Fun Times in Chicago

I want to do a new post and I thought it would be fun to do it about Chicago. I don't want to do history or anything too scholarly, just fun stuff. Here is an artist's version of Chicago. You can see the major highways and the county lines. We live in Kane County. Chicago is in Cook County. Directly west of Cook is Du Page County. Kane County is directly west of Du Page and doesn't show on this map.

This is a foggy night in Chicago.

This is a very artsy piece of the El train. Chicago had the very first elevated trains in America. The name got shortened to "The El". Thousands of people every day use them to get into the city center and around the area. Chicago and it's suburbs is referred to as Chicagoland. People in northern Chicago and suburbs say Cha-ca-g0. People in south Chicago and it's suburbs saw Chi-caw-go, with a strong emphasis on the second syllable. Roosevelt Road divides north from south.

All my pictures are night shots. They're just prettier. This is Michigan Avenue. It runs north and south and is two or three blocks from the lake. The lake, it is always refered to as the "The Lake", has it's own pretty street called Lake Shore Drive, yeah, what else would it be called? This area of Michigan Avenue is called the Magnificent Mile. It has great shopping and many interesting things to see. The Wrigley Building, The Tribune Building and The John Hancock. The trees are all dressed up for Christmas.

You may know that Chicago is one of four cities that may be the sight for the Summer Olympics in 2016. When the IOC was touring the city last April one of the down town buildings designed this light display.

This is a great shot of Buckingham Fountain in a rainstorm. I love the reflection and the lightening bolt. Chicago got it's name as "The Second City" because of the Chicago fire. So much of the city was destoyed that it had to be built up again. Thus second city. There really was a cow and it did belong to Mrs. O'Leary. In a mock trial a few years ago the cow was pardoned from blame for the great fire. Chicago is also famous for it's public art, like the Buckingham Fountain.

This is officially called "Cloud Gate", but everyone calls it the bean. It is in Grant Park, just south of the Art Institute.

This is Calder's "Flamingo". It is in Daley Plaza

This is another fountain. It is huge and it runs videos of people's faces, they smile and laugh and then spit the water out of their mouths into the pool. You can run in and get a shower. It is in Grant Park also, by the bean.

This is Picasso's Baboon. It is very large and is in a plaza close by the Daly Plaza.

This, of course is a statue of Lincoln. The statue of Lincoln is in Grant Park. In Lincoln Park, which is on the north side of town, there is a statue of Grant. Funny, huh?

Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the world's most famous and best orchestras. Sometimes it's known as the loudest orchestra in the world. They can produce a really big sound.

Chicago is also known for the Art Institute. It has the biggest collection of Impressionistic paintings outside of Paris. Remember the very first Masterpiece game. All the pictures in the game were taken from the Art Institute in Chicago. This is Sunday Afternoon ofn the Isle of Grand Jete, by George Seurat.

One of many self-portraits by Rembrandt. The Institute has several.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

This is American Gothic by Grant Wood. There is a common misconception about this picture. Most people think this is a picture of a farmer and his wife. It's really a picture of a farmer and his daughter. They tell you that at the Art Institute.

This is one of the many 'Water Lilies" series by Monet

Blue Man Group is so much fun. We got tickets last year for Christmas and went during the week after Christmas. It was amazing. We laughed so hard we got breathless. The last part of their show is a real party.

The band Chicago and a perfect introduction to the food side of Chicago. Lots of Chocolate factories here. You used to be able to go into the city to Blommers, a large chocolate production company, and shovel the chocolate bean shells into your truck and take them home and use them as mulch to keep the weeds down. Your yard smelled like chocolate. You can still do that, but now you have to pay them to take the choclate shells away.

Chicago is a food town. There are thousands of retaurants, specialty markets, and huge grocery stores that have benches along the way for when you get tired and need to rest so you can shop some more. One of our well known foods is deep dish pizza. It's pizza only it's three inches thick. I brought home a deep dish pizza pan when I came home from my mission. It is around grandpa's somewhere. Google a recipe and make some.

This ia a Chicago style hot dog. It has to follow the labels or it is not a Chicawgo Dawg.

This is a map of Chicago. Many of the neighborhoods are labeled. When in Chicago it is good to be multilingual. Polish in Polishvilla and Logan Square, Spanish in Cicero, Mandarin in Bridgeport, and Jive in Englewood and Austin. The stockyards are long gone and been replaced by housing developments, but Chicago has still a bit of roughness about it. Al Capone has been dead for years but there are still nasty people in the town. But on the whole Chicago cleans up good. It's a beautiful city and we have every hope for "Da Bears" since we've been disappointed by our baseball teams.