoor concert venue.

Next, we walked on BP bridge. However, we couldn’t cross all the way because it was closed for construction.

BP Bridge by Frank Gehry

One of my favorite areas in this park was Lurie Garden. Look at the photo below to see what I mean. The place is gorgeous during fall!

This was the last of Millennium Park that we saw. Afterwards, we headed back towards Grant Park to walk to Shedd Aquarium (blog post coming up!).

In the beginning, we saw Buckingham Fountain spewing up in the distance and thought “Ok, we saw it! Good enough!” But as we continued to walk towards the aquarium, the fountain was conveniently along the way and I ended up seeing one of the world’s largest fountains (!).

There’s me for a sense of scale!

I’m now a huge fan both of these two parks. I just wish I had more time to see all of it! But I’m satisfied with the sculptures and artwork we did see that day. Pretty successful for being there only 2 hours, no? Have you been to Grant and Millennium Park? What were your favorite sculptures there?

(Special thanks to Liz, Vanessa, and Tony for taking pictures of me!)

Thanks for reading!

This post is also shared on A Compass Rose.