Monday. A holiday for Memorial Day and we were planning to go see the parade, which was supposed to start at State Street at 12 noon and end at Van Buren. But before that I wanted to get started on my running routine after a break of 10 days or so. Shanghai came with me and we jogged up to Lincoln Park, did a couple of rounds and returned. Good exercise for 45 minutes.

Then it was time to go for the parade. We got all dressed up and of course Triny couldn’t come so Shanghai and I set out. We were supposed to meet up with Whitebread an acquaintance. Anyway, we couldn’t say no when he said he would come with us to the parade.

We met up with Whitebread and walked all over Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile and then seeing no trace of the parade went over to Van Buren thinking it was nearing its end. But with no sign of one, we asked at a Dunkin’ Donuts if they had seen anything resembling a parade had passed by. A girl mentioned she had seen the parade on Saturday. Ah. My bad. I should have checked the date, perhaps it was on Saturday and it had got over. We didn’t waste the day however, and walked across to Millennium Park where we saw the Crown Fountain. Now, this is an electric display showing different faces from the population of Chicago. It’s fascinating because the picture keeps changing, and after a point the eyes close and water spouts from their mouths.


By now it had begun to rain. I held on to my beloved camera and opened up the umbrella we had got. We walked around the park and just round the path came upon a small pond filled with four or five baby ducks. That was one of the cutest sights I had ever seen. I stood watching them for some time and just moved to take a photo when a security guard came around. He said that he was watching over the ducks as the mother was teaching them to swim and he didn’t want them to be disturbed by curious visitors and people wanting to touch them. I was amazed at his care and sense of protection. It was rare to see someone genuinely caring for these little ones and not simply because it was his duty to do so. I didn’t disturb them much, just took a couple of photos and stood watching. That was a really sweet minute.


By now we had gotten wet and chilly and Shanghai and I decided to head home since it was already late afternoon and the weather didn’t look too good. My legs were aching from the spirited running and all I wanted was to hit the bed. But all in all, it was not a bad day considering I got to see one of the rare flashes of the good side of human nature.

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