Magnificent Mile Lights Festival

As far as I'm concerned, the rule with Christmas is that it's not allowed until after Thanksgiving. In the words of my roommate Kevin, "At least let us cut into the turkey, damn!" Still, I can understand why Chicago would light up Michigan Ave and host a parade and fireworks in mid-November: the weather tends to cooperate more.

Most of my roommates and I headed down to the end of the parade route at Michigan and Wacker this past Saturday to check out the festivity. Little did we know this event attracts thousands of people, most of them in the 1-9 year old range. Whatever, we still get excited over bright lights and Mickey Mouse.

After the parade, they set off fireworks over the river. They exploded long before reaching the tops of the surrounding buildings, which was a little weird. I've never seen fireworks go off between skyscrapers. The sound of the explosion plus the added reverberations of the sound bouncing off all the buildings made it seem like we were standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. A HUGE thunderstorm.

Fireworks over the Chicago River