A walk in the Chicago spring

Spring in the mid-west is very strange - unless you grew up here, in which case it is what you always thought it was. Yesterday it was cold and breezy (at least it felt cold).
Today it was breezy, but in the high 70s. That's mid 20s in the rest of the world.
I crossed the street and found these flowers.

These would be called weeds in some parts of the world, and maybe tea in others. They are dandelions.

Our local city hall in Highland Park, Illinois - the place where the government intrudes on the freedom of the individual, according to the tea-party movement. Some of them probably drink or smoke dandelions.

I went for a stroll on the beach. I found myself between here

and here

wondering why a person of my age is jumping across rocks holding a camera.

I guess it is because I like seeing my footsteps in the sand.

At the end of my beach walk, I came to the scene that I can never believe is in a suburb in the mid-west.
It is always worth the sweat, and rock jumping. Of course I could always come at it from the other direction - but that would break the drama.