Illinois

On Monday morning at 5 AM I headed to Chicago for my 9 AM appointment. I am glad I arrived early as it took over an hour to get through security. No, it wasn't that crowded, they just x-rayed AND manually went through every compartment in every bag and coat - much more invasive than the airport. I guess since this is also the IRS office, they need to be careful. (People really don't like the IRS!!) I had to fill out several forms, but it went smoothly and they said my passport would be ready by 1 PM that day! :) Time to explore the city...

Parking in Chicago is almost as bad as New York, only it's $35 rather than $45 for a few hours of parking. (I should have been in the parking business and I'd be a multi-millionnaire by now!!) Since I have always loved to climb, the first place I went was the old Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower), which is 110 stories high and the tallest building in North America. You can see Lake Michigan, the John Hancock building (another tall one with 2 antennas), all of downtown Chicago, and many of the surrounding suburbs (not to mention the low clouds obscuring the view off in the distance)!











There was a glass area you could step out on and look down 103 floors. The adults stayed toward the solid ground and slowly put one foot on the glass floor. The kids went as far out as they could go and jumped hard as if they were trying to break the glass. (Why would you want the glass to break if you were standing on it??)











When I returned to ground level, I walked down to the Art Institute of Chicago.



































There were a lot of famous artists' work, including Edouard Manet:





Edgar Degas:





Claude Monet:











Pierre-Auguste Renoir:





Georges Seurat:



Vincent van Gogh:







Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:





Paul Gaugain:



Henri Matisse:





Pablo Picasso:





Marc Chagall:



There is a lot of contemporary / new art, though I'm not sure how some of them (like the orange and green paintings) can be classified as art!































"The world as an art is the play of the Supreme Person reveling in image-making. Try to find out the ingredients of the image - they elude you, they never reveal to you the eternal secret of appearance."





















The next stop after the art museum was a walk through Millennium Park. There were gardens, a stage for performances, artistic bridges, great views of the city, a Cancer Survivor's garden, basketball and tennis courts, and the "bean" (a very well polished mirror structure). A TV commercial was being produced by the "bean", which explains the girls in the big poofy dresses. They were jumping up and down in sync, so if you happen to see a commercial like this, look for me in the background! :)







































From there I walked down Lakefront Trail toward Navy Pier. It was about a 1.5 mile walk, but very scenic. All of the docks were empty as the boats are out of the water and tucked safely away from the ice. In a few weeks, I have no doubt the boats will come out again...















Navy Pier is mostly for kids/families, but there is also plenty to do for adults. There is the stained glass gallery and the Shakespeare theatre. The wooden pier that looks like it's falling apart is Dime Pier. It got this name because people would rent a rowboat for a dime to take them out for the day from there.

I would have loved to take a boat cruise, but the 30 minute ones were not open yet as it's too early in the season and the timing was off to make it back in time to pick up my passport. If the line was shorter I would have gone up on the Ferris Wheel as well - it looked amazing and I'm sure the view of the city from up there would be incredible! I bought a 2 scoop ice cream cone instead and walked to the end of the pier. :)

























I jogged back from Navy Pier through the gardens and parks, past the art museum, back to the IRS building to pick up my passport. It was ready with no hassle. In fact, there wasn't even a wait for security this time!!

Before leaving I had one more stop to make... Giordano's has the most amazing stuffed pizza I've ever had. John and I used to go there when we were in Chicago, so I thought it was fitting that I have dinner there before heading back to Milwaukee. I got a medium sized pizza and left 3 pieces for John (and family) when I got back. The pizza takes a long time to make, so it's definitely not the kind of place you go to in a rush, but it did not disappoint and was just as good as I remembered it!!!





On the way home I tried not to stop for gas as fuel in Chicago was close to $5.00!!!! I also passed up an old Ferrari spyder that looked like a 250 GTO from the front, but I've never seen one like that in a convertible and the back looked unique. Hmmm... Maybe one of my car buddies will know. :)







Once home, I met John, and most of the family (Lisa, Dad, Mom, and Shelly) were there! They had the rest of the pizza and we watched a TV show together, which meant everyone talking and laughing during the show so those of us who are deaf (that would be me) couldn't hear anything, but that made it fun. I love my family. :) Some things never change!! Had to get to bed early as I was getting up early again to head to Toronto...