Happy Mother's Day! (I didn't just skip town to avoid giving my mom a present; I left the country - hahahah! The perfect plan.)
Anyway, today is my first full day in Chicago - yesterday was mostly travel, so it doesn't count.
Since it was a Sunday morning, and as there was a beautiful church nearby (Holy Name Cathedral), we went to church. The cathedral is a gorgeous building! It's the traditional style church, constructed in the shape of a cross with a long central aisle. There's an elaborately carved wood ceiling, loads of marble pillars, stained glass, and a huge pipe organ - this church has the works! The invisible choir (hidden somewhere in the choir loft amidst the massive pipe organ) was really good - sounded like they were CD-ready.
That weekend, it was first communion for a number of children, who all processed in, the boys in suits, and the girls in white dresses, some with veils and tiaras, close to full bridal regalia. It felt a bit 1950s-ish - except that kids these days aren't anywhere near as well-behaved. :-) Some of them gave a good impression of being little angels, but others had a harder time with that. There was one little boy in particular who seemed to have a really short attention span, and it was amusing to see how he radiated chaos and disorder all around him.
After church, we activated our Chicago Go card (Go-Go-Gadget-Chicago!), and went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Sometimes I like modern art, sometimes I don't, but overall, I did like this museum. A lot of cool exhibits.
I didn't get the name of these statues. (ETA: "Big Spirits XL".) I like to think of them as the wild banana men of the museum. They are bigger than they look. Hopefully they mean us no harm!
Post-museum, we went to the Water Tower Place, which is a 7-story mall. It's called Water Tower Place, because it's next to a landmark Chicago Water Tower, which for some reason looks like a castle rather than a water tower. (Okay, I just looked it up, and it was designed as a water pump, drawing water from Lake Michigan, which it stored in a 138-ft tall pipe for fire-fighting. It was built in 1869; the Chicago fire was in 1871, and the fact that it's still standing is probably because it was full of readily available water.)
Anyway, Water Tower Place is a mall. Monica wanted to take a stroll through a very large American Girl Doll store. Have you heard of those dolls? The deal is, you can buy a doll that you can sort of customize to resemble your brat - er, I mean, your child. You can buy clothing for the doll. You can buy matching clothing for your kid. You will spend about $130 on the doll, and God knows how much more on matching clothing and accessories for the doll and your kid. (I guess it's probably cheaper than having another kid.) As Monica said, "it's like they have a license to print money."
Time to eat. I went to Auntie Anne's (tee hee!) and had a pretzel lunch with cheese. I know - this is probably not a wise life choice, but I do love a freshly baked pretzel.
We made a quick pit stop at two chocolate stores: Ghiaradelli's and Hershey's. Got free samples from both stores - whoo hoo! Although, I have to say, with a free chocolate, a free piece of fudge, and a free taste of a chocolate milkshake, Hershey's is winning the chocolate wars. I am sure we will return to both stores.
Michigan Avenue is a big touristy shopping thoroughfare. We wandered along the street, and I was trying to get the Garmin to work, but it could not pick up a satellite signal. I'm standing on a street corner, complaining that it's a piece of junk, and the man next to me says, "if you turn down the brightness, it'll conserve the battery life." I explain it's not the brightness that's the problem, but that it can't find a satellite signal. "Really?!" He sounds surprised, and Monica sees that he's wearing a Garmin jacket. Garmin guy gives us advice, pushes a button that I didn't even know was there, and since it still hasn't found a satellite, he verbally gives us directions towards Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. "Thanks, Garmin dude! You're even better than a Garmin!"
Thanks to his help, we find Trader Joe's (important, because we have a fridge, microwave and stove), but decide not to purchase groceries until we're heading back, because who wants to lug those all over Chicago? For now, we're continuing to head southward.
"Oh, there's the Chicago Tribune building!" Monica exclaims. I am duly impressed with her building identification skills, until I realize that she just read the name off the side of the building. Less impressed, then. "There's the Carbide & Carbon building!" she reads off another label. Yep, Monica can definitely read. I guess that PhD in English really paid off!
We actually ventured inside the foyer of the Carbide & Carbon, and it has a beautiful art deco elevators, and an elaborate ceiling. So many impressive buildings in Chicago!
While we're crossing one of Chicago's many bridges (there are 37 moveable bridges in Chicago), we find out that we can visit the interior bridgeworks, for free! Free is good. They open the bridges every Wednesday (I think), and if you're on hand at the time, you can go inside and actually stand next to the cogs and wheels beneath the bridge and watch the bridgeworks in motion. That would be both really cool, and really noisy!
Monica's feet were bothering her, so we stopped at a bakery on Wacker Street and shared a small chocolate bundt cake. Calorie counts are listed on everything, everywhere, so the 540-560 calories on our small cake was halved since we shared it. Whew! Good to know.
It's cool today, and still foggy. The tops of the buildings are disappearing in the fog. I expect that it's yet another slow business day for the two city observatories way up high.
For supper, we stop in at Sayat-Nova, an Armenian restaurant. Delicious! But we do consider that we're going to have a Chicago dog or something cheaper in the days to come to avoid burning through all of our money too quickly.
There is an IMAX showing of Avengers tonight, but at 10:15, Monica deems it is past her bedtime, because apparently she gets up at 5 a.m. even when she's on vacation. Weirdo.
Anyway, today is my first full day in Chicago - yesterday was mostly travel, so it doesn't count.
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| Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago |
That weekend, it was first communion for a number of children, who all processed in, the boys in suits, and the girls in white dresses, some with veils and tiaras, close to full bridal regalia. It felt a bit 1950s-ish - except that kids these days aren't anywhere near as well-behaved. :-) Some of them gave a good impression of being little angels, but others had a harder time with that. There was one little boy in particular who seemed to have a really short attention span, and it was amusing to see how he radiated chaos and disorder all around him.
 |
| Museum of Contemporary Art |
I didn't get the name of these statues. (ETA: "Big Spirits XL".) I like to think of them as the wild banana men of the museum. They are bigger than they look. Hopefully they mean us no harm!
 |
| "I am Banana the Mighty!" |
Anyway, Water Tower Place is a mall. Monica wanted to take a stroll through a very large American Girl Doll store. Have you heard of those dolls? The deal is, you can buy a doll that you can sort of customize to resemble your brat - er, I mean, your child. You can buy clothing for the doll. You can buy matching clothing for your kid. You will spend about $130 on the doll, and God knows how much more on matching clothing and accessories for the doll and your kid. (I guess it's probably cheaper than having another kid.) As Monica said, "it's like they have a license to print money."
Time to eat. I went to Auntie Anne's (tee hee!) and had a pretzel lunch with cheese. I know - this is probably not a wise life choice, but I do love a freshly baked pretzel.
We made a quick pit stop at two chocolate stores: Ghiaradelli's and Hershey's. Got free samples from both stores - whoo hoo! Although, I have to say, with a free chocolate, a free piece of fudge, and a free taste of a chocolate milkshake, Hershey's is winning the chocolate wars. I am sure we will return to both stores.
Michigan Avenue is a big touristy shopping thoroughfare. We wandered along the street, and I was trying to get the Garmin to work, but it could not pick up a satellite signal. I'm standing on a street corner, complaining that it's a piece of junk, and the man next to me says, "if you turn down the brightness, it'll conserve the battery life." I explain it's not the brightness that's the problem, but that it can't find a satellite signal. "Really?!" He sounds surprised, and Monica sees that he's wearing a Garmin jacket. Garmin guy gives us advice, pushes a button that I didn't even know was there, and since it still hasn't found a satellite, he verbally gives us directions towards Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. "Thanks, Garmin dude! You're even better than a Garmin!"
Thanks to his help, we find Trader Joe's (important, because we have a fridge, microwave and stove), but decide not to purchase groceries until we're heading back, because who wants to lug those all over Chicago? For now, we're continuing to head southward.
"Oh, there's the Chicago Tribune building!" Monica exclaims. I am duly impressed with her building identification skills, until I realize that she just read the name off the side of the building. Less impressed, then. "There's the Carbide & Carbon building!" she reads off another label. Yep, Monica can definitely read. I guess that PhD in English really paid off!
We actually ventured inside the foyer of the Carbide & Carbon, and it has a beautiful art deco elevators, and an elaborate ceiling. So many impressive buildings in Chicago!
While we're crossing one of Chicago's many bridges (there are 37 moveable bridges in Chicago), we find out that we can visit the interior bridgeworks, for free! Free is good. They open the bridges every Wednesday (I think), and if you're on hand at the time, you can go inside and actually stand next to the cogs and wheels beneath the bridge and watch the bridgeworks in motion. That would be both really cool, and really noisy!
Monica's feet were bothering her, so we stopped at a bakery on Wacker Street and shared a small chocolate bundt cake. Calorie counts are listed on everything, everywhere, so the 540-560 calories on our small cake was halved since we shared it. Whew! Good to know.
It's cool today, and still foggy. The tops of the buildings are disappearing in the fog. I expect that it's yet another slow business day for the two city observatories way up high.
For supper, we stop in at Sayat-Nova, an Armenian restaurant. Delicious! But we do consider that we're going to have a Chicago dog or something cheaper in the days to come to avoid burning through all of our money too quickly.
There is an IMAX showing of Avengers tonight, but at 10:15, Monica deems it is past her bedtime, because apparently she gets up at 5 a.m. even when she's on vacation. Weirdo.
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