Navy Pier Fireworks (via ChicTraveler)
I moseyed downtown today after work to attend a gallery opening in the hopes of meeting Michael Thompson, whose art work Kosher I’ve featured on my blog. Attending gallery openings is not something I usually do, so I had to give myself a bit of a shove. Alas, Michael wasn’t there, at least not when I was. I did ask a stranger who looked like him, and who said he knew him, and who confirmed that he wasn’t there. So I took in some of the quirky work on display, and then I made my way back to the bus stop.

By now it had gotten dark – on my way to the gallery I had the great skyline view below when I walked across the bridge over the commuter train tracks. As I waited for the bus, I kept hearing popping noises above the traffic on Columbus Drive, and once I let my eyes follow that noise, what did I see? Fireworks exploding off in the distance over Navy Pier. Fireworks in February? What a nice surprise!

I tried to capture them with my Smartphone camera, but unfortunately there was too much light interference from headlights and streetlamps, and the traffic was too heavy for me to cross the drive to a darker area. So I just stood there and enjoyed the magenta and green and blue and white chrysanthemums of light blinking and popping and sparkling in the night sky. Upon returning home, a quick search informed me that today’s firework display was in honor Chicago’s legendary Cubs announcer Harry Caray.

Goes to show that you never know what you might see once you venture out! Maybe not what or whom you planned to see, but something else entirely, and perhaps even more beautiful.

Chicago’s Skyline from the South at 11th Street Bridge over Metra Tracks