Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Saturday, which I guess was only yesterday, a friend picked me up in the morning at my hotel and we tromped around Chicago for the day. We parked at Millenium Park and fanned out from there. I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for Chicago, so it was fun to get the tour of someone’s favorite places. We walked a lot! After attaining coffee, chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, we went the Art Institute of Chicago to look at the art. Photos will come later but the museum is amazing. It’s not a huge museum so it’s not intimidating at all. The collection varies enormously as well. Yes, I admit that some modern art still makes me giggle.

After the Art Institute, we had Giordano’s Pizza for lunch. It was the best deep-dish pizza I’ve ever had. So much cheese and yummy sauce on a wonderful crust… I have embraced the obsession and now it is mine. The also make the best deep-fried zucchini sticks I’ve ever had. I understand the obsession with Giordano’s now. There are not enough words to describe the wonderfulness…

After lunch we tried to go up the Sears Tower. As you can see in the pictures, it wasn’t exactly a clear day in Chicago. The attendant told us there was nothing to see but a wall of white. So, now I have an excellent reason to go back to Chicago. We took a cab over to Navy Pier instead and wandered about. Navy Pier is part indoor/outdoor mall, part tourist attraction, part recreation area. There’s a rather random Stained Glass Museum in the middle of it. Well, perhaps the stained glass is not random but the placement of the museum certainly is. The exhibits were beautiful.

In general, I was safe from all the retail temptations because my bags were already completely full of stuff already.

We wandered about the park, played around and under the Bean, admired the amphitheater… The Bean is pretty awesome too. It’s a large, shiny sculpture that’s concave underneath. I was a bit dubious of its coolness until I got up close to it. When you go under the Bean you get all kinds of crazy reflections (top photo).

I may have a bit of wind-burn on my face. The day was mostly wet too. We ended up having a very light dinner at a German restaurant - specially brewed root beer and chicken and spaetzle soup. We did a driving tour down along the shore, zipped by Wrigley Field and other notable locations, and got me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight back to Philadelphia. I had a great time. There’s something far more memorable about seeing a friend’s city through his eyes. I didn’t expect to like Chicago as much as I did. I find myself wanting to go back (preferably during clearer weather) to see more of the city. (The root beer, chicken soup and amazing pizza don’t factor in at all. I swear!)

Southwest has upgraded their gate areas in Chicago-Midway to include leather chairs (with electrical outlets) and high-top counters with stools for laptop users. I have to admit, the new chairs are pretty darned comfy. I contemplated leaving the gate to get a bottle of water but resisted because I really didn’t want to lose my super-comfy seat! The flight was on-time and puking-toddler free! Hurray! We actually landed in Philly a little early. I remembered where I parked the little green Subaru and I got home just as the Fop and company were finishing up their unloading from the Coronation trip.

Today we headed into the park for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was gorgeous as usual. I was completely grumpy because apparently my camera battery went dead overnight. I must have left it on at some point. *grumble* I continue to be annoyed that I missed some great photos. Luckily it was just the battery, not something more difficult to fix. We saw a couple of demonstrations as well as the taiko drumming and dance troop from Japan. This year they were particularly good, I think. There was enough breeze for kites too!

And more walking. My legs are either going to be really happy with me for all the walking I’ve done in the past 5 days or complain. I’m hoping for happy…

Photos: The top photo was taken from under the Bean. The bottom was taken from in front of it - what skyline was available is reflected on the bean.

tags: airports, cherry blossom festival, chicago, giordano’s pizza, illinois, navy pier, photographs, photography, sears tower, southwest, the bean, tourist, travel