A (Belated) July 4th in Downtown Chicago

I was able to watch the fireworks downtown for the first time (I know, I know) this year. GJ and I were planning on hitting up the museum area to get a spot, but since it was a last minute decision, we were told that there would be "millions" of people there already.

Anyway, after checking out the annual Taste of Chicago (no pics, too much om nom nom), we walked around and decided to grab some coffee at Panera before trekking out to find a good spot. On the way, we saw a ton of cop cars lining the streets and I overheard a cop saying something about chasing down a guy after searching a dumpster. They even had the K9 unit out. We went in for a closer look and snapped a couple iPhone pics (sorry they are on my home computer), but figured they were just around because of the whole July 4th "thing". Later, we came to find out they really were trying to track someone down. Crazy...a REAL crime scene first-hand, haha.



We settled on a spot right next to the Taste. Equipped with our coffee and mosquito repellant bracelets (thanks Mom, haha), it was an enjoyable show. It seemed short, but it was better than no show at all. Afterwards, the streets were crazed with people. It was really cool to see the streets completely closed down and people just walking everywhere they pleased. Though that isn't TOO far off from what happens every day, haha.