Days on cruise: 160
Our son Ryan has friends in Chicago so was able to give us some local advice on things to do and avoid. Nice! This morning while walking to our first activity of the day we got a glimpse, not close up, of The Bean. We’ll return later.
We took a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of the Art Deco architecture of downtown Chicago, led by a docent of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Very informative. Their offices include a wonderful large scale model of the city.
Three photos of the Chicago Board of Trade.
Photos don’t do justice to most of this, building lobbies with spectacular marble, lighting and adornment. The interior reminded Bob of the early silent movie “Metropolis ”
These buildings would provide many happy days for a serious photographer. Bob was frustrated by the speed of the tour, and generally hurrying to catch up with the group.
Amazing details rendered in what are today pricey materials.
These light fixtures are 6 feet tall.
The hand-made metal depictions are sandwiched between two pieces of glass. This window is about 20 feet by 40 feet
and are reflected elsewhere in mirrors.
Does your office building lobby look like this???
Hot day for a long walk, 93 degrees, but usually a breeze.
We stopped at Billy Goat Tavern for lunch and a healthy dose of Chicago “attitude”, given deliberately. For those Saturday Night Live fans from long ago, you’ll recall the routine referenced in the yellow sign in the photo below; it’s still just like that! It’s located in the “underground” city that is part of what makes Chicago unique. Maybe we’ll find time and photos to describe it in another post.
We had evening tickets to Second City, the city’s premier comedy troupe which has been in operation since 1959. Alumni of this place include Alan Arkin, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner and more recently for you hipsters, Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey. We saw the production of “We’re All in This Room Together” which was hilarious, poking fun at both sides of the political aisle and presidential candidates, race, gender, sexual orientation, pop culture and over-doting parents. Audience involvement was part of the deal.
We stopped at sidewalk café Corcoran’s across the street for a glass of wine first and enjoyed the Big City scene passing by.
And finally at midnight we rode The El to get back within a mile of the harbor so we could walk back to the boat.
What a city!
1 comment:
Chicago IS awesome ;-) Weren't you glad for digital cameras? Can you imagine how much film could have been spent in 4 short hours? Safe travels and loving living your adventure.
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