Sigh. I'm writing this with such a heavy heart. Our little old-lady dog, much beloved and cherished by my family for so many years, is ailing, as she has now for the last two weeks. I've been nursing her to the best of my ability, but without improvement -- as such it's clear to us all that she's just not going to pull through this. With her quality of life in question, we're likely going to make the very difficult and painful decision tomorrow to have her put down. And while she is 15 after all, and has had what we know is a long and happy life with us, it doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. In fact it breaks my heart, but we have to be strong and do what we understand is best. In any case, I know everyone is always declaring one's own dog as extra special, but trust me when I say that our little Katy truly is and always has been. Such a good, super sweet temperament all these many years, with amazing patience and loyalty, complete safety with kids, and real smarts. Never a speck of trouble. One of these days soon when I'm more collected I intend to compose a blog post in tribute to her....
In the meantime, on a happier note, I'm posting pics taken during my family's little weekend excursion to the megalopolis of Chicago last week (where, indeed, I got my Big City fix on. It had been awhile)....
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| Don't know what Chi-towners refer to it by, but I call it the 'Big Jelly Bean'. In Millennium Park. |
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| My Daughter, next to The Bean |
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| My daughter's and my reflection in the Bean, looking like a fun house mirror... |
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| The view from our downtown hotel, from the 24th floor (you can just make out the River in the distance) |
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| Waiting to take a downtown architectural river boat tour.... |
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| Making our way down the Chicago River. We were lucky the weather was so lovely. |
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| Passing by the well-known Tribune Tower, with its gothic topper... |
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| One of the newest additions to the CHGO skyline, the Trump Tower...... |
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| Marina City Towers -- I've always loved these.... |
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| Chicagoans call them the Corn Cob buildings --fair enough (but when I lived there I always referred to them as the 'Jetson' Buidings).... |
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| The massive Merchandise Mart building, in all its fine, Art Deco glory..... |
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| The Building Formerly Known as Sears Tower.... |
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| Another funky, round, reinforced concrete apartment complex, by the same architect as the Marina City Towers earlier.... |
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| Another view of the brand spankin' new Trump Tower.... |
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| The building here in the middle (behind the other two), called Aqua, is also new, and significant in that it's the tallest building in the world to have been designed by a female architect, by the name of Jeanne Gang (our hotel was across the street)... |
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| After our river boat tour, we took a stroll along Navy Pier, taking in the gorgeous Lake views.... |
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| We enjoyed the Stained Glass Museum at Navy Pier -- so many gorgeous examples of Tiffany Glass, and all of it backlit.... |
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| Another Tiffany glassworks, so pretty.... |
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| This caught my eye...a vintage glass window piece made from a collection of glass pot lids -- how cool is that...? |
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| There was a collection of these cast iron pieces for weary walkers to rest upon. Wish I could have a few for my yard. |
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| The Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier that, despite the earliness of the season, was up, ready and running, thanks to freakishly nice March weather..... |
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| And but of course we had to go on it. |
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| View from up in the ferris wheel, looking down on Navy Pier. Glad I'm not bothered by heights... |
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| What a great weekend trip....! |
