Zach's Chicago

Over MEA* weekend, Zach, Charlie and I headed to Milwaukee with our friends Cindy and Caitlin (age 7.5).  We had a very ambitious agenda that included one day in Chicago - for the four of us "big kids" anyway.  I will update more on the trip shortly, but first wanted to show you our adventure through Zach's eyes.

My mom gave Zach and Caitlin disposable cameras so they could take their own pictures of the windy city.  The kids were thrilled, although they were confused by the idea that they could not immediately see the picture they had just taken.  Zach spent the days after the trip asking us when we could get the pictures... "what's that word again Mom?"  The word he was looking for was "developed."

Anyway, we did our best to coach the kids, to help them pace themselves through the day and not use up all their pictures at our first stop.  I may have said "don't take a picture through glass, all you'll see is the bright light of the flash" about 40 times, to no avail.  But we let them take pictures of anything they wanted, and it was fun to stand back and see what they'd choose.

Zach's results:

These are from outside our first stop - the Shedd Aquarium.  I appreciate that he took a picture of the very long line we had to stand in - crazy!  The squirrel was an interesting choice, and yes, I did a little coaching to have an actual person in the picture of the head statue, and that it might be funny if Caitlin was sticking her finger up his nose.  But the skyline/lake shot - that was all Zach.

Then we were on to the "bean" in Millenium Park, where Zach took several shots like the one you see on the top left.  The next few are from the top of the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower; whatever), where his finger continued to play a prominent role.  But I like the one of the rain drops on the window... I think that's what that is!

And last but not least, the afore-mentioned "flash in glass" pictures!  And my budding photographer also thought the viewfinder was a sight worth capturing.  :)

As a side note, we discovered many Targets no longer develop film.  We had one disappointed boy on our hands, but it was Walgreens to the rescue!  Old-school technology or not, the kids had a blast and we thank my mom for the idea!

* I have no idea what MEA stands for - Minnesota Educators Association??  All I know is it's two days of no school in October, when the teachers have teachers' conventions.