Some shots from my Thanksgiving holiday trip to Chicago. The first two are from the beach in Edgewater.


This is downtown. The tennis ball sort of ruins the severe look of the lettering. Nice touch, random ball-thrower.
This is the top of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests where emperors from the 15th century and onward prayed for – you guessed it – good harvests.
Here's a less abstract view of the same building. Apparently the wooden tower was built without any nails. I guess it's held together with a combination of luck and spit. There were other similar buildings throughout the complex also used for prayer and sacrifice. Best building name: "Animal-beating pavilion."
The park around the temple complex was full of people playing games, dancing, singing and exercising. This woman twirled a long cloth attached to a stick, making pretty, ribbon-like patterns. (Photographer's note: I was eating a delicious milk-flavored popsicle when I made this picture. The popsicle cost about 45 cents.)
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Here China Open spectators read a riddle tied to a hanging lantern.
Try to guess the animal being described in this picture's riddle: "A crescent longbow with a tassel on top, when living they wear sackcloth, dead they wear scarlet."
If you think you know the answer, you take the paper down and present it to the question master. If you're right, you win a prize. Today the prizes were cell phone ornaments, which must have provided a big incentive for people to win. I'm pretty sure the Chinese collect phone ornaments like the Louvre collects paintings.
But it was still kind of cool. These girls were really good at hitting their drums lightly enough so that the prerecorded drum soundtrack could be heard clearly.
Djokovic is famous for his impressions of other tennis players, so when he was done practicing, a friend dared me to asked Djokovic to perform. Djokovic said he was too tired from jet lag. Bummer.
I love this building. Can my house look like this?
Many Chinese tourists visit the Olympic venues, and many seemed surprised to see Westerners. Here someone asked Matt to pose for a picture. This was not the only time people asked to take our picture. It was kind of weird being being a "celebrity."
This man seemed really impressed with the vastness of the inside.
A guard stands in front of the gateway to the Forbidden City, which was unfortunately forbidden. All images © 2009 Jim Buell | Blog Template Design by Blog oh blog and modified by Jim Buell.