Chicago - Field Museum

The next day we took the kids to the Field Museum, the massive natural history museum that sits on the shores of Lake Michigan.



The museum contains over 24 million objects and specimens in its collection. And probably the most popular parts of that collection are the dinosaurs.



And the most famous of the dinosaur fossils there is Sue, which is considered to be the largest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found.



Sue is 40 feet long and 13 feet high, and is estimated to be about 67 million years old.



And just like those islands from the Jurassic Park movies, you can find dinosaurs all over the museum. This one is named Maximo, and is a titanosaur (which is the largest dinosaur ever found).



The titanosaur towers over the African elephants that are also on display.



We left the museum and then walked along the lake for a bit, passing by the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. We walked by a small beach, and since it was a hot summer day there were lots of people out swimming. Before we went back to the hotel, I stopped to get a few pictures from the Planetarium, which offered this nice view of the Chicago skyline.

Chicago - Hancock Tower

Later that evening I headed out to visit the 360 Chicago Observation Deck, which sits on the 94th floor of the Hancock Tower (formally called 875 North Michigan Avenue). Like the observation deck in the Willis Tower, this one also starts with a series of exhibits on the history of the building and about architecture in Chicago. But the one here was much smaller, and also lacked a spot to get a picture with Oprah.

It doesn't take too long to reach the elevators, which quickly zoom up 1,030 feet to the deck. The views here are great, offering expansive views of downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan.







But it was kinda hard to get good pictures there. The windows were covered with smudges and fingerprints. And the glass was also really good at showing reflections, so many of the pictures ended up with ghostly reflections of other people's shirts or legs.



The Observation Deck takes up the entire 94th floor, but there really wasn't that much room. A lot of space is taken up by seating for a bar, where you can order overpriced drinks. There is also a spot where you can pay extra to stand in a little glass box that tilts out of the side of the building. So most of the remaining empty space always seemed to be busy with people posing for pictures or taking selfies. And if someone just happened to linger for a bit trying to get a picture, there would soon develop a line of people impatiently waiting for them to finish so they could take their spot by the window.



But one visitor there had managed to find a good spot - this spider had somehow made its way up 94 floors and built a web on the other side of the window. From there it had a pretty good view of a nice sunset.









As it got darker, the reflections in the glass became a lot harder to avoid.



But it was also really cool to watch as the millions of lights in the city turned on.



This is the view looking west, before the last bit of light from the sunset faded out.



I had just about given up on getting any more pictures. It was so dark that the glass was full of reflections, like a mirror. But then I saw a little wooden box sitting next to one of the windows. I'm not sure what that box's function was, but it turned into a really nice makeshift tripod. I put the camera on it, with the lens pressed up against the glass. If I put my hands around the lens, it cut out most of the reflections. So I turned on the 2 second timer on the camera, which gave me enough time to press the shutter and then move my hands over the lens to cut out the glare and reflections in the glass. I did this a few times and managed to get a few pictures that actually turned out ok (hopefully I didn't annoy too many of the other visitors by awkwardly sitting by that little box and taking pictures for a few minutes).



After that I took the elevator down to the lobby, and walked out onto Michigan Avenue. Just across the street from the Hancock Tower is the Fourth Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1912.



And just down the road is the old Chicago Water Tower, which was built in 1869.



It is the second oldest water tower in the country, and was one of the few structures in the area that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Chicago - Art Institute

After the Willis Tower, Elliott and I decided to head over and visit the Art Institute of Chicago. We took the L train, getting our moneys worth out of our CTA pass. The closest station to the Willis Tower is the Quincy Street Station, which is a historic and adorable little station along The Loop. It was built in 1897, and is one of the oldest surviving stations on the line. It felt like stepping back in time, especially since it also includes a few reproductions of vintage advertisements.



We then made our way to the Art Institute, which was founded in 1879 and is now one of the largest art museums in the country. It contains a stunning collection of art, including pieces by some of the world's most renowned artists. We walked through the Grand Staircase, which had this sculpture on display. It is titled House-cat Telling Owner It Is Time For Dinner. 


Actually it is Samson and the Lion, and dates back to the 1600s.

I was there with Elliott, who like all four year old boys is completely obsessed with cars and trucks. He grew increasingly annoyed and disappointed while we went through various galleries, since the artwork there had no cars at all. And I agree, it is a little rude for the artists in the "Arts of Europe: Medieval and Renaissance" galleries to not have any paintings with a fire truck or race car in it. But luckily he did like seeing Georges Seurat's painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, since it did at least include a boat in the water.



The Art Institute contains over 300,000 works of art, representing over 5,000 years of artistic expression. There are works there by Monet, van Gogh and Picasso. And it is really thrilling to be able to walk up and closely examine a painting by Vincent van Gogh and see the individual brush strokes in vivid detail. But of course it was a little crowded while we were there, and there was always a steady line of people at the famous paintings waiting to take selfies with the work or to just take a quick picture with their cellphone and then hurry off to the next painting. I scoffed at the hordes of people - how can one truly appreciate art when you are just seeing it through the screen of your phone? I rolled my eyes and then, of course, took a picture with my cell phone so I could post a picture of it to my Instagram Stories.





And this is the Modern Art wing, where there was a long line of people there to see an exhibit of work by Frida Kahlo.



At this point we had just about reached the amount of time you could expect a four year old to tolerate being in a crowded art museum. But there was one last place I wanted to see before we left - the Photography gallery. The gallery is located on the Lower Level of the museum, so we took the elevator down to the bottom floor. There was a sign in the gallery noting that the museum has over 20,000 pieces of photography in its collection, and there were pieces by Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson on display. But it felt like the photography gallery was hidden away, stuck down in the basement like it was next to the cleaning supply closet. Photography is, arguably, the most important art-form of the 20th century. So it was a little disheartening that photography was not given a more prominent spot. But this isn't the only museum to do this, I've noticed photography almost be like an afterthought at other art museums (like Crystal Bridges in Bentonville or the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City). That being said, if the Art Institute or any other art museum is reading this, I'd be more than happy to let them purchase any of my photographs for display (it'd be much cheaper than buying a banana taped to a wall!).

We headed out, and walked out into the crowd of people on the sidewalk (Elliott was pleased to finally see a lot of cars in the traffic on Michigan Avenue).

Chicago - Willis Tower

The next day we made a visit to the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), which has dominated the Chicago skyline since 1974. There is an observation deck on the 103rd floor, and to reach it you have to actually take the escalator down to the lower level of the lobby. There you go past by the ticket booths and security, and then go past a series of exhibits on the history of Chicago and the history of the building. There are also chances to stop and get your picture with some of Chicago's most famous citizens - Barack and Michelle Obama, Michael Jordan and Oprah.

And then you make it to the elevator that quickly sends you up to the top. From there you have a wide view of downtown Chicago and beyond.



The Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world when it was built. It held onto that title until 1998, until the Petronas Towers in Malaysia took the claim. Now it's ranked as the 23rd tallest building in the world.



It still ranks as the tallest building in Chicago, and the third tallest building in the US.







The Observation Deck on the 103rd floor is the tallest observation deck in North America. It is taller than the deck at One World Trade Center in New York, which sits at the lowly level of the 102nd floor.



And one last shot, before we headed back to the elevator and descended back to ground level:

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.