Chicago - Crown Fountain & Boat Tour

We headed out later on that morning, this time taking the train over to Millennium Park.





Since this was our kid's first visit to Chicago, most of our activities were things that would interest a nine and four year-old. So we took them to the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, which is a combination outdoor sculpture and splash pad. The fountain consists of two 50 foot-tall glass brick towers, with a black granite reflecting pool between them. The glass towers play digital images of faces, which every once in awhile will squirt out a stream of water.



It’s a popular spot in the summer. Most of the kids were completely soaked (along with a few of the adults there too).





And then we headed over to The Bean, which was packed with people. I was really glad that I had visited there a few hours earlier when it was way less crowded.







From there we took the bus to Navy Pier, and then took the kids to the Chicago Children's Museum. After they had fully explored the museum, we went over to catch one of the Architecture Boat Tours that depart from the pier. The tour-boat headed out, passing through the lock and then started slowly heading up the Chicago River. It was an interesting experience to see the many skyscrapers from a different perspective.





The tour-guide provided a mix of architecture facts and cheesy jokes. And she was also sure to point out which of their competitors was the boat that had a bunch of raw sewage dumped on it by the Dave Matthews Band tour bus in 2004. Luckily our tour-boat passed under all the bridges without any incident that day.





The boat then headed back out into Lake Michigan, and sped around for a few minutes. It was a hot day, so the breeze on the lake felt really nice.

Chicago - The Bean

It was getting close to the time that Millennium Park opened up for the day, so I headed down Michigan Avenue. 



I got to the park just as the workers were opening the gates up for the day.



Then I finally arrived at The Bean, but there were already people there. Two influencers (or wannabe-influencers?) had set up a camera on a tripod, and were filming themselves walking back and forth in front of the sculpture. I patiently waited off to the side so I wouldn't get in their shot. But after a few minutes of them repeating the same walk (and then rushing back to the camera to see if it turned out), I went around to the side to get a few pictures.



The Bean is officially called Cloud Gate, and is a large outdoor sculpture by Anish Kapoor. It's an iconic and popular attraction, known for its highly polished stainless steel surface that reflects back the park, the sky, and the downtown skyline. It was designed to look seamless, like an elongated drop of liquid mercury (or perhaps a part of the T-1000 from Terminator 2).



The sculpture gets its nickname "The Bean" because it kinda looks like a bean (and not because it was named in honor of Mr. Bean, like I had hoped).





The Bean opened to the public in 2006, and quickly became a popular attraction and emblem of the city. Most of the souvenirs we saw featured the Bean somehow (and we did end up buying a fridge magnet shaped like the Bean before we left).  





It was time to head back to the hotel, but along the way I made a stop to say hello to the lions in front of the Art Institute.





And just across the street from the Art Institute, at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, is the starting point of old Route 66. From here, the Route stretched over 2,400 miles to California.



In the distance you can see the Sears Tower (sorry Willis Tower). Stay tuned for some pictures from inside there (and also the Art Institute), coming soon....

Chicago - Along The River

I really wanted to get some pictures of downtown Chicago when it wasn't too crowded. One way to do this is to wake up before sunrise and get out and get a few pictures before the streets become too crowded with commuters and tourists. So I decided to wake up early and get a few pictures.

Which is a great idea in theory. Not so much in practice. Especially when your alarm clock goes off at 4:30. But I managed to sneak out of the hotel room without waking anyone else up, and walked out of the eerily quiet and empty hotel lobby. It was still dark outside, and the streets were quiet. There was hardly any traffic, and only a few people out running.

My original plan was to walk over to The Bean, and get a few pictures of it in the morning twilight. But when I got there, the park that The Bean is in was fenced off and closed. I looked at my phone and saw the flaw in my plan - the Bean opens at 6:00 AM. So instead I hurried along a few blocks over to the Chicago River. Luckily there still wasn't much traffic on Michigan Avenue, so there weren't many cars around to bounce around the bridge while I tried to get a few long exposures. I had to kinda zoom in some on the buildings from this angle, there is an ugly and tacky logo on one of the buildings that I was trying to avoid getting in the shot too much.



From the bridge you also get a good view of the Wrigley Building (built 1921).





I headed back across the bridge and then started walking along Wacker Drive.



The sky steadily brightened as sunrise approached.







This is the Reid Murdoch Building (built 1914).





Chicago is one of those cities that seems really familiar, since it's been used in so many movies and TV shows. It's hard not to walk by a building and recognize it from its appearance in a big movie. For example, the building here was Wayne Tower in The Dark Knight. And the glass tower next to it, which was under construction when they were filming, was used for the end of the movie where Batman fought the Joker.



And another shot of the Wrigley Building, with the Chicago flag:



And in front of the Wrigley Building were some flower beds with some nice landscaping.



And one last shot from the Wrigley Building. 



I checked the time and it was getting close to 6:00. Which meant it was time to start heading towards The Bean...

Chicago - Griffin Museum

We just recently got back from a whirlwind family vacation, taking the kids on their very first visit to Chicago. We flew in, arriving at Midway Airport in the early evening. After grabbing the bags, we made our way to the train stop. And thanks to some kind help from one of the CTA workers, we got the right tickets for the train to take us into downtown.

We soon made it to our stop, and must have looked like a bunch of tourists as we lugged our suitcases out and walked over to our hotel. We stayed at a place that was pretty conveniently located, just a short walk from Michigan Avenue and close to a lot of attractions. This was the view from our room:



And the view from the window in the hallway, overlooking Lake Michigan. Elliott ran to the window and was excited to say hello to all the boats in the lake.



We explored the hotel, going out onto this outdoor terrace. This is the view looking up:



Now I like to think that I'm an expert world traveler, someone who would be worthy of appearing on The Amazing Race. That is, until, I actually travel and then make a fool of myself. After visiting the terrace, we went into the elevator to go back to our room. In order to use the elevator, you have to flash your room card on a scanner. I ran a card by it, but nothing worked. Thinking our room card had stopped working, we took the elevator down to the lobby and went to the front desk. Who told us, well, that wasn't our room card. It was the card for the CTA train. They were kind and gave us a new card, and then probably laughed at the country bumpkins who were all confused by the big city.

The next morning we headed out, going to a train stop in Grant Park. At least this time we knew not to use our hotel room card to pay for the train tickets.



We took the train south to Jackson Park and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. The building the museum is in was built for the 1893 World's Fair, and is one of only two buildings that remain from the fair. Nowadays, the museum has over 2,000 exhibits. Among those exhibits is the U-505, a German submarine that was captured during World War II.



There is also a space exhibit that has the Apollo 8 command module.



The museum also features other modes of transportation, including a full-size Boeing 727.



Below it is a 3,500 square foot model railroad set (the kids thought this was more interesting than the old submarine and space crafts).



The model recreates the "Empire Builder" rail line that connected Chicago and Seattle, and includes depictions of both cities and the Rocky Mountains. The miniature cities reminded me of the end credits of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.



The kid's other favorite part of the museum was the Mirror Maze, which was a little trippy to walk through.



Later that night, Jonah and I headed over to Soldier Field to watch a Major League Soccer game between the Chicago Fire and the Philadelphia Union. I'm still a die-hard FC Dallas fan, but of course the timing would never work out where they would be playing an away game in Chicago at the same time we were there on vacation. But it was an interesting experience to visit another team's stadium and to watch the game as a neutral observer. Philadelphia ended up winning the game.



As we walked back to our hotel after the game, we passed by the Field Museum.



We will pay a visit to the Field, and a few other notable Chicago locations, later on in the trip. Stay tuned for more pictures from that coming soon....

Eyes On The South

The Oxford American literary magazine has a feature called "Eyes On The South," which showcases artists who are from or are documenting the South. The series often has work that delves into the people and places of the South, and the way that the modern South grapples with its past. 

I am pleased that my ongoing Delta photography project was recently selected for inclusion in the "Eyes On The South" series. The project, which has been ongoing for over a decade, has sought to explore and document the fragile and oft-forgotten abandoned places and landscapes of the Arkansas Delta. I'm humbled that Oxford American chose my work, and honored to be included with so many great photographers. To see their feature, please click HERE.