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.

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...