Must. Finish. Chicago.

As I'm researching things to do in Vegas (which thus far includes shooting a machine gun at a gun store's "ladies night" special), I realized that I can't update on Vegas if I still have so much left from Chicago.
Millennium Park is a public park on the east side of Chicago and it's probably known best for Cloud Gate aka the giant bean. "The Bean," as I'll affectionately refer to it, is like 60000million tons. Or at least I'm assuming it is based on the size. It was constructed from 2004-2006 based on Anish Kapoor's winning design in a sculpture competition. While still being constructed, it was revealed for the Millennium Park's grand opening before being hidden again until its completion. It was inspired by liquid mercury and your image contorts depending on where you stand. If you walk underneath the Bean and look up at its belly, you'll see 4883984 reflections of yourself.

Building it was crazy! It couldn't get too hot in the summer so tourists could still be able to touch it and it couldn't get too cold in the winter so (I don't know even know who would do this) people could lick it and not get their tongues frozen to it. The Bean is also seamless, so getting it welded together was insane.

At one of the entrances to Millennium Park is the Crown Fountain. The fountain is a giant black granite reflecting pool placed in between two large glass towers. The cool thing about the towers is that they're 50 feet tall and covered with LEDs that light up and change so that images of Chicago's citizens show up. During the summer, the towers shoot out water into the reflecting pool where all these children gather in swimming suits to splash around and play. The effect is that the citizens of Chicago are spitting on their children.

See?! How insanely creepy is that! It's a small child's face and the face moves and the kid makes a spitting face and all of a sudden fountains shoot out water.

This is from the side. Please note all the children gather in front of the giant face as it spits on them. A whole new meaning to the term "water sports."
Another creeper picture.

Then there's the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. It was designed by Frank Gehry and it serves at the centerpiece for Millennium Park. The sound system installed in the trellis network recreates a sound similar to what you hear at an indoor concert venue.