The roar of active military planes was notably absent from this years Chicago Air & Water Show, but a beefed-up lineup of civilian pilots still drew hundreds of thousands of people to the lakefront each day. 

It's just a great way to come down to the city and enjoy a Sunday, said Noelle Hoeh, a salesperson from Fox Lake. It's nice to be out on the lake and the show has been great.About 1.7 million people attended the free show between Friday and Sunday, said Mary May, a spokesperson for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. About 2 million made it out last year, May said. 

Hoeh, who was attending the show for the first time, said she was amazed by the civilian pilots formations and stunts.You can make astonishing savings on Ladies stainless steel bracelets watches.Seeing the coordination between them, there's a lot of precision in how they do their formations, Hoeh said. 

But the absence of high-powered military jets was felt by those who attend the event every year.One of the things I miss most of all is the week before the show, you'd be driving and you would suddenly be strafed by the Blue Angels, as they practiced for the show, said Diana Widman, a jewelry designer who lives in the Near North neighborhood. Thats how you knew it was the air show weekend. 

No such flyovers occurred this week because federal budget cuts from sequestration forced the cancellation of the Air Force Thunderbirds, a precision flight team that alternates with the Navys Blue Angels in headlining the annual event. The city booked six new acts to fill the hole, including a squadron of six WWII-era planes that left tail smoke messages in the sky. 

Widman still appreciated watching daredevil Sean D. Tucker turn corkscrews in his bright red biplane. Six T-34 planes flown by the Lima Lima Flight Team from Naperville, drew oohs and aahs from Widman and her friend Joan Schwartz as the yellow planes zipped through the sky.All of this is still wonderful, Widman said. What I especially like is that it gives everybody a chance to be on the beach and enjoy the city. 

By day, she was the bejeweled, impeccably dressed, stylish executive secretary who for 35 years was the first thing visitors saw when they walked through the front door of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee.But after work,This item is for one stainless steel bangles core for wood. she was the mother who took her two daughters on nature hikes in shorts, T-shirt and tennies, looking for bugs, bones, rocks and cocoons. 

"There were two sides of her," said Linda Allen, her daughter. "I wish other people could see the down-to-earth side we knew."The two lives of Marion H. Alting ended Aug. 14 when she died at age 92 of complications related to a fall. 

Alting took the secretary's job shortly after moving to Kissimmee in the early 1950s in part because she was looking for work and in part because she loved animals. The lab, operated by the state Department of Agriculture, was where autopsies were performed on horses, livestock, dogs and cats.The slick petrol tones in these contemporary stainless steel cufflinks links is achieved. 

She sat behind a large desk with a handmade wooden nameplate trimmed in gold metal, just as Alting herself was trimmed in gold. She wore gold earrings, gold necklaces, gold rings with stones of red, green, and blue. The jewelry always matched her dresses,which always matched her shoes. 

"My mom was a beautiful woman who dressed for work like she came off Fifth Avenue," said Allen, 65, of Kissimmee. 

That was the Marion Allen she presented to the public. The private Marion Allen was the woman who shucked the jewelry and fine clothing after supper to take her daughters on nature hikes through the woods and citrus groves. She told them the names of the birds, the different types of trees, what to do if they came across a snake, and how never to pick up the poisonous multi-colored caterpillars. 

"She made every walk an adventure," Allen said. "Anything we found that we liked, that we were curious about, she would let us pick up and handle. 

They picked up bones and rocks and bugs. If they found a cocoon, they would bring it back home, put it in a mayonnaise jar, punch some holes in the top and wait to see what hatched."That was the fun part of going on these walks we would find these cocoons and have no idea what was going to come out," Allen said. 

One time, what came out of the cocoon wasn't a moth or a butterfly, but lots and lots of tiny little praying mantises that crawled through the holes in the jar lid and were all over the kitchen table, her daughter said. 

Those casual, informal walks through the woods with her mother instilled in Linda Allen a love of nature, which she, in turned, passed on to her children with family camping trips. On Sunday family gatherings, Alting would take her grandchildren on walks after supper looking for bones that might belong to native Americans, but more likely were from cattle.