Navy Pier, Chicago

Postcard US-2558458 from Illinois shows the Navy Pier, a 3,300-foot 1,010-meter long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan, with the skyline of the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in the background. Built in 1916 primarily as a cargo facility for lake freighters and passenger excursion steamers, the pier today is Chicago's number one tourist attraction that hosts the Chicago Children's Museum and an IMAX theater. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1979.

In the news today, winning over the competitions from Columbia University in New York City, the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago will host the Obama Library, Museum and Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side, located in either Washington Park or Jackson Park.

Compared to the downtown area shown on the postcard, the South Side of Chicago has great disparity in income and other demographic measures, and a reputation for being poor or crime-infested, The Obama Library will not only honor the legacy of the first African American president in the U.S. who had worked at University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus, but also give an enormous economic boost for the South Side.

Great Lakes Naval Training Center

Outgoing postcard US-3202777 to Poland shows an event on Ross Field, carrying on a long tradition of Naval Ceremony at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (NTC), home to the Navy's largest Recruit Training Command as well as the largest Service School Command. The NTC was dedicated in 1911 and is located on Lake Michigan, just 35 miles north of Chicago and 45 miles south of Milwaukee.

The Great Lakes Naval Museum, one of fifteen official U.S. Navy museums, is nearby.

Winter on Lake Michigan

Postcard US-2615869 to Finland shows a winter scene on Lake Michigan. However, when I bought this postcard during a layover at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport on August 27, 2013, I had no idea that the incoming winter in Chicago could be the 8th snowiest in history by early February, 2014. The unusual repeated arctic cold air assaults have over 60% of Lake Michigan frozen. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter "Biscayne Bay" is working to break ice on the southern Lake Michigan.

For Finnish people who are no strangers to a cold weather, here are the forecasts for Chicago and Helsinki in comparison.

Weather forecast for Chicago, IL

Weather forecast for Helsinki, Finland

Chicago

Chicago

Postcard US-2343342 arrived yesterday shows an aerial view of Adler Planetarium in the front and the Field Museum of Natural History and the John G. Shedd Aquarium in the background, by Lake Michigan. What special about the postcard is the two 8-cent se-tenant stamps issued on August 2, 1971 to commemorating a decade of space achievements.

The stamps feature the Earth, the Sun, the Lunar Module, the Lunar Rover and astronauts on the Moon. The first day covers were postmarked at two different post offices in Houston, Texas and Huntsville, Alabama where the two tracking stations were located.