Chicago

Saturday, 9/15

Easy 2 hour drive to Chicago today. We parked in the vicinity of our AirBNB (What!? No campgrounds in downtown of Chicago?). From there it was a short train ride and a two-block walk to the Riverwalk and the dock for our Architectural Boat Tour. That was it for day 1 b/c we still needed to check-in at our AirBNB and Serena is having trouble with excessive walking since banging up her left big toe yesterday morning. We spent the evening at our AirBNB. Serena was icing her toe and Jeff went for a walk to buy our public transportation passes.

Sunday, 9/16

Different shoes for Serena today and we were both able to do our scheduled walking tour of sights in the Loop (the area that the L train loops around). Here is a bit of what we saw.

This is a Picasso sculpture but it’s not by Picasso. In an effort to build tourism in the 1960s, Chicago asked Picasso to design a public art piece. He sent a small version of this and said “make it bigger”. Most people look at it from the other side and miss that it is a woman.

Tiffany glass ceiling in Macy’s which occupies the entirety of the Marshall Field & Co building. After the Chicago fire of 1871 Marshall Field built the first department store (this building) which occupies a full city block and is seven stories tall.

Famous Chicago theater and unofficial symbol of the city.

L train tracks. It’s a brilliant way to have cars, trains, and pedestrians share the same roadway (Chicago is great at using and selling) “air rights”.

Here is another example of using air rights. This church has their congregational space and offices on the first two floors and a chapel at the top. In between there is an office building and they collect rent on all those offices.

Serena has no idea how she photographed the ghost bird.

Cloud Gate sculpture shown from the angle the artist intended so it reflects the entire Chicago skyline.

Throughout downtown - and a little beyond - there are beautiful planted areas (medians, hanging baskets, urns, window boxes, and sidewalk beds). They are all composed fantastically with different colors of foliage and flowers, different textures and heights. Mr. Olmstead, the father of landscape architecture who worked on the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, probably wouldn’t approve but we do (ornamental beds weren’t his style).

After the walking tour we got straight onto a train and headed out to Wrigley Field to watch baseball!

The Cubs lost. :(

Three different deep dish pizza places were recommended by our tour guide. We went to Giordano’s - mostly because it was easiest to find. It was quite similar to Zachary’s which is what we expected from our guide’s description. Sorry, no photo of our pizza.

Monday, 9/17

We spent most of the day inside the Chicago Art Institute. It is a massive museum!

This is Jeff outside the museum.

At the end of our museum visit in the bookstore we heard a classic midwest greeting along the lines of “what the … are you two doing here?”

Gwen is a friend from Santa Cruz who grew up in Indiana. None of us were expecting each other here in Chicago. We might have also seen each other at the Cubbies game yesterday, but we weren’t seated anywhere near each other.

After the museum we met another Santa Cruz friend who has business in Chicago this week. Steve used to live here so he showed us around a bit.

First stop was Cindy’s rooftop bar at the Chicago Athletic Assoc. Technically this is only open to members/guests of the Assoc./hotel. But we got a break in the elevator and made it to the top.

View from Cindy’s Rooftop Bar @ the Chicago Athletic Assoc.

We had dinner at Berghoff’s - a German restaurant that also has the distinction of receiving the #1 post-prohibition liquor license in Chicago. It was still early so we all went over for sunset views and post-dinner drinks in the “Signature Room” on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building.

Nice view from the women’s restroom (the men’s room does not have a view).

Street-level view of the Hancock Building.

Tuesday, 9/18

After wandering around downtown a bit, we walked out to Navy Pier to take a ride on a very large sailboat. Today is overcast but it never rained though it was cold and windy out on the water. We had some BBQ at Harry Caray Tavern on the pier then headed home.

Tall Ship Windy

Windy under sail

We didn’t go very far into the lake but we were under sail most of the time (vs. using the engine). We had a nice time.

panoramic cityscape

The point of Navy Pier is the low green dome structure.

Navy Pier in the foreground with the boats and the Ferris Wheel.

The Hancock Building is the one getting obscured by clouds (good thing we went up there for the view yesterday and not today).

On the water is a nice way to get unobstructed views of Chicago’s stunning buildings.

Wednesday, 9/19

Today started out sunny but not too warm so we followed our plan and rented Divvy Bikes. We had only a short ride on neighborhood streets before we were able to join the Lakefront Trail. It was lovely and uncrowded and we didn’t have to deal with car traffic! We went 11-12 miles and ended up at Lincoln Park Zoo which is small and free. The day did end up clouding over some but still no rain and not cold.

Overall we’ve really enjoyed Chicago. At present it is the 3rd largest city in the US but it feels small and manageable. There are too many great places to eat but…

Our AirBNB was great for providing a parking space for the RV, being a convenient bus ride from downtown, and quiet. Otherwise it was only adequate. We’ve been very lucky with the weather too. And Serena’s toe is not pretty but it doesn’t hurt anymore so it’s unlikely that it’s broken.

Tomorrow we head to Cuyahoga Valley NP in Ohio for a short visit. Then we are off to Niagara Falls for a few days.

A few Chicago Architecure pix...

Pretty & Pink is a nickname for the center building.

River City is in the foreground (one of Serena’s top three faves).

The black building is the 8th tallest in the US (4 of 10 of the tallest in the US are in Chicago. It used to be called the Hancock Building but there seems to be a movement to call buildings by their address. On the architecture tour it was referred to as 875 N Michigan. But it’s hard to say what Chicagoans call it since they pronounce the Willis Building as Sear’s Tower.

Reflections

Carbide & Carbon Building

This building is supposed to mimic a bottle of champagne with its green color (like the bottle glass) and 24-karat gold leaf top (like the gold foil).

Aqua (Serena’s #1 fave skyscraper in Chicago)

This photo is from the internet b/c until Wednesday we hadn’t been in the right place to see the whole building and that day was overcast.

Our picture of Aqua

The hotel that must not be named is pretty and this picture has been altered.

There are four apartments in this triangular building.

This building maximizes air space despite limited ground space - the air space footprint is bigger than the area that touches the ground. Ground space is limited by the Chicago River and the train tracks (train is in the photo bottom left).