Last Friday – Sept. 14, 2018 – Romy and I once again ventured into Chicago for a day of just goofing off.

I hope to post some pictures shortly, but – in the meantime – some thoughts on what we saw and did.

Anyway, we took the train into the Loop and then set out on our Chicago Adventure.

Beautiful day – clear and low 80s, Nice.

• Elephand & Castle: We hit the one on Adams (just east of the Rookery), as it was about 8;30am, and the one on Wells doesn’t open until 11am or so. Surprisingly busy this time over the other times we had been there.
• Riverwalk: By this, I mean the relatively new river walk on the south side of the Chicago River from roughly Franklin to Lake Shore Drive. we only went as far as Michigan Avenue, but they really did a nice job on this. Lot’s of plantings, restaurants, small jettys so you could get out of the moving crowd and just watch the boats go by. We went on the Riverwalk later (going the other way), around noon or so, and th restaurants there were packed. It was Friday, and it was a nice day, but good to see that these places are making a go of it. Well done, Chicago!
• Apple store in Pioneer Plaza: I’ve read a bit about this in The Chicago Tribune and online, but I found the space to be somewhat of a let-down. The expansive views of the river and the tiered seating was nice, but maybe the high sealing (you enter from the plaza – high above the river – and walk down to the store, which is at the river’s edge). The one we went to in Portland, OR, was – to me – more “applee.” Don’t get me wrong – nice store and all, but I guess I had high expectations that were not met.
• Art Institute of Chicago: Going to the Art Institute was basically our excuse for taking a day off and hitting downtown – the John Singer Sargent exhibit was getting close to closing, and we wanted to see it. It was nice, especially his portraits: lush & classy. I was more stuck by some of his work that I had not seen, such as an orchestra rehearsal that reflected Impressionistic/Cubist influences. And he had some nice watercolors of architectural scenes (mainly in Florida) that I could see hanging in our house.
• Art Institute Deux: We also saw a photo exhibit that focused on Chicago photography (taken in Chicago, primarily South Chicago). Outside of some Gordon Parks photos (related to some Life magazine assignments, some published, some not) it was a generally weak exhibit. I’m glad we took the time to see it, but I wouldn’t have kicked myself if we have missed it.
• Millennium Park: As is the law, we had to wander around Millennium Park and – as strictly enforced by the tourist police – we had to take pictures of The Bean (Cloudscape). The Bean is probably the most photographed place/object in Chicago. I can’t even think of what would come next: The Wrigley Building? Wrigley Field (if one gets up that way)? Like The Riverwalk, Millennium Park is a real gem. It seemed to take forever to get built, but now that it’s there (and mostly done), I have to again give a round of applause to the city: The Bean, the Frank Gehry-designed pavilion, the abundant planting, the restaurants, the bridges over Columbus (to Maggie Daley kids park) and to the Art Institute. Well, that’s a lot jammed into one place – but it doesn’t feel jammed. And it’s right downtown, next to the Art Institute, and it’s free.
• Lunch time!: We had decided on eating at Shaw’s Crabhouse – we just can’t seem to get decent (or a wide variety) of seafood up by us. Turned out to be an excellent choice. Shaw’s is, as Romy put it, “an adult restaurant.” It was a nice change, and excellent food.

After lunch, we hit the Riverwalk again to head back to the train station – we went a bit further west on it than we had earlier in the day. There was a stretch were there were just a bunch of brightly colored Adirondack chairs on a grassy slope, just facing the river about where it divides into the North and South Chicago rivers. I don’t know if you rent the chairs or what (didn’t appear to be any place to pay…). But people were just sitting there, reading, eating lunch or just soaking up sun.

We grabbed a beer while waiting for the train (tasted good; we did a fair amount of walking and it was ~ 80 degrees with no clouds) and then headed home.

We should do this more often!