2006-- Chicago
Day One---July 17, 2006
It has been a long day so far. We began by getting up before the birds or our cats. My cat, ChaChi (Don’t blame me, my daughter named him) just gave me this look that said. “What the hell are you doing up?” Then he put his back down and went back to sleep. Smart cat. But, at 3:30 AM my alarm went off. I had sense enough to move the alarm to the other side of the room, ‘cause I knew it would be rough. But after I hit the shower I was fine. We finished all of our last second packing and were in the car by 4:30 AM. Margo’s Mom was driving so we headed across town. As our flight was at 6:15, and the airport is 35 minutes away, we were going to cut it close.
But, I figured there weren’t going to be many people competing for the highway or going thru security. I was right, we made it 20 minutes before boarding started at 5:45 AM. That included a Burger King stop for breakfast. I have never checked food through security before, but my daughter insisted on BK, as she can’t stand McDonalds breakfast. And there was no BK on our concourse. Anyway the security people didn’t care, except for the open drinks. I got water and left it sealed. The girls had Cokes. Security made them take a sip to make sure it wasn’t liquid explosive or poison or whatever. I understand the precautions, and would rather be safe than sorry. Still it does seem a little silly to make a 17 year old take a sip or her drink, and then pay no more special attention to a 20 something Middle Eastern man. I’m not one of those ones who thinks “profiling” is bad. When blonde-haired blue-eyed females start taking over aircraft, we should be singling out all potential members of the Swedish Bikini Team for frisking.
If I was a screener I would be for that anyway, but right now its college age Middle Eastern men. If the innocent ones don’t like, perhaps they could complain to their government. Which in turn could take care of their own back yard and quit making their problems ours.
Anyway, enough soapbox preaching, back to the vacation. We touched down about 15 minutes behind schedule in Midway, but I allowed more than enough time to get to our hotel and check in. Our taxi driver drove just like the ones I remember from Tijuana. Many lane changes and some horn usage. In TJ I think the horn sounds automatically with the raising of the middle finger.
We checked in. The hotel, Best Western River North, has 7 floors. The pool is on the top one. Our room is on the 6th floor. We have a view of the Chicago skyline and the street. But before we got anything unpacked, we lost power in the room. I called down, and they said “Oh, we must have blown a fuse. We’ll Maintenance right on it.” They were good to their word and we had power. Five minutes later we were walking out the door. Now waiting for the taxi and our then the drop off in front of the hotel did not prepare us for the weather. We arrived in Chicago at 9:30 AM, so it was relatively cool.
Relatively. Our walk to the Billy Goat Tavern fixed that. It’s only 95 degrees and 70% humidity. Since we left 102 degrees and 7% humidity, we felt right at home. Hot as hell. I had us walking to our first destination. It should be about the longest we have to walk this trip, not counting shopping. But shopping walking doesn’t count, right? (That’s the estrogen in me demanding equal keyboard time). We arrived at the Billy Goat Tavern, on Lower Michigan, for lunch. Parts of Chicago have an upper level, for normal commuter traffic and lower level for deliveries, garbage pick up, and other city services.
So for the most part there are not many businesses in the lower part. The Billy Goat Tavern is one. It’s a city landmark, made famous three ways. First, the Cub’s Curse originated there. Second, Mike Royko, a long-time columnist made it his home away from home, and finally because John Belushi and Bill Murray immortalized it on Saturday Night Live. You remember “Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger. No Fries. Chips. No Pepsi. Coke.”?. Well, this is where they do it. But, from our experience they have added a money making twist. You order a Cheeseburger, and the guys says “Double Cheese. Double Cheese the best”. Most everyone, us included upgrades. The meat is a tad thin, so it is better to go for two patties. And honestly, that was a very good hamburger. The bun, somehow, just made the sandwich. Jessi ordered a grilled cheese, and it was good too. The place is packed with pictures and news articles chronicling the life of the tavern since 1918.
We checked in. The hotel, Best Western River North, has 7 floors. The pool is on the top one. Our room is on the 6th floor. We have a view of the Chicago skyline and the street. But before we got anything unpacked, we lost power in the room. I called down, and they said “Oh, we must have blown a fuse. We’ll Maintenance right on it.” They were good to their word and we had power. Five minutes later we were walking out the door. Now waiting for the taxi and our then the drop off in front of the hotel did not prepare us for the weather. We arrived in Chicago at 9:30 AM, so it was relatively cool.
Relatively. Our walk to the Billy Goat Tavern fixed that. It’s only 95 degrees and 70% humidity. Since we left 102 degrees and 7% humidity, we felt right at home. Hot as hell. I had us walking to our first destination. It should be about the longest we have to walk this trip, not counting shopping. But shopping walking doesn’t count, right? (That’s the estrogen in me demanding equal keyboard time). We arrived at the Billy Goat Tavern, on Lower Michigan, for lunch. Parts of Chicago have an upper level, for normal commuter traffic and lower level for deliveries, garbage pick up, and other city services.
So for the most part there are not many businesses in the lower part. The Billy Goat Tavern is one. It’s a city landmark, made famous three ways. First, the Cub’s Curse originated there. Second, Mike Royko, a long-time columnist made it his home away from home, and finally because John Belushi and Bill Murray immortalized it on Saturday Night Live. You remember “Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger. No Fries. Chips. No Pepsi. Coke.”?. Well, this is where they do it. But, from our experience they have added a money making twist. You order a Cheeseburger, and the guys says “Double Cheese. Double Cheese the best”. Most everyone, us included upgrades. The meat is a tad thin, so it is better to go for two patties. And honestly, that was a very good hamburger. The bun, somehow, just made the sandwich. Jessi ordered a grilled cheese, and it was good too. The place is packed with pictures and news articles chronicling the life of the tavern since 1918.
We didn’t spend a lot of time reading, but I was already familiar with some of it through my research for this trip. The Cubs Curse originated back in 1945. To make a long story short, the owner of the tavern, one Bill Sianis, a Greek immigrant, and quite the character, wanted to take his goat into Wrigley Field, for the World Series. The Cubs were quite the dynasty in those days winning the division on regular basis, and having a couple of World Series championships under their belt. Well, the goat was denied access, even though he had a ticket. Sianis appealed all the way to the owner, Mr. Wrigley himself. Wrigley said no, because the goat stinks. This pissed Billy off, and he said “The Cubs they ain’t going to win no more.” And they didn’t. Even though they were the favorites and had a 2 to 1 lead in the series they blew the next three games. Billy sent Wrigley a telegram that said “Who stinks now?” I grabbed a T-shirt to send to Tuni.
After that we grabbed a bus, which is going to be our normal mode of travel this trip. The subway is pretty good, not as good as NYC, but pair it with the buses and you don’t need a car. It’s too damn expensive anyway. It’s $20-$25 per night to park at your hotel! Imagine what you pay, even if you can find a spot. Our hotel is about the only one left that has free parking for their guest. We will take advantage of that later. Back to our adventure. We got on our bus and continued east to the Navy Pier. The Navy Pier used to be exactly what it sounds like, an old navy pier. It was built in 1918 and after it outlived its usefulness, it just sat around decaying. About ten years ago it was revitalized.
It now has an IMAX, Children’s Museum, two stages, a beer garden, and dozens of shops and restaurants. There is a huge Ferris wheel, several other rides, and a couple of boat tour companies. That latter was our primary destination. I wanted to get a look around town and learn a little. The 75 minute Architectural River Tour, at 1:15 PM, sounded just right. Our guide, Chris, a skinny black college student, was very good. He was both knowledgeable and funny. He started out by asking how many locals were on the tour. When no one raised their hand, he said “Cool. Then I can just make stuff up as I go and no one will know the difference.” We learned a bit about some buildings and some Chicago history. A guide book would have helped retain the knowledge. But the important fact is that as a result of the Chicago Fire (1871) that burned a huge part of the downtown, created a virtual blank slate for the architects of the day.
As Chris put it “Architects from all over the world came calling and said ‘We would like to build a building, and make it ………’ Chicago would say “Hey. You had us at “like to build a building. Go for it.” They did andChicago came back even stronger than ever. We turned around at the Sears Tower and headed back. But, the last part of the tour was a ride on Lake Michigan. Our tour boat is actually a speed boat. So we got to tool around lake Michigan at 30 knots or so. Plenty fast with no windshield. It was a hell of a lot cooler than the pier itself.
After our boat ride, we walked around the pier itself. We weren’t going to stay that long. We were tired and wanted a nap. We poked around a bit. The girls got personalized necklaces, and scouted out Teddy Bears at Build-A-Bear. I didn’t see anything I wanted, but we all agreed we wanted to ride some of the rides when we came back.
It now has an IMAX, Children’s Museum, two stages, a beer garden, and dozens of shops and restaurants. There is a huge Ferris wheel, several other rides, and a couple of boat tour companies. That latter was our primary destination. I wanted to get a look around town and learn a little. The 75 minute Architectural River Tour, at 1:15 PM, sounded just right. Our guide, Chris, a skinny black college student, was very good. He was both knowledgeable and funny. He started out by asking how many locals were on the tour. When no one raised their hand, he said “Cool. Then I can just make stuff up as I go and no one will know the difference.” We learned a bit about some buildings and some Chicago history. A guide book would have helped retain the knowledge. But the important fact is that as a result of the Chicago Fire (1871) that burned a huge part of the downtown, created a virtual blank slate for the architects of the day.
As Chris put it “Architects from all over the world came calling and said ‘We would like to build a building, and make it ………’ Chicago would say “Hey. You had us at “like to build a building. Go for it.” They did andChicago came back even stronger than ever. We turned around at the Sears Tower and headed back. But, the last part of the tour was a ride on Lake Michigan. Our tour boat is actually a speed boat. So we got to tool around lake Michigan at 30 knots or so. Plenty fast with no windshield. It was a hell of a lot cooler than the pier itself.
After our boat ride, we walked around the pier itself. We weren’t going to stay that long. We were tired and wanted a nap. We poked around a bit. The girls got personalized necklaces, and scouted out Teddy Bears at Build-A-Bear. I didn’t see anything I wanted, but we all agreed we wanted to ride some of the rides when we came back.
We bused back to the hotel, and arrived at roughly 4:30 PM. I worked some on this journal and keyed our expenses in the computer. We do that every year to stay on a budget and to help plan for our next vacation. The girls were already out cold. It was about 5:30 before I went to bed. We got up at 7, and walked over to Hooters, another tradition. I usually get a photo of me and the Hooters girls and Jessi gets some piece of clothing with the city.
Some people collect Hard Rock Café shirts from around the country, Jessi does Hooters. Personally, I’m with her. I also pick her up something when I travel for work. I’ve gotten her shirts from St. Louis, Orlando, and Ontario, CA that way. She’s gotten Honolulu, Las Vegas, NYC, and Amarillo that come to mind. The food was normal and once we actually got a waitress, the service was good. But, the ambiance/mood at this restaurant wasn’t “fun”. There weren’t a lot of signs like “Caution: Waitress under the influence of peroxide” or such. But, how bad could it be? Beer, food, and pretty girls in short tops and shorts.
We grabbed another bus and headed back to the Navy Pier. By the time we actually got there it was about 9 PM. After waiting for a bus, the transit time, and talking with Maurice, we only had about an hour to mess around at the Pier. Who’s Maurice? Well Maurice is this heavy black guy we met on the bus. He got on a stop or two after we did. About half way to the pier, he calls his girlfriend, Linda. We know this because, while not obnoxiously so, he was loud enough to here. Nothing unusual until he got to the end of his conversation. He closed, several times, by telling her “I love you like a rat loves cheese”. Romance Chicago-style. We were all suppressing laughs. Well Maurice is also a self appointed goodwill ambassador, so when he saw we were from out of town (The map and camera couldn’t have given us away, right?) he felt obligated to talk to us. That continued outside the bus. I had my antenea up for some sort of scam, but he just likes to talk.
He said he was 52, and worked for the city, in the nearby Water Filtration Plant. He had his city badge on, which he proudly showed us, to prove it. By his account he was almost to his 34th (I think) anniversary there. He didn’t look 52. He was fond of giving advice to Jessi. Such pearls as “Don’t marry a guy unless he had $5000 in the bank” and “Don’t have no babies until you get that $5000”. I would have taken a picture of him, but we didn’t want to encourage him further. He seemed sane enough, but you always wonder.
We said out Good-Bys, and went back into the shop portion of the mall. The girls got a bear each. I was 9:30 and we figured that we wouldn’t get much more accomplished in a half hour.
45 minutes later, we got a bus. First we waited for the wrong one, and then the right one never showed. We finally grabbed the Free Trolley. It was unairconditioned (not a trivial sacrifice), crowded, and dropped us off with 3 blocks left to walk, instead of a half. But, we were going to stop by a grocery store anyway, and this allowed us to walk right past it. So I guess things worked out.
Some people collect Hard Rock Café shirts from around the country, Jessi does Hooters. Personally, I’m with her. I also pick her up something when I travel for work. I’ve gotten her shirts from St. Louis, Orlando, and Ontario, CA that way. She’s gotten Honolulu, Las Vegas, NYC, and Amarillo that come to mind. The food was normal and once we actually got a waitress, the service was good. But, the ambiance/mood at this restaurant wasn’t “fun”. There weren’t a lot of signs like “Caution: Waitress under the influence of peroxide” or such. But, how bad could it be? Beer, food, and pretty girls in short tops and shorts.
We grabbed another bus and headed back to the Navy Pier. By the time we actually got there it was about 9 PM. After waiting for a bus, the transit time, and talking with Maurice, we only had about an hour to mess around at the Pier. Who’s Maurice? Well Maurice is this heavy black guy we met on the bus. He got on a stop or two after we did. About half way to the pier, he calls his girlfriend, Linda. We know this because, while not obnoxiously so, he was loud enough to here. Nothing unusual until he got to the end of his conversation. He closed, several times, by telling her “I love you like a rat loves cheese”. Romance Chicago-style. We were all suppressing laughs. Well Maurice is also a self appointed goodwill ambassador, so when he saw we were from out of town (The map and camera couldn’t have given us away, right?) he felt obligated to talk to us. That continued outside the bus. I had my antenea up for some sort of scam, but he just likes to talk.
He said he was 52, and worked for the city, in the nearby Water Filtration Plant. He had his city badge on, which he proudly showed us, to prove it. By his account he was almost to his 34th (I think) anniversary there. He didn’t look 52. He was fond of giving advice to Jessi. Such pearls as “Don’t marry a guy unless he had $5000 in the bank” and “Don’t have no babies until you get that $5000”. I would have taken a picture of him, but we didn’t want to encourage him further. He seemed sane enough, but you always wonder.
We said out Good-Bys, and went back into the shop portion of the mall. The girls got a bear each. I was 9:30 and we figured that we wouldn’t get much more accomplished in a half hour.
45 minutes later, we got a bus. First we waited for the wrong one, and then the right one never showed. We finally grabbed the Free Trolley. It was unairconditioned (not a trivial sacrifice), crowded, and dropped us off with 3 blocks left to walk, instead of a half. But, we were going to stop by a grocery store anyway, and this allowed us to walk right past it. So I guess things worked out.
Day Two---July 18, 2006
The area of town we are staying at is called River North. Unimaginably it is called that because it is just north of the Chicago River. It is also west of Michigan Ave (Magnificent Mile Shopping), but which side of the River you live on, is more important that which side of Michigan Ave you do. Recalling the opening line to Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown”, you get “On the Southside of Chicago. It’s the baddest part of town” We Jim must have been a local. I mention this because today’s trip was through the Southside of Chicago to the Hyde Park area, and the Museum ofScience and Industry.
Hyde Parkis actually a good part of town. Just don’t venture too far. Our trip through really wasn’t bad as far as seeing crime or decay. It didn’t even look overly dirty. Parts of it, mostly where they built the new White Sox stadium, Cellular One Field, looked pretty good. But the guide books scare you and advise not to wander away from train stations after dark, and to stay with crowds. Neither were going to be a problem for us.
Anyway, we started out a 9:05, and with a long subway ride and a longer bus ride finally were in the museum at 10:00. But, we had gotten a late start. I had wanted to be there 30 minutes later. I had hoped to get the first tour of the U-505 sub exhibit. We got the fifth. That ended up throwing us out of sorts for the rest of the day. Oh, well. Things don’t always go to plan. Like at about9:30 AM (please reference above for a guess of where we would have been at), I noticed that I didn’t have my camera. Grrrrrrrrrr. So our first stop was the gift shop for a $9.99 disposable camera. Then off to the cafeteria, because we even skipped breakfast. We finally got to start seeing the museum at about10:30. A full hour behind schedule, and with several youth groups competing for the Loudest and Most Annoying medal at this year’s competition.
The Museum of Science and Industry has a lot of exhibits dealing with just that, science and industry. High on my list was the Coal Mine and the U-505 submarine. So our first stop was the U-505 as we needed a timed ticket to take the tour. The U-505 was/is a German submarine. “U” is short for Utterseeboot. Which is German for "under sea boat". If you are into World War II at all this would be some what interesting. But as a family this would be the 3rdWW II sub we have seen and 2nd we have toured. It would be old hat. But, this one had two twists. First, German WW II subs are pretty scares in the US. Mainly because those that we didn’t sink, the Germans scrapped later. Secondly, because we captured this one. Think about it. It’s combat conditions, how do you capture a sub? There are no lines of communication to the enemy.
You can’t say “OK. You guys surface, give up, and we will stop dropping these depth charges on you.” Even if you could, the sub itself had cutting edge technology. Acoustic homing torpedoes, the Enigma Coding machine, and such. German High Command gave its captains strict orders. They were to scuttle the ship. To facilitate that there were explosive charges that they could set off to sink it. So forcing to give up was just about impossible. But, out boys found a way. Using depth charges they caused enough damage to force the ship to the surface. The captain figured he could get his crew off and still sink his boat. It didn’t happen that way. The crew didn’t set off the charges, but they did open a vent that allowed water in. That came close to sinking the ship, but the captain of the group of ships attacking this sub had put together a boarding party of specialists. This particular captain was actively trying to capture a U-boat.
This boarding party managed to close the vent and get the water pumped out. To make a long story short, we got it, and it ended up in Chicago. It sat outside the museum for 50 years. Nature was doing a better job of destroying the sub than her crew did. So it under went a 35 million dollar face lift, with a new inside exhibit. To me what resulted was worth the price of the ticket. It was very well done, and very educational.
Hyde Parkis actually a good part of town. Just don’t venture too far. Our trip through really wasn’t bad as far as seeing crime or decay. It didn’t even look overly dirty. Parts of it, mostly where they built the new White Sox stadium, Cellular One Field, looked pretty good. But the guide books scare you and advise not to wander away from train stations after dark, and to stay with crowds. Neither were going to be a problem for us.
Anyway, we started out a 9:05, and with a long subway ride and a longer bus ride finally were in the museum at 10:00. But, we had gotten a late start. I had wanted to be there 30 minutes later. I had hoped to get the first tour of the U-505 sub exhibit. We got the fifth. That ended up throwing us out of sorts for the rest of the day. Oh, well. Things don’t always go to plan. Like at about9:30 AM (please reference above for a guess of where we would have been at), I noticed that I didn’t have my camera. Grrrrrrrrrr. So our first stop was the gift shop for a $9.99 disposable camera. Then off to the cafeteria, because we even skipped breakfast. We finally got to start seeing the museum at about10:30. A full hour behind schedule, and with several youth groups competing for the Loudest and Most Annoying medal at this year’s competition.
The Museum of Science and Industry has a lot of exhibits dealing with just that, science and industry. High on my list was the Coal Mine and the U-505 submarine. So our first stop was the U-505 as we needed a timed ticket to take the tour. The U-505 was/is a German submarine. “U” is short for Utterseeboot. Which is German for "under sea boat". If you are into World War II at all this would be some what interesting. But as a family this would be the 3rdWW II sub we have seen and 2nd we have toured. It would be old hat. But, this one had two twists. First, German WW II subs are pretty scares in the US. Mainly because those that we didn’t sink, the Germans scrapped later. Secondly, because we captured this one. Think about it. It’s combat conditions, how do you capture a sub? There are no lines of communication to the enemy.
You can’t say “OK. You guys surface, give up, and we will stop dropping these depth charges on you.” Even if you could, the sub itself had cutting edge technology. Acoustic homing torpedoes, the Enigma Coding machine, and such. German High Command gave its captains strict orders. They were to scuttle the ship. To facilitate that there were explosive charges that they could set off to sink it. So forcing to give up was just about impossible. But, out boys found a way. Using depth charges they caused enough damage to force the ship to the surface. The captain figured he could get his crew off and still sink his boat. It didn’t happen that way. The crew didn’t set off the charges, but they did open a vent that allowed water in. That came close to sinking the ship, but the captain of the group of ships attacking this sub had put together a boarding party of specialists. This particular captain was actively trying to capture a U-boat.
This boarding party managed to close the vent and get the water pumped out. To make a long story short, we got it, and it ended up in Chicago. It sat outside the museum for 50 years. Nature was doing a better job of destroying the sub than her crew did. So it under went a 35 million dollar face lift, with a new inside exhibit. To me what resulted was worth the price of the ticket. It was very well done, and very educational.
By the time we got through it was about 11:20, and we had another timed ticket for the Leonardo Di Vinci exhibit. I thought it would be worth doing. I was wrong. I came to the conclusion that I just wasn’t that impressed by what he actually accomplished.
He was without a doubt a genius. He definitely was way ahead of his time. But, after the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, name me anything he actually did. There were other painting and sculptures. If you are a student of the arts you could probably rattle them off. But with respect to the scientific accomplishments, not much. The exhibit began with a short film. It was actually a butchered version of the one on the History Channel. They condensed what I think was two hours (It might have only been one. I only got to see part of it on TV), down to 5 minutes. That was the most interesting part of the exhibit to me. The museum did a very good job. They took a number of the Di Vinci drawings from his notebooks, you know the ones you always see when they talk about him, and actually made them. You see while Leonardo had about 15,000 pages of notes and drawings, he never got around to making much of anything.
Then when you read the descriptions, they were littered with things like “this was never built” or “this would not work” or “he could not convince anyone to buy this idea”. I never thought about him in this light. Again, genius, but my conclusion was that he needed Ritalin, so he could focus on a handful of ideas and take them to fruition.
Now it was past Noon. We had grabbed a quick snack to tide us over, and I wanted to take care of the Coal Mine, before our final timed ticket, an IMAX film about Greece. We had the choice of that or the Tour de France. They were included in the package we bought, so we had to choose one.
But, it was off to the Coal Mine. My grandfather was killed in a coal mine accident in 1935. The descriptions I read about this said it was a real or realistic coal mine from 1933. You start by riding some type of elevator down 600 feet to reach it. Now I’m telling you what I heard and read, because we never got to see it. By the time we got there the wait was 45 minutes and the actual mine tour was 30 more. We might have just made it to our movie, even with the wait.. I was even prepared to sacrifice the movie anyway, but there was an entire youth group ahead of us. The noise and aggravation of having a couple of million kids, who morality and the law prevented you from quieting, convinced us to seek diversion elsewhere. We decided on the Chick Hatchery. It was close and featured the opportunity for us city folk (Me & Jessi, Margo spent her early days out in the country) to see a chick hatch. It can be a ten hour ordeal, but there were a couple who were in their 9th hour when we got there. After about 20 minutes or so, we got to see them flop out of their mostly broken shell. It wasn’t New Year’s fireworks, but still neat. You always pictured eggs as where breakfast comes from. It was a little weird to see an animal come out.
It was IMAX time, so we headed over to the theater. Technically this was an OMNIMAX theater. The difference is that IMAX is a very large, rectangular screen. OMNIMAX is a very large concave dome. It’s like you’re staring inside Paul Bunyan’s mixing bowl. It’s really a great effect. I highly recommend that you see a film on one. Just not this one. We lasted about 15 minutes. I have never walked out of movie in my life, but this one was free and time was much more precious even if we had paid for it. None of were interested in the archeological history of Greece. So, out we went and off to try the Coal Mine again. The line had not gone down at all. Still an 1 ¼ hours until we would be through it. That was even a little more time than we had to spend. I would have stayed until the place closed, except we had tickets to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. That happens to be #3 on my Life Goal list, so we took in a few more sights and then we were off to our hotel.
He was without a doubt a genius. He definitely was way ahead of his time. But, after the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, name me anything he actually did. There were other painting and sculptures. If you are a student of the arts you could probably rattle them off. But with respect to the scientific accomplishments, not much. The exhibit began with a short film. It was actually a butchered version of the one on the History Channel. They condensed what I think was two hours (It might have only been one. I only got to see part of it on TV), down to 5 minutes. That was the most interesting part of the exhibit to me. The museum did a very good job. They took a number of the Di Vinci drawings from his notebooks, you know the ones you always see when they talk about him, and actually made them. You see while Leonardo had about 15,000 pages of notes and drawings, he never got around to making much of anything.
Then when you read the descriptions, they were littered with things like “this was never built” or “this would not work” or “he could not convince anyone to buy this idea”. I never thought about him in this light. Again, genius, but my conclusion was that he needed Ritalin, so he could focus on a handful of ideas and take them to fruition.
Now it was past Noon. We had grabbed a quick snack to tide us over, and I wanted to take care of the Coal Mine, before our final timed ticket, an IMAX film about Greece. We had the choice of that or the Tour de France. They were included in the package we bought, so we had to choose one.
But, it was off to the Coal Mine. My grandfather was killed in a coal mine accident in 1935. The descriptions I read about this said it was a real or realistic coal mine from 1933. You start by riding some type of elevator down 600 feet to reach it. Now I’m telling you what I heard and read, because we never got to see it. By the time we got there the wait was 45 minutes and the actual mine tour was 30 more. We might have just made it to our movie, even with the wait.. I was even prepared to sacrifice the movie anyway, but there was an entire youth group ahead of us. The noise and aggravation of having a couple of million kids, who morality and the law prevented you from quieting, convinced us to seek diversion elsewhere. We decided on the Chick Hatchery. It was close and featured the opportunity for us city folk (Me & Jessi, Margo spent her early days out in the country) to see a chick hatch. It can be a ten hour ordeal, but there were a couple who were in their 9th hour when we got there. After about 20 minutes or so, we got to see them flop out of their mostly broken shell. It wasn’t New Year’s fireworks, but still neat. You always pictured eggs as where breakfast comes from. It was a little weird to see an animal come out.
It was IMAX time, so we headed over to the theater. Technically this was an OMNIMAX theater. The difference is that IMAX is a very large, rectangular screen. OMNIMAX is a very large concave dome. It’s like you’re staring inside Paul Bunyan’s mixing bowl. It’s really a great effect. I highly recommend that you see a film on one. Just not this one. We lasted about 15 minutes. I have never walked out of movie in my life, but this one was free and time was much more precious even if we had paid for it. None of were interested in the archeological history of Greece. So, out we went and off to try the Coal Mine again. The line had not gone down at all. Still an 1 ¼ hours until we would be through it. That was even a little more time than we had to spend. I would have stayed until the place closed, except we had tickets to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. That happens to be #3 on my Life Goal list, so we took in a few more sights and then we were off to our hotel.
We ate dinner at the Rain Forest Café, and then grabbed the subway to the Addison stop on the Red Line. Speaking of the subway, in Chicago they call it “The El”, for Elevated Train. That is of course because the tracks don’t run underground. Or at least they didn’t use to. Most of the Red Line, which so far is the only part of the system we have been on, is underground. That’s because it’s newer, probably only 50 years old, instead of 75 or more. But, today we got to see some of the elevated portions, both going to the museum and now heading to Wrigley. Another interesting fact, both the White Sox’s stadium and the Cubs’ stadium have a stop on this same stretch of tracks. But, each team’s fans hate each other. In front of Wrigley Field there was a vendor selling a shirt that said “Suck the White Fox” and another proclaiming “never Cell-out Field" or "Where there are more drive-bys, then line drives” A reference to it’s location in the heart of the Southside, Leroy Brown’s old stomping ground.
Wrigley is located firmly on the Northside. It’s like the Gangland Wars between Al Capone and Bugs Moran are being fought via proxy. But, we got to Wrigley and settled in our seats by the start of bottom of the first. So we missed the National Anthem. Not the end of the world, but I was looking forward to it. They were playing division rival, and the National League Champion, Houston Astros. Roy Oswalt was on the mound for Houston, and a rookie, Marmol for the Cubs. Our seats were on the field level, most of the way up, in left field foul territory. We had no shot at a foul ball. But, I enjoyed the game. I got my beer and a hot dog. I had some peanuts and got to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” As a bonus there was an Astros Fan sitting behind us. Behind him was a merciless Cubs fan. Once the Cub fan was sufficiently lubricated, about the 3rd inning, he was on this guy the rest of the game. Once, the Astro fan just tried to make nice with the guy, by telling him what a good fan he was for his team. The guy yelled down for him to “Shut up! We hate you! Don’t try to be friends!. I thought it was kind of funny. I’m sure I wouldn’t have if I had been on that end. But I wasn’t. One other thing, Wrigley is in the heart of a business/residential district. Old buildings. There is an intersection of two streets directly behind centerfield. Waveland Ave runs along left field and Sheffield Ave along right. Most of the buildings on those streets have flat roofs. Those that do have installed their own bleachers. The owners sell their own tickets, in one manner or another, and they watch the games from there. We got a few pictures.
The only adventure left was our trip back. Wrigley Field holds 41,000 people. As it was a rare night game, it was packed. Guess what, there is little parking around Wrigley. Certainly no big lot. So almost everyone uses either the bus or the subway. We left in the bottom of the eighth, as the Cubs had it sown up, 4-1, giving up just four hits, and the Astros having just three outs left. We weren’t alone. We had to skip the first train, as it was just too packed. On the second we barely got on. But better than trying to drive and park.
Wrigley is located firmly on the Northside. It’s like the Gangland Wars between Al Capone and Bugs Moran are being fought via proxy. But, we got to Wrigley and settled in our seats by the start of bottom of the first. So we missed the National Anthem. Not the end of the world, but I was looking forward to it. They were playing division rival, and the National League Champion, Houston Astros. Roy Oswalt was on the mound for Houston, and a rookie, Marmol for the Cubs. Our seats were on the field level, most of the way up, in left field foul territory. We had no shot at a foul ball. But, I enjoyed the game. I got my beer and a hot dog. I had some peanuts and got to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” As a bonus there was an Astros Fan sitting behind us. Behind him was a merciless Cubs fan. Once the Cub fan was sufficiently lubricated, about the 3rd inning, he was on this guy the rest of the game. Once, the Astro fan just tried to make nice with the guy, by telling him what a good fan he was for his team. The guy yelled down for him to “Shut up! We hate you! Don’t try to be friends!. I thought it was kind of funny. I’m sure I wouldn’t have if I had been on that end. But I wasn’t. One other thing, Wrigley is in the heart of a business/residential district. Old buildings. There is an intersection of two streets directly behind centerfield. Waveland Ave runs along left field and Sheffield Ave along right. Most of the buildings on those streets have flat roofs. Those that do have installed their own bleachers. The owners sell their own tickets, in one manner or another, and they watch the games from there. We got a few pictures.
The only adventure left was our trip back. Wrigley Field holds 41,000 people. As it was a rare night game, it was packed. Guess what, there is little parking around Wrigley. Certainly no big lot. So almost everyone uses either the bus or the subway. We left in the bottom of the eighth, as the Cubs had it sown up, 4-1, giving up just four hits, and the Astros having just three outs left. We weren’t alone. We had to skip the first train, as it was just too packed. On the second we barely got on. But better than trying to drive and park.
Day Three---July 19, 2006
On tap today were three things. We start with a Gangster Tour, the head to Shedd Aquarium, and then finish up at the Navy Pier. I don’t believe in traveling across the country to swim in a hotel pool. There is a pool four blocks from our house and a hot tub in the backyard. When I go on vacation, I see and do stuff. My goal is to need additional time off to recover from the vacation.
So far, so good. The Gangster Tour starts at 10 PM, and departs from the McDonalds (the Rock n Roll McDonalds. I haven’t been in there yet) which is right across the street. We ate breakfast at the Hotel and then walked across. There were two guys giving the tour. They were dressed in period costumes and talked in movie/gangster Italian. The younger guy was Lefty, the older, Al Dente. They were both pretty funny. They joked and played music to pass the time between stops. The stops were pretty spread out, so the whole tour took two hours. We learned a bit about Chicago history and saw several neighborhoods that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Little Sicily and Little Italy were a given, but Chinatown and the West Side in general were bonuses. We saw a couple of places that were actually still there, but the site of St Valentine’s Day Massacre and Dion O’Bannon’s flower shop are gone.
Dion O’Bannon ran the north side gangsters. Al Capone the south side. O’Bannon had a lot of the beer. Al Capone had a lot of European immigrants who drank beer. As Al Dente put it “You would think a coupla of good Catholic boys coulda worked sometin out”. But no. Al sent three guys down. Dion actually did work the flower shop. It was a very popular place with the gangsters. They supplied flower arrangements for gangster funeral, both sides. Anyway, Dion was working on an arrangement when the three guys walked in. The middle guy shook Dion’s hand, but didn’t let go. That made it hard to get his gun. The other two emptied their pistols into him. He had a beautiful funeral. The guides had some sound and special effects. Such as taped Tommy Gun fire, at which we were supposed to duck. After the first incident, some of use were chastised for not ducking. Lefty speculated that we must have been married men. For in his experience the married guys “kinda of lost their will to duck”
For the Chicago Fire explanation, the driver at the time (Lefty and Al would switch off) held up his Bic lighter, emoting that they spared no expense for the “special effects”. I really like the tour. After our tour was done, we got a couple of pictures, a souvenir and went back to the hotel to drop those off.
So far, so good. The Gangster Tour starts at 10 PM, and departs from the McDonalds (the Rock n Roll McDonalds. I haven’t been in there yet) which is right across the street. We ate breakfast at the Hotel and then walked across. There were two guys giving the tour. They were dressed in period costumes and talked in movie/gangster Italian. The younger guy was Lefty, the older, Al Dente. They were both pretty funny. They joked and played music to pass the time between stops. The stops were pretty spread out, so the whole tour took two hours. We learned a bit about Chicago history and saw several neighborhoods that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Little Sicily and Little Italy were a given, but Chinatown and the West Side in general were bonuses. We saw a couple of places that were actually still there, but the site of St Valentine’s Day Massacre and Dion O’Bannon’s flower shop are gone.
Dion O’Bannon ran the north side gangsters. Al Capone the south side. O’Bannon had a lot of the beer. Al Capone had a lot of European immigrants who drank beer. As Al Dente put it “You would think a coupla of good Catholic boys coulda worked sometin out”. But no. Al sent three guys down. Dion actually did work the flower shop. It was a very popular place with the gangsters. They supplied flower arrangements for gangster funeral, both sides. Anyway, Dion was working on an arrangement when the three guys walked in. The middle guy shook Dion’s hand, but didn’t let go. That made it hard to get his gun. The other two emptied their pistols into him. He had a beautiful funeral. The guides had some sound and special effects. Such as taped Tommy Gun fire, at which we were supposed to duck. After the first incident, some of use were chastised for not ducking. Lefty speculated that we must have been married men. For in his experience the married guys “kinda of lost their will to duck”
For the Chicago Fire explanation, the driver at the time (Lefty and Al would switch off) held up his Bic lighter, emoting that they spared no expense for the “special effects”. I really like the tour. After our tour was done, we got a couple of pictures, a souvenir and went back to the hotel to drop those off.
Then we were off to the Shedd Aquarium. We got all of the way there, before I remembered to ask Margo about the tickets. I had bought a combination package that had tickets for four different places we were going to. She had asked me the prior day if we were done with it. I of course thought she meant for the day and said Yes. She took them out of her purse. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. I just let it roll. Done was done and no since ruining the rest of the day.
The Aquarium was OK, but we have been all over the country and seen better dolphin shows and even the new Komodo Dragon exhibit was old hat. We saw a bigger dragon at Reptile Gardens in South Dakota. Still if was neat to see the fish. We got to see a real Nemo fish (Tomato Clown fish) and the sea anemones too. Perhaps the high point of the day was when I made Jessi’s drink come out of her nose. We were eating lunch and I had finished most of my drink. So I reached over and took a drink of Margo’s. She “Hey! Why don’t you drink you own” I just wanted a long pull, and mine was nearly gone. But I said “I wanted one without spit in it” Jessi was in the middle of her drink and immediately started laughing, gagging, and choking. After a few seconds, I asked her if it came out her nose. She was still in the midst of her machinations and nodded. I yelled “Yes!” and pumped my fist. That did not help her gain control at all. It took a while, but eventually, composure was regained.
The Aquarium was OK, but we have been all over the country and seen better dolphin shows and even the new Komodo Dragon exhibit was old hat. We saw a bigger dragon at Reptile Gardens in South Dakota. Still if was neat to see the fish. We got to see a real Nemo fish (Tomato Clown fish) and the sea anemones too. Perhaps the high point of the day was when I made Jessi’s drink come out of her nose. We were eating lunch and I had finished most of my drink. So I reached over and took a drink of Margo’s. She “Hey! Why don’t you drink you own” I just wanted a long pull, and mine was nearly gone. But I said “I wanted one without spit in it” Jessi was in the middle of her drink and immediately started laughing, gagging, and choking. After a few seconds, I asked her if it came out her nose. She was still in the midst of her machinations and nodded. I yelled “Yes!” and pumped my fist. That did not help her gain control at all. It took a while, but eventually, composure was regained.
After we left the aquarium we went back to the hotel and then to the Navy Pier. They had a fireworks show, we wanted to ride some of the rides, and there were plenty of shops we didn’t see. The rides were pretty tame. One of them was a simulator ride. On line it looked pretty cool, but after reading between the lines of the description on the wall, I was starting to have my doubts.I was getting a little tired and they were doing a poor job of communicating what we were supposed to be doing, and when.
This was all before the ride started. And then to top it off, they were taking pictures at the beginning. If you have been to virtually any tourist attraction recently, they have all started taking your pictures either before the ride starts with some sort of attraction specific background, or during the ride when you are supposed to be most terrified. They have the standard roller coaster warning about pregnant women, those with heart or back conditions, ect, ect, not to ride it. But, they were taking their picture in front of a blue screen. The blue screen would then be blotted out by the computer and a time vehicle placed so it looked like we were riding in it, over Chicago. That just confirmed that the ride was going to be lame. But, we had already paid our $30, and I’m here to enjoy this vacation, not find ways to make myself miserable.
So, when our turn got up, and lady went on with her sales pitch……Flying over Chicago…..Blah….Blahh….Very Scary….Blah…Blah….take picture…..Blah…blah…..You can make any face you would like…..Boing! and idea occurred. So when she was finishing her countdown, I yawned. Now I figured I was sabotaging the picture and we would have a good reason not to buy it. (Insert evil grin here) But, two things foiled my nefarious plot. First , the photographer noticed. “She immediately yelled and I do mean yelled, “Did you do that on purpose??”, in a most surprised tone of voice. I mumbled something as my daughter whirled around and in a loud, accusing tone also yelled “What did you do??!!” I mumbled something as the photographer asked “Do you want to take another?” I said “Not really and we moved over to the computer monitor to see the result.
This was all before the ride started. And then to top it off, they were taking pictures at the beginning. If you have been to virtually any tourist attraction recently, they have all started taking your pictures either before the ride starts with some sort of attraction specific background, or during the ride when you are supposed to be most terrified. They have the standard roller coaster warning about pregnant women, those with heart or back conditions, ect, ect, not to ride it. But, they were taking their picture in front of a blue screen. The blue screen would then be blotted out by the computer and a time vehicle placed so it looked like we were riding in it, over Chicago. That just confirmed that the ride was going to be lame. But, we had already paid our $30, and I’m here to enjoy this vacation, not find ways to make myself miserable.
So, when our turn got up, and lady went on with her sales pitch……Flying over Chicago…..Blah….Blahh….Very Scary….Blah…Blah….take picture…..Blah…blah…..You can make any face you would like…..Boing! and idea occurred. So when she was finishing her countdown, I yawned. Now I figured I was sabotaging the picture and we would have a good reason not to buy it. (Insert evil grin here) But, two things foiled my nefarious plot. First , the photographer noticed. “She immediately yelled and I do mean yelled, “Did you do that on purpose??”, in a most surprised tone of voice. I mumbled something as my daughter whirled around and in a loud, accusing tone also yelled “What did you do??!!” I mumbled something as the photographer asked “Do you want to take another?” I said “Not really and we moved over to the computer monitor to see the result.
Now the second thing that conspired to foil me occurred. Jessi thought this was the funniest thing since Mt Dew came out of her nose the day before. So we bought a copy. Most of the other pictures we bought had been $20, and came with four pictures and key ring. Most of which we didn’t want or need. At least this one was only $8. The ride did end being pretty tame, when compared to the build up.
The Ferris Wheel was nice though, because it was so big. You got a nice view of the city. We ended up missing about half the fireworks, because we were on the wrong side. But, it was the right side for the Free Trolley. On Monday when we rode the trolley back we had to take the 2nd one that showed up, and then stand the whole trip. That’s because it was the third stop at the pier. The other two were deep within the facility, and at closing time the first two stops almost filled it up. Well this time we were at the first stop and got seats. No A/C, but we had windows. That pretty much took care of our day.
The Ferris Wheel was nice though, because it was so big. You got a nice view of the city. We ended up missing about half the fireworks, because we were on the wrong side. But, it was the right side for the Free Trolley. On Monday when we rode the trolley back we had to take the 2nd one that showed up, and then stand the whole trip. That’s because it was the third stop at the pier. The other two were deep within the facility, and at closing time the first two stops almost filled it up. Well this time we were at the first stop and got seats. No A/C, but we had windows. That pretty much took care of our day.
Day Four---July 20, 2006
Today was our day on the Magnificent Mile and the John Hancock Observatory. I was the first one up this morning, as I wanted to get things moving. But, Mother Nature had other plans. The first thing I did was look out the window. Rain. Lots of it. My first thought was “Great” All day walking the rain, and we have no umbrellas. We forgot to pack them. So after I was up and ready, I went over the local grocery and to Walgreens to find umbrellas. Walgreens had them for $14 a piece. They didn’t look any better than the $5 ones we got from Wal-Mart. So I went to grocery and found better ones for $11. But, the rain had nearly stopped. So, I only bought one for the girls to share. By the time I got back Margo was ready, and Jessi nearly so. Once we were finally able to get going, the rain had returned, with a vengeance. They say “If you want God to laugh, tell him you have a plan” The thunder I was hearing sounded like laugher to me.
So, now we went to Emergency Plan “C”. I had checked the forecast and the local weather guy, who sounded like he knew what he was talking about, said it should stop by late morning. With that in mind, we went to the hotel restaurant and had a late breakfast. By the time we finished, the rain had nearly stopped. I would sprinkle, more off than one, but it wasn’t a factor the rest of the day.
I had found a website for the Chicago Transit Authority, that would let you plug in an address or a landmark, and the site would tell you what subway or bus to take to get there. It had worked flawlessly until today. When we walked to the intersection where the bus stop was supposed to be, no luck.
IThere was a bus stop, but the signs did not indicate that the bus we needed, stopped there. We waited for about ten minutes then just decided to walk it. It was only about a mile, so it wasn’t going to kill us. I still don’t know what went wrong. I even double checked the directions on the computer before I left. Oh, well. We got to the John Hancock building, after first passing the Holy Name Cathedral. We saw this church on our Gangster Tour the previous day. When Dion O’Bannon was killed, a guy named Hymie Weiss took over. Hymie was killed in front of the Holy Name Cathedral. He was on his way to church with a cop, a politician, and a lawyer. The politician got away. It sounds like a bad joke. There is still a bullet hole in the church. So I got a couple of pictures.
So, now we went to Emergency Plan “C”. I had checked the forecast and the local weather guy, who sounded like he knew what he was talking about, said it should stop by late morning. With that in mind, we went to the hotel restaurant and had a late breakfast. By the time we finished, the rain had nearly stopped. I would sprinkle, more off than one, but it wasn’t a factor the rest of the day.
I had found a website for the Chicago Transit Authority, that would let you plug in an address or a landmark, and the site would tell you what subway or bus to take to get there. It had worked flawlessly until today. When we walked to the intersection where the bus stop was supposed to be, no luck.
IThere was a bus stop, but the signs did not indicate that the bus we needed, stopped there. We waited for about ten minutes then just decided to walk it. It was only about a mile, so it wasn’t going to kill us. I still don’t know what went wrong. I even double checked the directions on the computer before I left. Oh, well. We got to the John Hancock building, after first passing the Holy Name Cathedral. We saw this church on our Gangster Tour the previous day. When Dion O’Bannon was killed, a guy named Hymie Weiss took over. Hymie was killed in front of the Holy Name Cathedral. He was on his way to church with a cop, a politician, and a lawyer. The politician got away. It sounds like a bad joke. There is still a bullet hole in the church. So I got a couple of pictures.
We got to the John Hancock Building and they warned us that the visibility was not good. We went up anyway. We messed around there for awhile, and took a few pictures. The view, even with the fog was good enough to see the major landmarks. We could even see our hotel. They had a couple of areas, on the indoor observation deck, where you take gag pictures. One you could be a window washer. But, I got Jessi to go over the other side of the rail and it looked like I was saving her. Another one was a beam, that you could lay on, and it looked like you were taking a nap 70 stories up. But, there was really only so much you could see, especially when the view was limited. So after about 30-40 minutes or so, we were off.
We spent the next few hours walking down Michigan Ave, stopping in shops that we couldn’t afford and looking. The cheap purses at Guess were going for $90. The plain Coach ones, $268. We stopped at Tiffanys and saw $175 key rings and such non-sense. After all of that all we got were four t-shirts. Just before the Chicago River, we came to the Tribune Building. Our River Tour Guide, Chris, had mentioned that when it was built pieces of other famous buildings had been included in its construction. We saw that not only was that true, but they were labeled and low enough to see. They had also added a part of the World Trade Center. I though that was so cool. We took a few pictures and moved on. After crossing the Chicago River, we had left both the Magnificent Mile and the North Side. We continued south on Michigan to Millinueum Park.
We spent the next few hours walking down Michigan Ave, stopping in shops that we couldn’t afford and looking. The cheap purses at Guess were going for $90. The plain Coach ones, $268. We stopped at Tiffanys and saw $175 key rings and such non-sense. After all of that all we got were four t-shirts. Just before the Chicago River, we came to the Tribune Building. Our River Tour Guide, Chris, had mentioned that when it was built pieces of other famous buildings had been included in its construction. We saw that not only was that true, but they were labeled and low enough to see. They had also added a part of the World Trade Center. I though that was so cool. We took a few pictures and moved on. After crossing the Chicago River, we had left both the Magnificent Mile and the North Side. We continued south on Michigan to Millinueum Park.
Once again Chris had provided information. He had pointed the park out. He told us it was supposed to be done in time for Y2K celebrations. It was completed in 2003. Oops. But, it is still an interesting park. It has an out door amphitheater call the Jay Pritzker Pavillion. Chris described it as looking like a giant UFO had crashed in the park” At first glance it does look like a tangle of chrome and stainless steel. At second glance you wonder what drug the architect was on. Further south, was a large sculpture call “Cloud Gate”. Though no one in Chicago calls it that. Everyone calls it “The Bean” Why? One look at it would leave no doubt. The sculpture is a forty foot long, 20 foot high, chrome kidney bean. It’s shape was designed to reflect the skyline along Michigan Ave, which it does very well.
It also keeps pro and amateur comedians alike, with new material. At the far south end of the park is Crown Fountains. This is another unique feature. On either end of a basketball court sized piece of flat concrete, are 30 foot tall, domino shaped sculptures. Sculpture is not the correct work, but just picture two plain concrete dominos, (no spots), 30 foot tall, where the goals belong on the basketball court. But the dominos are actually large animation screens. Like a TV screen, but waterproof. On the screen is face. This is a TV screen so the faces change. The faces just stare for a minute or so, and then they pucker their lips and blow. Right at the point on the sculpture, where the lips make their “O”, is a hole. When the face blows, a large steam of water shoots out, so as to look like the face is spitting water. It sounds kinda gross, but the kids love it. They like it because, they are allowed to play in the area between the sculptures.
They get soaked. It’s better than a swimming pool. We watched them for about 10-15 minutes. In between faces, water cascades from the top of each domino, so the kids can play in that too, and get wet. The final feature of this park, I only glimpsed as it was on the far east side. We were on the west. It’s called the BP Bridge and connects this park with another, on the opposite side of Columbus Ave. It looks like a giant aluminum snake or worm. This city does like its architecture.
It also keeps pro and amateur comedians alike, with new material. At the far south end of the park is Crown Fountains. This is another unique feature. On either end of a basketball court sized piece of flat concrete, are 30 foot tall, domino shaped sculptures. Sculpture is not the correct work, but just picture two plain concrete dominos, (no spots), 30 foot tall, where the goals belong on the basketball court. But the dominos are actually large animation screens. Like a TV screen, but waterproof. On the screen is face. This is a TV screen so the faces change. The faces just stare for a minute or so, and then they pucker their lips and blow. Right at the point on the sculpture, where the lips make their “O”, is a hole. When the face blows, a large steam of water shoots out, so as to look like the face is spitting water. It sounds kinda gross, but the kids love it. They like it because, they are allowed to play in the area between the sculptures.
They get soaked. It’s better than a swimming pool. We watched them for about 10-15 minutes. In between faces, water cascades from the top of each domino, so the kids can play in that too, and get wet. The final feature of this park, I only glimpsed as it was on the far east side. We were on the west. It’s called the BP Bridge and connects this park with another, on the opposite side of Columbus Ave. It looks like a giant aluminum snake or worm. This city does like its architecture.
But, we were getting hungry. All we had done was snacked since our late breakfast. We decided to take the El, through the downtown district, call “The Loop”. It is called that because the El makes an oval through the center of it, and houses a lot of the main government and cultural places.
So we headed into downtown, and jumped on the Brown line, at the Lake Station. But that station allowed us only to see a couple of stations. You see the entire section of The Loop, is the oldest part of the El. Hence, it is all elevated track and a neat way to check out the buildings. Even so, we got to see buildings from the elevated perspective in a couple of other neighborhoods, River North, and Near North. No we needed to pick out a restaurant. The River North area ofChicago has tons of restaurants. I wish we had had more time to try more of the local ones, but we ate mainly at our “normal’ tourist destinations. But, this time we ate at Ed Debevic’s. I don’t think they are a true local restaurant, as they have three or four other locations through out the US.
But, they are the Ed’s in Chicago. Their shtick is for the waitstaff to have an arrogant, rude, and indifferent attitude. They did it very well. The guy that seated us tossed our menus on the table, while ignoring us the whole time, and walked away. I know it sounds rude, but if you walk in knowing what it going on, it is funny. The food is decent, hot, and quick. They managed to insult everyone, at least once. They also have a “Restroom” sign that leads you to the end of a wall. It’s just begging to have you ask someone. Margo went looking, and said when she got back “That there was no way she was going to ask someone. I can only imagine what they would do” But, she found it on her own.
They asked where we were from, and I answered, knowing that I was being set up. They insulted my Broncos and then asked how they were going to do this year. I told them that I was sorry they would be playing the Bears, as that way we would have at least one win this year. They were actually speechless for a second. But, soon we were done, and on our way back to the hotel.
So we headed into downtown, and jumped on the Brown line, at the Lake Station. But that station allowed us only to see a couple of stations. You see the entire section of The Loop, is the oldest part of the El. Hence, it is all elevated track and a neat way to check out the buildings. Even so, we got to see buildings from the elevated perspective in a couple of other neighborhoods, River North, and Near North. No we needed to pick out a restaurant. The River North area ofChicago has tons of restaurants. I wish we had had more time to try more of the local ones, but we ate mainly at our “normal’ tourist destinations. But, this time we ate at Ed Debevic’s. I don’t think they are a true local restaurant, as they have three or four other locations through out the US.
But, they are the Ed’s in Chicago. Their shtick is for the waitstaff to have an arrogant, rude, and indifferent attitude. They did it very well. The guy that seated us tossed our menus on the table, while ignoring us the whole time, and walked away. I know it sounds rude, but if you walk in knowing what it going on, it is funny. The food is decent, hot, and quick. They managed to insult everyone, at least once. They also have a “Restroom” sign that leads you to the end of a wall. It’s just begging to have you ask someone. Margo went looking, and said when she got back “That there was no way she was going to ask someone. I can only imagine what they would do” But, she found it on her own.
They asked where we were from, and I answered, knowing that I was being set up. They insulted my Broncos and then asked how they were going to do this year. I told them that I was sorry they would be playing the Bears, as that way we would have at least one win this year. They were actually speechless for a second. But, soon we were done, and on our way back to the hotel.
We had one final task for the day. Tomorrow, Friday, is our last day in Chicago, and then we head to Wisconsin. So, we needed a car. I had one reserved at Midway Airport, the same on we flew in on. That way we could drop it off and then fly out. Both Midway and O’Hare have a subway station. So after we had dropped off our shirts, we walked back to the subway and headed south again. This time we had to change trains at the same Lake station, and we saw a good section of the Loop.
We got the car, and then headed back to Chicago. It was rush hour. You can add Chicago to the list of places I am never going to drive in. It was actually the tail end of rush hour, and reasonable. But the construction had things bottled up. It took us well over an hour to get back. That was easily twice as long as it took to get there on the subway. Then it was our normal of routine of expenses, journal, some TV, and books. Plus Margo had to pack. Jessi went to bed. Her computer has managed to pick up a worm. I can’t seem to get the security software to get rid of it. I guess we will have to find us one of those Geeks from TV.
We got the car, and then headed back to Chicago. It was rush hour. You can add Chicago to the list of places I am never going to drive in. It was actually the tail end of rush hour, and reasonable. But the construction had things bottled up. It took us well over an hour to get back. That was easily twice as long as it took to get there on the subway. Then it was our normal of routine of expenses, journal, some TV, and books. Plus Margo had to pack. Jessi went to bed. Her computer has managed to pick up a worm. I can’t seem to get the security software to get rid of it. I guess we will have to find us one of those Geeks from TV.
Day Five---July 21, 2006
Up at 7 AM. We finished packing and checked out. My original plan was to drive to the Field Museum, which was our last Chicago thing, and then drive north toWisconsin. Margo came up with the idea of parking the car in a River North parking garage. We would have to pay to park at the Museum anyway, and we would have to back track. The museum was south, and Wisconsinis north. So that is what we did. We took the exact route we had taken two days ago to get to the Shedd Aquarium. They are side by side. We got to museum at9:30. That was about an hour later than I had originally hoped, but as it turned out it was early enough.
Jessi was hungry, but I talked them all into going through Underground Adventure before we did anything else. This was an exhibit in which you were shrunk to ¾ of an inch and sent three down three inches underground to see what lay beneath. It wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but it was still pretty good. We had it almost completely to ourselves and could enjoy it at our leisure. The funniest part was a place that asked you to stick your hands inside to see what was there. The girls had no desire to put there hands into any dark place, so they called me. “Put you hand in there.” “Why?” “Because we want to see what happens, but we don’t want to put our hand in” So I did, but the instant I did I jumped and started making a loud buzzing sound. I’m not sure what they thought was happening, but they jumped back and their eyes got big. All that really happened was that a light came on to illuminate whatever was in there. Two minutes later, Margo and Jessi motioned my attention back to that display. Two teenage girls were asking their mother to put their hand in, because they didn’t want to. She just did it.
Jessi was hungry, but I talked them all into going through Underground Adventure before we did anything else. This was an exhibit in which you were shrunk to ¾ of an inch and sent three down three inches underground to see what lay beneath. It wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but it was still pretty good. We had it almost completely to ourselves and could enjoy it at our leisure. The funniest part was a place that asked you to stick your hands inside to see what was there. The girls had no desire to put there hands into any dark place, so they called me. “Put you hand in there.” “Why?” “Because we want to see what happens, but we don’t want to put our hand in” So I did, but the instant I did I jumped and started making a loud buzzing sound. I’m not sure what they thought was happening, but they jumped back and their eyes got big. All that really happened was that a light came on to illuminate whatever was in there. Two minutes later, Margo and Jessi motioned my attention back to that display. Two teenage girls were asking their mother to put their hand in, because they didn’t want to. She just did it.
The Field Museum had the King Tut exhibit showing. This is very big deal. I could tell by the price of the tickets. $17 per person, on top of the $19 they normally charge for museum admission. Two things chased me away. First was the bad experience of the Di Vinci exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. I paid $15 per person there, and didn’t think it worth the money. Second was the timing. They only had tickets left for the 3:15 timed admission.
I had a feeling we would be about worn about by then. I was right. By the time 3:00 rolled around we had seen everything we wanted. That included Sue (the worlds largest and most complete T-Rex, in the world. Found in South Dakota, by Susan Hendrickson, it was named after her), The Lions of Tsavo, (these were the ManEaters that were the subject of the film “The Ghost and the Darkness”; The Underground Adventure; and an exhibit on Auschwitz. This is a traveling exhibit, whose focus was a photo album recovered fromAuschwitz. This album had pictures that were taken of recently arrived (from a 1944 perspective) people. The pictures were taken by the guards at the camp to document what was happening for their superiors. But, this was shortly before the camp was liberated, so when a survivor discovered it after the guards had fled, she recognized herself and many others from her village. She kept the album and now it is been turned into this traveling memorial. We saw plenty of other things too. The last thing we did was hit the gift shop. A book for me, plus wind chimes and a bracelet for Margo and we were off.
We got back to the River North area. It was too early for dinner, but we were getting hungry. So we decided to stop at the Hard Rock Café, and get a drink and a dessert. I had a beer, and the girls’ soft drinks. Then it was down to their souvenir shop. I got a beer glass, Jessi a hoodie and t-shirt, and Margo another bracelet. A stop at Walgreens for some cheap T-shirts and we were finally ready to head to Wisconsin.
We retrieved the car (The plan worked perfectly) and went out to fight Friday night rush hour traffic. It took an hour to go 20 miles. What a mess. I do like one thing they did. They divided their four northbound lanes with a concrete barrier. The ones on the East Side, were for “local” traffic. Meaning that they could exit at any normal highway exit along the way. The two lanes on the West side were Express. The barrier prevented you from exiting four about 5 miles. That way with no traffic getting on or off, the theory was you could make better time. I worked somewhat, but there comes a point where there are just too many cars. That was the point that we saw. We had left about 5:30 PM and pulled into our hotel at 7:45. The whole trip was 68 miles and we stopped once for a restroom break. Also about 30 of those miles were on toll roads. The tolls themselves were too bad. They are much worse at home, but I hated having to stop to pay them. But we finally got here.
I had a feeling we would be about worn about by then. I was right. By the time 3:00 rolled around we had seen everything we wanted. That included Sue (the worlds largest and most complete T-Rex, in the world. Found in South Dakota, by Susan Hendrickson, it was named after her), The Lions of Tsavo, (these were the ManEaters that were the subject of the film “The Ghost and the Darkness”; The Underground Adventure; and an exhibit on Auschwitz. This is a traveling exhibit, whose focus was a photo album recovered fromAuschwitz. This album had pictures that were taken of recently arrived (from a 1944 perspective) people. The pictures were taken by the guards at the camp to document what was happening for their superiors. But, this was shortly before the camp was liberated, so when a survivor discovered it after the guards had fled, she recognized herself and many others from her village. She kept the album and now it is been turned into this traveling memorial. We saw plenty of other things too. The last thing we did was hit the gift shop. A book for me, plus wind chimes and a bracelet for Margo and we were off.
We got back to the River North area. It was too early for dinner, but we were getting hungry. So we decided to stop at the Hard Rock Café, and get a drink and a dessert. I had a beer, and the girls’ soft drinks. Then it was down to their souvenir shop. I got a beer glass, Jessi a hoodie and t-shirt, and Margo another bracelet. A stop at Walgreens for some cheap T-shirts and we were finally ready to head to Wisconsin.
We retrieved the car (The plan worked perfectly) and went out to fight Friday night rush hour traffic. It took an hour to go 20 miles. What a mess. I do like one thing they did. They divided their four northbound lanes with a concrete barrier. The ones on the East Side, were for “local” traffic. Meaning that they could exit at any normal highway exit along the way. The two lanes on the West side were Express. The barrier prevented you from exiting four about 5 miles. That way with no traffic getting on or off, the theory was you could make better time. I worked somewhat, but there comes a point where there are just too many cars. That was the point that we saw. We had left about 5:30 PM and pulled into our hotel at 7:45. The whole trip was 68 miles and we stopped once for a restroom break. Also about 30 of those miles were on toll roads. The tolls themselves were too bad. They are much worse at home, but I hated having to stop to pay them. But we finally got here.
We are all checked in and mostly settled in. We found a local restaurant called the Golden Key, and ate there. For dessert I got apple pie, covered with melted Cheddar Cheese. I have heard that this is popular in Wisconsin. The waitress, who is a native, said she had heard that too. But she had never tried and was not interested in doing so. But, it wasn’t too bad. The cheese was a nice compliment. It added to, rather than over powering the apples. Now we just have to figure out tomorrow. The only thing I have planned for tomorrow is a play at a local theater, called Homicidal Housewives. It is a dinner murder mystery. It should be interesting. I think we will just soak in local color and see where the day takes us. Somehow, I think this day is going to start a little later than most.
Day Six---July 22, 2006
Today was our last real day of the vacation. Tomorrow we will be traveling most of it. We started the day much later than usual. I got up around 9 AM. I showered, got ready, and walked down the road to get breakfast from Burger King. By the time I got back, Margo was up and about. The breakfast got Jessi up. By now it was 10 or so. By noon we were on our way to downtown Racine. We decided to see what their downtown was like and to go down to the harbor and see if anything was going on. There was a Triathlon going on farther up the coast. I’m not sure if that was the reason, but the downtown was dead. We were the only people in most of the stores we went to.
The stores were not geared to the average tourist. On T-shirt shop, and it only carried a yuppie brand. The were a variety of restaurants, but most were closed. Nothing really got going until late afternoon. At the dock, there was some type of fishing contest going on. It was called Salmon-A-Rama. There was also some type of boat convention going on. All of it seemed to be low budget and under done. It held no interest at all for us. We decided to follow the coast up north to see what was going on at the North Beach area. This was where the Triathlon was going on. But, it didn’t look promising either. So as it was 3 PM, by now, and we needed to eat, we decided to go to Apple Holler, where our dinner show was supposed to eat.
The stores were not geared to the average tourist. On T-shirt shop, and it only carried a yuppie brand. The were a variety of restaurants, but most were closed. Nothing really got going until late afternoon. At the dock, there was some type of fishing contest going on. It was called Salmon-A-Rama. There was also some type of boat convention going on. All of it seemed to be low budget and under done. It held no interest at all for us. We decided to follow the coast up north to see what was going on at the North Beach area. This was where the Triathlon was going on. But, it didn’t look promising either. So as it was 3 PM, by now, and we needed to eat, we decided to go to Apple Holler, where our dinner show was supposed to eat.
Apple Holler was less than I expected in some areas, dead on for a few, and more with respect to the restaurant. The food was good, and heavily weighted towards apples. Their hamburger was made of beef, pork, and apple. I was going to order it, but seeing as how we were supposed to eat again, in four hours. I had soup in a bread bowl. It was still very filling and I ate too much. I also had some local beer call “Fat Squirrel” and fresh apple cider. Both were pretty good. Jessi had chicken fingers that came with baked beans that used apple in them, plus baked apples. It was all good. Towards the middle of the meal a waitress came up to another waitress and told her that “When xxxxxxxxx gets here, their meal is comped.”, and then something else. I didn’t catch much, but I remember thinking, that would be nice to get your dinner for free. We finished up and went to their gift shop. It had the standard food and countyish things. Jessi ended up with a stuffed pig and some other thing. I went out to the yard to look at the animals that they had.
Far and away the most interesting was the goat pen. It was actually two pens. The neat part about it was that the two were connected by an overhead bridge that the goats were free to use. To encourage them to use it, they had rigged up a contraption that let you put some food (which you could buy from a vending machine) and transverse it to the top of the bridge. One or more goats would go to the top for a snack. I fed the goats a little and then we left for the hotel. We were going to be back in just a few hours for the play, so we didn’t need to spend a lot of time wandering. I decided to grab a nap. The girls watched a movie and checked their e-mail. When it was time, back we went to Apple Holler.
Far and away the most interesting was the goat pen. It was actually two pens. The neat part about it was that the two were connected by an overhead bridge that the goats were free to use. To encourage them to use it, they had rigged up a contraption that let you put some food (which you could buy from a vending machine) and transverse it to the top of the bridge. One or more goats would go to the top for a snack. I fed the goats a little and then we left for the hotel. We were going to be back in just a few hours for the play, so we didn’t need to spend a lot of time wandering. I decided to grab a nap. The girls watched a movie and checked their e-mail. When it was time, back we went to Apple Holler.
Remember when I said it would be nice to have your meal comped. Guess what? They were talking about us. It would have been good news, except for the reason. Our show was canceled. One of the actors had gotten in a car accident. This was closing night of that play, so there wasn’t a lot that could be done. We weren’t hungry, so they offered us stuff from the gift shop. Margo got a cook book, and we all got some jelly. I would rather have seen the show, but it didn’t work out that way. We, of course, got a full refund as well. Since we now had an extra $120 to spend, we decided to head to the Mall. But, it was nearly 8 PM, so we figured we wouldn’t have much time. We had a lot less than we thought. The Mall closed at 8 PM on Saturday night. It was at this point I was sure the time machine had malfunctioned the other day at Navy Pier and that we had gone back in time 20 years. Remember that should you go to Wisconsin. But not to worry, across the street was a Barnes & Noble. We all love Barnes & Noble and could spend a couple hours there. We spent an hour and a half, and now we were hungry. We paid for our books and then tried to figure out what to eat. We figured a restaurant with local flavor was out, so we opted for an Olive Garden. That was it for the day. So we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Day Seven---July 24, 2006
Yesterday had been kind of a disappointing last full day. But, we did get a bit of a reprieve. We had discovered that there was going to be a car show in town, in the morning. We didn’t have to leave until 11 AM, to make our flight at 3:35 PM. So we decided to go wander around. We got there about 9 AM. It had started at 8, but a lot of the cars were not there yet. But there were still quite a few. We wandered. Jessi’s Uncle, Margo’s brother is building a 68 ½ Camaro and Jessi is in love with 1970 Chevelles. I like all of the old Muscle Cars, so we checked them out. They had a bit of everything. There was even a 1963 Mercury Comet and a 1968 Rambler Rebel. Later when we were on our way to the airport we saw and Edsel. The show was pretty cool and the weather in Wisconsin had been perfect. But it was time to go. We had breakfast before the show. I had a local favorite called a Kringle. It’s a Danish-like pastry in the shape of a circle. It is filled and looks like a donut, in that it has a hole in the middle. It is quite large, about 12 inches across and makes a meal. As such we weren’t hungry, so we got on the highway and headed south
Once we got to Chicago we decided we were far enough ahead of schedule to stop back in River North for lunch. My plan was to hit a local restaurant, instead of a chain. Pizzeria Uno was at the top of my list. But I wasn’t sure were it was at and I didn’t feel like digging thru everything to find it. But, we got lucky and found it anyway. But, there was a wait and we didn’t have time to risk it. Chicago traffic sucks and I wasn’t sure about checking in at the airport either. So we ended up at ESPNZone. We ate and took a couple of pictures, including one of Wrigley Field made of chewing gum wrappers. Aftet that we were on our way to the airport. Traffic sucked, but the check in was uneventful. I did learn that Midway Airport is name for the Battle of Midway.
That is it. We had a good time. We got to see and do pretty much everything we wanted. We missed Buckingham Fountain in Grant’s Park, but we did see it in on our Gangster Tour, driving by. In retrospect we should have planned to go all the way toMilwaukee. We would have had a better time in Wisconsin. Racine was pretty boring. But, we still got to see Lake Michigan and the other things. So now we wait until next year. If all goes as planned, we are going to a Guest Ranch in Idaho AND taking a Caribbean Cruise.