In the years that we have lived here, we have been to Chicago many times, but most of those times have
1) been work-related, involving either attendance at RBTE or speaking engagements, and therefore requiring rushing here and there, meeting schedules or driving into Chicago proper from a distance (RBTE is held in a far-west suburb)
or
2) been in the winter. Cold.

(Daly Plaza, 2003)
 So yesterday was a chance, before things hit full stride this summer, to take a little jaunt over that way – no work, nice weather..relaxing. Except for the drive, which renders the phrase “little jaunt” inaccurate. Because of the lack of direct, fast roads leading from Fort Wayne to practically anywhere, one must do long stretches on state roads, going through towns with stop lights and such.  It’s sort of a hassle. WIth a straight, direct highway, it could be a 2.5 hour trip, I think (removing the factor, just for argument’s sake, of Chicago traffic.) Now it’s 3.5.
There was not much of a plan except something for everyone. Field Museum for little boys, shopping for Katie, Lego Store for Joseph, Art Institute for me, hopefully some interesting food for everyone at some point.
Mission almost accomplished.
I really like Chicago so much.  The architecture never ceases to interest me and Lake Michigan opens the place up, giving space  when the congestion and noise threatens to overwhelm. 
Some moments:

• I do like the Field Museum, although the ticketed special events are starting to overwhelm the place. I think there were three this time – on “Mythic Creatures” bad weather and the underground-be-like-a-bug space. Which we’ve done either there or somewhere else before (maybe Indianpolis). I resisted, Michael the Toddler didn’t require admission, so my wallet didn’t hurt too much for that one. I know that museums have to keep going and be solvent, but the domination of the special exhibit is starting to grate on me.
• Anyway, the little boys loved the animal exhibits -as they always do – and they really are fine. As for me, I was actually most interested in the age of the specimens. A placard indicated that some (perhaps many) are a hundred years old, and that cameras are trained on them to detect, er, incipient cracks.

Well, maybe not all are so old:
 

• Grieving for a child’s lost innocence is a venerable past time. What has always grieved me as much, if not even more, is a child’s lost openness to the new, to learning, to simply the world. Joseph wandered around the rocks and minerals, quite interested, talking a mile a minute, taking note of those he liked – the spikey crystals, the petrified wood, the meteorites, asking questions, sharing points that he knew (or thought he knew.) As a teacher, I frequently wonder about what happens to that openness – is it a natural progression for most of us, does traditional classroom educational methods drain it out of us, does popular culture?
• We listened to part of a docent’s spiel in the Ancient Egypt room, which held everyone’s interest in a way that my lameness never can. Because I’m the mom and not a 70-year old guy with a mike and a few jokes. Okay, so he knew a lot more than me, anyway.  But it points out, to me, how important people who aren’t your parents are in educating you, especially the older you get. Two other occasions stick out for me: The Cloisters in New York, when we hooked up with a docent explaining the Unicorn Tapestries, and several times in Rome. A teenager’s determined “you can’t teach me anything” attitude invariably melts away when it’s an articulate young person (or even not so young) talking, and Not Mom.
• The Segway tours are popular:

This, in front of the Field, waiting for the free tourist trolley. Or, as Michael called it, “Charley”.

• Lunch at the high-end food court on the seventh floor of Marshall Field/Macy’s. (After a stop at Lush on the first floor. No purchases. Although the jelly-type soap was a big hit among those who tested it.) Katie unfortunately didn’t like her tamale from Frontera Grill – I tasted it, and it seemed to have a heavy cinammon component, which was different from what she’s used to in a tamale, the boys split a hamburger which was evidently acceptable to them and I really liked my noodles. I gave Katie the potstickers to make up for her tamale.
• (And don’t start with the…”why didn’t you find this great hole-in-the-wall and have a Italian beef or an Chicago hot dog? Because I’m dragging around two little boys and a daughter who thought it would be a good idea to walk around Chicago all day in flip-flops.  We go for the easy-to-find in that scenario. Besides the joys of Chicago hot dogs are lost on little boys who take theirs plain, we’ve been to Portillo’s before, and I hate hot dogs. So there. And Chicago pizza? I don’t like it. Too thick. I like pizza thin-crusted, myself. )
• Shopping. Lego store, of course:
   

Michael with “Dark Vader”.
Are there people who actually sit around and hand-construct these figures for the Lego stores? Or is it automated somehow?
While we were in there, Katie wandered around looking at the overpriced stores. Was brave enough to try on a $300 dress in Nordstrom,  and came away with a healthy contempt for the scene. Well, not that she wasn’t contemptuous before, but trying on the dress and seeing how it wasn’t anything much more than what she’d find at Forever 21..made it healthier.
Speaking of Forver 21…called, of course “XXI” there on Michigan Avenue. Wow. It’s an enormous store, and totally chaotic. As Katie looked around, we followed her, dodging hordes of young women carrying armloads of clothes, waiting in a line 15-deep for the dressing room, and Michael dancing the whole entire way unable to resist the music blasting throughout. It was pretty funny – he’s got this dance he does that involves shaking his rear end and doing his arms in robotic-type contortions. Very serious. Please do not laugh at him or the artist will be offended.
By the way, Forever 21- er, XXI – tells us that Gator colors are in right now:
 

• Thought we’d take the trolley out to the Navy Pier, but after 10 minutes, got tired of waiting. I was glad because in the walk that resulted instead, we saw some interesting things. I’d never really stopped to study the Tribune building before, and had never noticed the two doorways framed with nuggets from other great buildings around the world
• Cooled off by looking at the river. I tried to impress them by telling them how it’s dyed green for St. Patrick’s day, but it was hard to tell what exactly the difference would be:

• I had time to study J. Seward Johnson’ King Lear statue:


Which I liked a lot. The moose? Not so much. Although Michael was interested.
 

• Seen: Man carrying small dog in a case, cradled in his arms. Big man carrying tiny baby, followed by woman with stroller, daughter with (of course) big American Girl Place bag. 
• Seen: Police on horses. Me to Michael: “Look at the horses!” Michael: “They have cowboys on them!”
• Seen: young men drumming expertly on buckets on almost every other street corner. Benches designed with dividing bars rising from them every two feet, presumably to prevent sleeping. Street performer painted silver – a “tin man” who stopped what he was doing (robotic dance) and took his bucket over to a woman who’d taken his photo, aggresively insisting that she pay. No, ’twasn’t me.

 
“He’s the most laid-back doctor I’ve ever been to…but then he’s even older than me.”
(Takes long drag on cig.)

• Millenium Park, which I’m really liking – I hadn’t been there since the whole thing was finished. I’ve no opinion on Gehry’s Pavilion – we didn’t walk around up there, and although I would liked to have heard part of the Missa Solemnis that was being perfomed last evening, we really were hitting our limit. (I’d also wanted to get to the downtown Franciscan parish for Mass at some point during the day, given the feast day – but that didn’t happen either.) But I think the “Cloud Gate” is fascinating – essentially this huge bulbous structure that mirrors the world around it.  The Crown Fountain is really interesting and a great gathering place, although the faces, as they are, are kind of creepy. I haven’t read up on it, so I don’t know what the artistic intent is to make them so expressionless and daunting. But it’s certainly a fun place. And hard for some to resist:

• Also good for my wallet: The Art Institute is open extended hours on Thursday and Friday, with free admission from 5-9. I’ve been before of course, but even then, taking the admission fee out of the picture takes the pressure off and dispels the need to see everything and get your money’s worth. I wanted to re-acquaint Katie, mostly, with the museum’s most famous holdings- the Seurat, the Hopper, American Gothic, and so on.  The American collection has been displaced because of renovations and construction of the new wing, but we found what they’ve decided to keep on exhibit down in American Decorative Arts, very well and almost casually displayed among the furniture. An interesting effect.
• The painting that really struck me this time, that I never really noticed before was this most unusual nativity, featuring Mary as you’ve never seen her before:

Click on picture for a larger image and here for a bit more – not much – on the painting.

• At the gift shop, they had t-shirts marked down, I presume from a special Hopper exhibit. One of them had the painting I featured on my old blog – Chop Suey –  and now, yes, I’m kicking myself because I didn’t buy it.  But we’d reach the point of…well, you know how it is. It was about 6:30 (7:30 our time)..and that time.

So, it was a good day.  Saw a lot, some new things, didn’t spend too much money. Except on gas, of course.