Chicago Weblog

We arose to face a rainy morning in the Windy City.  I ate the leftovers from the Vietnamese restaurant. After reviewing our options, we decided to take a cab to the Art Institute.  Turns out that the Art Institute is a very popular place on rainy mornings.  I suspect bad weather is directly responsible for much of their funding.  That could be an interesting science fair project – study art museums in the bad winter parts of the country and compare them to museums in the sun belt.  But I digress.

The museum has a fascinating collection of paperweights that I had never noticed before.  My photo above doesn’t do this one justice; it consists of honeybees, comb, and flowers all floating in a glass orb.  I can’t imagine how the artist was able to put it together, or how many he had to throw away before getting this one.  Perhaps this professional photo (ripped off, er, courtesy of CBS News) will give you more perspective:

Some ancient Bodhisattvas and monks greeted us as we entered the main section of the museum.

The special exhibition was on the architect David Adjaye.  I especially liked his design for an updated Louisiana Gulf coast bungalow.  The traditional porch is replaced by a rooftop porch, which also shades the rest of the house.

By the time we left the museum, it had stopped raining. We walked to Pizzeria Uno and had a Chicago-style pizza. After stuffing ourselves there, we took the Red Line south a couple of stops to the Palmer House, where we ducked in for dessert. We had the Bertha’s Brownie.

Seems that Mr Palmer built the original Palmer House as a wedding present for his wife Bertha. It was finished just in time to be burnt to the ground by the Great Chicago Fire less than two weeks later. But Bertha soldiered on, and during the Columbian Exposition of 1893, this brownie was developed by the hotel kitchen (the Palmer House had been rebuilt) in response to Bertha’s request for a portable dessert that fair-goers could enjoy in their boxed lunch. Or so we heard. Then it was time to head to the airport.

We picked up our bags back at the hotel and asked for a cab to the airport.

“Which airport?” the bellman asked.

“Hobby,” I replied.  Blank stare.

“Midway,” my wife corrected.

“Yes; the Hobby of Chicago,” I sheepishly mumbled.

The #3 bus took us down Michigan Avenue to Yolk, a breakfast place.  It was packed at nine-thirty in the morning.  Don’t these people have to work?  Are they all tourists?  Well, it was delicious and filled us up.

We then walked over to the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.  This was more interesting than you might think.  They have a great interactive exhibit on how to spot counterfeit bills (everybody likes that).  Here CVH is honing her skills on some twenty dollar bills.

We had some fun with a $100 bill.

There was also a display of one million dollars in actual currency.  It did not look like all that much money to me.

We walked over to see the beautiful Buckingham fountain, but alas, it was not working.  We did see boats out on the lake, walked through Maggie Daley park, and climbed across the Millennium Bridge.  We couldn’t get to the park on our first visit (it was closed due to the St Patrick’s Day parade), and it was too darn cold on our second visit, so it was nice to see it this time.  It’s a great park with a killer view of the Michigan Drive skyline.

Recently we had watched the James Spader movie The Watcher.  He plays a police detective on disability living in Chicago.  His character eats every night at the same Vietnamese restaurant which his friends call “the worst restaurant in Chicago”.  Well, I just had to see if I could find “the worst restaurant in Chicago”.  Thanks to the stop-and-rewind capabilities of DVDs and Google street view, we were able to track it down to Argyle street in near north Chicago.  A ride on the Red Line took us to Argyle street, which is a little gritty these days, but we found that the restaurant actually serves good food and we had an enjoyable lunch.  We polished off the evening with another walk along the Magnificent Mile of retail.

We visited the Museum of Broadcast Communications.  It houses the Radio Hall of Fame, which consists of more than a bunch of old radios, although the radios are cool.  They have a 1912 Marconi, like the one that Titanic used to send its SOS.  But the Hall of Fame honors famous people in the radio industry from Powel Crosley to Bob and Ray.

On the next floor up is the TV museum.  They have a number of old clips and artifacts, including these original face masks for Ernie Kovacs’ famous Nairobi Trio (woe upon you if you don’t know The Nairobi Trio).  Did Frank Sinatra wear one of these?  Possibly; we may never know.

Later this evening we attended a performance of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Disgraced at the Goodman theatre.  We had a nice conversation with the people in the seats next to us.

It’s a long, long way from downtown to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, but they are a real treat.  Even though their self-proclaimed “world-class” bonsai exhibit was closed, it is still a magical place.

CVH liked the flowers and waterfall.

I liked the “Island of the Immortals”.  Seen here in the distance, it’s beautiful, and you can’t get to it (hence the name).

And they had monster cabbages.

But the best part was the model train exhibit!

More shopping this evening, now in the gentrified neighborhood of Lakeview.  A long, slow bus ride up Broadway cluttered with pedestrians, bicyclists, and people trying desperately to find a place to park.  On another day, after riding through the Loop, I mentioned to the bus driver that it must be hard to navigate these streets downtown.

“Huh,” she said.  “You should see Broadway at 4 a.m.”

We stopped in at Transistor, a small (really small) boutique that sold prints, albums (strictly vinyl), book, radios, some Arduino kits, and other miscellany.  It’s small, but packed with a lot of stuff.  I bought a neat print of an L train.  I like riding trains.  I like riding trains a lot.

After we left Transistor, we walked along Broadway with a lot of other people.  We passed some apartments and condos that were available.  One touted “Walk to the Lake!”, which of course you could, but I pointed out to CVH that meant one thing in the summer and something quite different in the winter when the wind whips in off the water.  We stopped for dinner at the Casbah Cafe.  The spinach pastries, Casbah pizza, and yogurt soup were delicious.  The place was all but empty when we arrived; the owners put us right in the front window, as advertising I guess.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in at Eataly and got some pasta and sauce for dinner the next night (our hotel room came with a kitchenette).

 

Shopping this morning at the mall in the little neighborhood of Lincoln Square.  There were lots of stores, including a couple of great toy stores, an old-fashioned style apothecary, a nice bookstore, and Gene’s Sausage Shop.

Gene’s is a real find.  Wonderful sausage, deli items, groceries, and imported items at by far the best prices we saw anywhere in Chicago.  You can’t miss the big cow out front. Or is that a steer?

And be sure not to miss their rooftop dining (weather permitting, of course, which is not that often in Chicago).

CVH had the Hunter’s Sausage and a Greek salad. The Hunter’s Sausage was absolutely superb. Note, however, that the Greek salad has no lettuce. Corn instead. Very Midwestern.

This evening we went down to the Chicago river for one of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s river cruises.  This was a wonderful trip, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the least interest in American architecture.  The docent was extremely knowledgeable, and you get a great view of the city at night.  If you visit Chicago, make sure you take this cruise if nothing else.  There is a bar on the boat; if you need a drink, be sure and get one before the cruise starts, because the docent will talk non-stop and you won’t want to miss a bit.

If you are from Houston, note that you will only see one Philip Johnson building, and the docent will probably not say much about it or Mr Johnson.  Ours didn’t.

There are lots of boat cruises on the river; this one focuses on the wonders of Chicago’s beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) buildings.  If you are looking for a party cruise, look elsewhere.

After the cruise, we stopped at the huge Walgreens at State and Randolph.  I’m mentioned this two-story, 2500+ meter² Walgreens before.  We got a newspaper and some decent tiramisu.  Decent for $2.79, anyway.

It was a nice day, especially for Chicago, so we decided to take a walk up Michigan Avenue on the way back to the hotel.  We walked along the park quite a ways, and came across the Spertus Institute, a distinctive building face, to say the least.  One of CVH’s guidebooks recommended it, and the Spertus website welcomed us to come visit.

CVH didn’t want me to mention that she does work with the Jewish community in Louisville; I’m not sure why not.  But perhaps we should have.  Because when we asked for the tour and to visit the shop, the receptionist gave us a long look over and told us the Institute was not open to visitors that day.  So if you go, plan to have a good story ready.

We left the Field Museum and took the bus across downtown to Manny’s Coffee Shop and Deli, “Chicago’s Best Corned Beef Since 1942”.  I haven’t been around since 1942, but the corned beef was very good indeed.  As was the chopped liver and the cole slaw.

And the matzo ball soup was the best I’ve ever had in my life.

CVH was in the mood to take an out-of-town vacation, and due to her work with the local Jewish community, she is only able to take days off during Jewish holidays.  Yom Kippur arrived at the end of September, giving us an opportunity for a long weekend out of town.  I thought Eastern Kentucky (Red River Gorge, etc) would be fun.  CVH wanted to go to Portland, Oregon.  I’m sure Portland is a very nice place, but although this is their sunny season, it’s still a very long way from Louisville to Portland.  CVH did not want to go somewhere teeming with chiggers and mosquitoes.  So I suggested we make our third trip to Chicago; it’s as visually stimulating as Paris, much closer, and they speak English.

This morning we hopped on our favorite airline, Southwest, well before dawn (what were we thinking?).  Their procedure of assigning nearly everyone a sequential number, and then having people load in that order works quite well.  So well that CVH wondered if Temple Grandin developed it for Southwest.

We landed at dawn, took the Orange Line into the city, dropped our bags at the hotel and ate breakfast.  By then the Field Museum was open; we hopped the bus and rode down there.  I wanted to see the “Evolving Planet” exhibit; CVH wanted to the see the Field conservation exhibit.

CVH said the conservation exhibit really kept her interest; I found the Evolving Planet exhibit absolutely mind-boggling.  There were thousands of fossils on display, and you know there are at least a thousand fossils behind every one that was shown; this exhibit reflected more man-centuries of work than I could guess.  Trilobites, plants and animals from the Carboniferous and every other Period, including lots of dinosaurs.  Lots.

When I was about five years old, my mother took me to the Field Museum.  Bear in mind that the public space of the Museum covers over eleven acres.  Somehow, my mother wandered off (later, we found that her viewpoint was slightly different).  When she eventually made her way back, she found me entranced in front of a fossilized dinosaur bone that was placed out where you could touch it.  On this trip, many years later, I found that very same bone.

At the end of Evolving Planet, there was a display indicating how many species had gone extinct since the museum opened that morning.  It stood at seven.

CVH and I got back together and toured the Hall of Birds and the Halls of Mammals.

By now we were ready for lunch.