Chicago

On Sunday I arrived at my friend’s new place in Chicago early in the evening. I was staying with my friend from Duke, Dave West, and his wife, Heather, in their new 2 bedroom condo that is within minutes of the lakefront as well as Wrigley. Heather’s sister and her husband (Mia and Alex) came over and we all sat on the roof top deck to have dinner and take in the site of the setting sun behind a cathedral’s spire just blocks away. Before going to bed I ran down to my car to grab my toothbrush where I found the back 2 windows on the passenger side smashed in. I could tell whoever did it had been looking through the car, but nothing seemed to be gone on first glance. Thankfully I had taken my camera and computer into Dave’s condo.

I spent the next 4 days getting to know the city I had only visited briefly before. However, before getting on to that, I scheduled an appointment for someone to come fix the windows on the car…it would be for tomorrow. On Monday, Dave took a sick day and we spent it having lunch with Heather (we picked up Potbelly subs…they’re excellent…you’ve got to try the “Wreck”) in a park and then taking a river boat architecture tour of the city. It truly is remarkable what Chicago has done. It boats some of the world tallest structures and displays designs encompassing nearly every possible style imaginable. Afterwards we briefly explored the amphitheater and “the bean” in Millennium Park.

I spent the first part of the day waiting for my car to get fixed. I then broke out the mountain bike for the first time on the trip. I headed down to the lakefront area and then headed south passing several beaches, the famous fountain (it’s in the beginning credits of Married With Children), the Navy Pier, Millennium Park, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Field Museum until I came to the aquarium. At the aquarium I found out about the Chicago City Pass that would get me into all the museums I wanted to see for a discount price. As it was nearly closing time at the aquarium I decided to return the following day and start my museum tour. That night Dave, Heather, and I went down the street from their place to Jack’s to meet a fellow San Diegan, Andrew Kaplan. We treated ourselves to several rounds of the finest (and most alcoholic) Belgian beer I have had to date.

I biked back to the aquarium, thankful that I had brought a towel in my backpack since I had sweated through my clothes. After spending a few minutes air drying, I entered my first museum in Chi town. I spent the next 3.5 hours wandering the enormous building and its thousands of fish, sharks, reptiles, and other fascinating creatures. This aquarium is like no other I have ever been to. Running low on time for another museum I managed to pull myself away from aquarium and headed to the planetarium. While not nearly the experience that the aquarium was, the planetarium was interesting and had some great hands-on exhibits…so most of them were for kids…there was no sign with age limits. Wednesday night Dave and I met Alex at a famous hot dog place where I was introduced to a “true Chicago hot dog” – mustard, neon green relish, tomatoes, onions, and two large pickles.

Thursday morning I once again biked down the lakefront. Today I found myself at the Field Museum. In addition to the normal exhibits, the museum had two additional presentations: mythic creatures and natural disasters. The mystic creatures exhibit focused on the origins of infamous creatures like unicorns, dragons, Bigfoot, and the Phoenix. The natural disasters area was fascinating and horrifying. It was broken down into 3 sections (hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornados), each displaying a video of their respective disasters. This included video from Katrina, the tsunami in Thailand, and several earthquakes in San Fran. The most remarkable part of the exhibit was the video that allowed us to see directly into a tornado. A man created a conical shaped piece of equipment that housed 5 cameras pointing in different directions that could be placed in the path of a tornado. The captured images showed a tornado approaching and then engulfing the multi-eyed camera. I also explored the museum’s regular exhibits of the dinosaurs, mammals, and birds.

I decided to finally get out of Chicago on Friday afternoon, but before doing so I got on my bike on last time in this city and returned to Millennium Park where I could take some additional pictures of “the bean”. I then made my way to the Chicago Art Institute. I spent about 2 hours there examining one of the greatest collections of paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts from throughout the world and throughout time. In order to try to beat the Friday afternoon traffic, I returned to Heather and Dave’s, gathered my gear, and headed out of town…with hopes of reaching South Dakota but really just going as far as I could on I-90 West. I made it as far as Fairmont, Minnesota before giving up and turning in for the night.