Chicago River (Garden) Architectural Cruise

As you can tell from lack of posting this summer, it's been pretty bad out there in my garden. The lack of rain, except the rain that came flowing from my tears because most of my flower beds looked as pathetic as the poor Illinois farmers' cornfields, gave us plenty of time to discover other ways to keep us positive until the summer of 2012 ends and we can (cross our fingers) start anew next spring.

One fun thing we did over our summer was take the Chicago Architecture Foundation's River Tour. According to its web-site the organization will continue the tours until mid-November, so if you're in Chicago I highly recommend experiencing it.

I added the word "garden" to the title/description because it is a way to see some unique landscapes. In fact, it's the only way unless you're lucky enough to live in some of the buildings along the river. Anyway, there were patio and rooftop gardens, parks, fun outdoor-dining places overlooking the river that were decorated with potted plants, flower window boxes, bright colored umbrellas and much more.

Here is a sampling of the tour. I took lots of pictures. That way when another week went by without rain and there were a lot of those, I just went to my I-Photo collection and checked out the Chicago River images. There is water somewhere...it gave me comfort.

Isn't this beautiful? I love ivy growing up and in between the bricks.
Wacker and Lake Street

Obviously can't quite see the top to the rooftop garden.
Can't afford to rent a helicopter to get a the view from the sky.

Just an example of a small private (guess not so private if I have a picture of it)
patio garden that overlooks river (us tourists)!

Nice landscaping outside of this condo that also looks over river. 

Small park. I am not sure if I could find my way back from the front side.
Approx. River North area.

Going north on river. 

Fountains and waterfalls look great anywhere!

River City: Park your boat-get a bite to eat-watch the tourists staring at you.

I wonder if you can duplicate this using rebar? Nice garden accent.

My favorite view!