Art Institute

Destination: Art Institute
Date: 3/13/11
Cohort: Alaina

Cohort’s favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: "Well, my favorite PLACE in Chicago is the courtyard of the 4th Presbyterian Church on Michigan Ave. because it's an amazing oasis of quiet and stillness in the middle of the downtown bustle. But my favorite thing to DO in the city is to have a picnic at a free concert or movie in a Chicago park in the summer. Love it. Love it. Love it."

Whoops! I got way behind! I promise to post with more regularity!

The good people at Groupon made my next decision for me again by offering half-price tickets to the Art Institute, and giving them a fast-approaching expiration date. I’ve been there many, many times – in fact, that and Second City were the two places I visited when trying to decide if Chicago is a place that I would like to live. So, yeah. It’s pretty good.

My friend Alaina joined me, and since we’re both pretty familiar with the Art Institute, we decided to pose as French tourists to keep things exciting. Apparently, this was unnecessary, as when we approached the museum, a delightful homeless gentleman informed the group of people waiting at the crosswalk that this was his street corner, and since President Obama wants people to exercise more, anybody using the crosswalk must either skip across it or buy a copy of Street Wise from him. Alaina and I happily skipped across Michigan Avenue. The other pedestrians, however, were far less obliging. Before going in, we made a brief visit with some Chicagoans that have an excuse to be stoic.

The French tourist lay-on reached its biggest challenge early on, when I had to buy tickets using the Groupon app on my mobile phone with an accent. (The second was when we ran into a friend of Alaina's, and she just spoke to them without breaking character, like a champ.) After some very slight misunderstandings, though, we were on our way. We started out in the family exhibit downstairs, where we were encouraged to make a Cornell Box, which is based on the work of Joseph Cornell, who basically put a lot of junk in a sideways box. We tried to make ours as French as possible to honor our homeland. Based on the objects available, this consisted mostly of corks and bottles, and a snippet of a Degas painting.

Then we headed over to the kids’ exhibit which was made to correspond with the museum’s temporary exhibition called “Kings, Queens and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France.” I got to try on some chain mail, and we found out what Alaina would look like as a charmingly dim-witted knight.

It’s hard to visit the Art Institute without paying a visit to its most famous paintings, so we checked out American Gothic,

Nighthawks,

and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.  (Alaina played that red parasol lady in a performance once.  See how good she is at it?)

It really is awe-inspiring to be in the presence of such iconic and lovely works of art, though I find that my first reactions to them are usually since astute observations as, “that is smaller than I thought it would be” or, “Man, Monet really dug haystacks.”

In our explorations, we found a place that neither of us had seen before: the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room. Apparently, when the real room was demolished in the 1970’s, much of the glass and stenciling was preserved and used to reconstruct it in the museum. Alaina clearly would make an excellent trader.

After exploring the new modern wing, we headed down to the Thorne Miniature Rooms, which have a whole gaggle of tiny rooms decorated in the styles of different countries and eras. We made some finger puppets (out of actual fingers!) to try them out. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what era this room is supposed to depict, nor could I find it online, but I know we made sure that it was French.

Heading home, we thought we should finish or French day off right and get a croissant, but the Corner Bakery was out, so we had to settle for delicious cookies. C’est la vie, I guess. 

Devon Avenue

Destination: Devon Avenue
Date: 1/30/11
Cohort: Laura
Cohort’s favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: Soldier Field and the zoo. Mostly Soldier Field.

So, just to clarify for those unfamiliar with the neighborhoods of Chicago, when Devon Avenue is listed as an attraction, it really just means a little bit of it; the Desi Corridor in Roger’s Park.  AKA, Little India.  A significant portion of the street is jam-packed (or should I say chutney-packed?  No?  Okay.  I won't then) with Indian and Pakistani restaurants, shops, and grocery stores.  I had never been before, and was most pleased when Laura suggested we go. 

We were both very excited to embark on our adventure - we’d heard so much build-up about how it’s like being in Bombay that we felt like we needed our passports and a crash Rosetta Stone course.  After pondering the dollar-to-rupee exchange rate on the North Side, we popped into a couple of stores.  The shopkeepers were very welcoming and helpful, but since we were neither actually in the market for a sari, nor passable as your everyday casual sari-shopper, we kept our browsing pretty brief.  It’s fun walking into the shops from the dreary February streets, though.   Like walking into a rainbow factory.  (Are there rainbow factories?  I would TOTALLY go to one…) 

If there were rainbow factories, I suppose this is what the workers would look like.  Except the headless guy.  Rainbow factory workers all have heads.  Some are indeed missing a hand though.  Rainbow-making is dangerous work.

Laura found a reasonably-priced scarf that she really liked, after which we found some other small white people who had done the same.

We went to a couple of big grocery stores, which were so vast and vastly different than our own grocery-haunts, that it really did feel like being in another country.  Or at least some sort of fascinating food museum…  I was excited about the varieties of cool and exotic produce.  Like a dosakai - a round yellow cucumber used in a lot of curries and chutneys and whatnot.

Laura took some time to check out the expansive rice collection, which sort of reminded me of how hard it is to pick out toothpaste at the store when you don’t really have any brand loyalty.  There are so many kinds!  They are all slightly different!  How do you pick???  Thank goodness when you choose the wrong toothpaste, though, you aren’t stuck with 9 ½ more pounds of Colgate.

At Patel Brothers, I became fascinated with, and purchased a bottle of coconut juice with fun coconut flakies in it. 

I wondered if I would like it...

I did not.  At all.

Ew.

Even though we kept buying little snacks everywhere, we resisted the temptation to munch since we were looking forward to our lunch at Mysore Woodlands.  When we were sufficiently hungry, we headed in and ordered a feast.  After a masala tea for Laura and a killer mango lassi for me, we got our appetizer of aloo papdi chaat, which Laura determined was the equivalent of Indian nachos.  While we were still deciding what nachos of different cultures would be, the rest of our food came.  There was naan, of course, masala dosai, which is like a big spicy crepe, and a nice spinachy saag paneer curry with rice. 

It was all wonderful, and as an added bonus, wrought no havoc on my belly like Indian food often does.  (Wink, wink!)  (I’m talking about POOPING!)

After we were totally stuffed and exhausted, we spent a good five minutes kneeling on the ground trying to take a picture of us with a Ganesha statue.  Despite all of his claims, however, even Ganesha could not make us fortunate enough to get a good shot.

Museum of Science & Industry

Destination: Museum of Science & Industry
Date: 1/8/11
Cohort: Molly
Cohort’s favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: Going to see a Sox day game at Comiskey Park and enjoying the sunshine, an overpriced beer and a brat... especially if Paulie (Konerko)  is up to bat.  (She insisted that I call it Comiskey.)

  

Somehow, I had never been to the Museum of Science and Industry before.  Actually, I don’t know why I’m pretending not to know why I haven’t been there.  There are three reasons:

1)      It has “science” in the name

2)      It has “industry” in the name

3)      It is really annoying to get to without a car (and costs $18 to park if you do have one.  $18!)

But, for you, dear blog reader(s), I have overcome my misgivings and embarked on a scientific and industrious adventure! 

My dear roommate, Molly, joined me, despite having been to the museum several times.  The lure of the temporary Muppet exhibit was quite strong, and she was eager to check it out.  When our third roommate, Lucy, heard there was a Roomie/Muppet expedition, she was most disappointed to learn that she wasn’t invited, despite meeting the residency requirement and looking remarkably muppetesque herself.

I was excited for the Muppet Exhibit too, so it was our first stop.  Sadly, calling it “The Muppet Exhibit” is inaccurate.  It is actually “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.”  So, not quite as Muppet-centric as one might hope.  Our bad.   Right away, though, we came upon a case with Kermit in it.  (Sorry – no pictures were allowed inside this portion of the museum.)  We then embarked into a labyrinth (get it?) of posters, photographs, and concept art from his career, occasionally peppered with a childhood icon. 

It was really cool to see his drawings of puppets-to-be, complete with people inside them so that one could understand how they operate.  Like Big Bird - it had never really occurred to me that whoever is in there has to hold one hand really high over their head to operate the mouth, and then use the other hand to operate his arm.  I’d never noticed that he only gestures with his left arm.  Watching YouTube videos of the big guy this morning, I can’t help but think it looks like he had a stroke.

We did get to see Bert and Ernie, Rowlf, Miss Piggy in her wedding dress from The Muppets Take Manhattan, and someone I was really excited about, Gobo Fraggle.  It’s kind of eerie to see your old TV buddies sitting there lifeless under glass.  As Molly pointed out, it felt kind of like being at a wake.  Back out in the main part of the museum, they had some pretty awesome photos up of the Muppets hanging out around Chicago.  Here’s my favorite.

You’ll note at the bottom of the photo that there are Christmas trees.  I promise it really was January 8^th when we went.  There was a huge tree in the center where you could get your picture taken, with steps to help you get closer in order to do so.  I found the last one a little impractical, even for my stork legs…

Next we checked out the museum’s oldest exhibit, the coal mine.  After cramming into a little elevator and riding down into a mine shaft, there is a guided tour to learn all about coal mining through the ages.  You even get to ride in an awesome little work train!  This was all particularly exciting for me, since when I was a little kid, I had a lump of anthracite as a pet.  I also had a big wooden ampersand.  I was weird.  Molly proved to be excellent at monitoring miner safety.

Being a miner takes a lot out of you, (plus the tour lets you out in the food court) so Molly and I opted for a lunch break.  I found a sweet Muppet cupcake which I naturally had a really hard time eating, and pretty much immediately dropped on its face. 

Next to FarmTech, where we raced to see who could get teat cups on a cow faster, though the results were inconclusive since I messed up hitting the timer button. I would like to take this opportunity to repeat, “teat cup.” We particularly enjoyed the unit on cow poop.

We also got a nice couple to take our picture with a cow (once all the darn kids got out of the way) and then forced them to let us take their picture with it in return.  (This is on their camera.  You don’t get to see it.)

Next stop was the real U-505 submarine that was captured from the Nazis in 1944.  (U stands for Unterseeboot, AKA undersea boat.)  U-boats were primarily used against Allied merchant ships bringing war supplies across the Atlantic to Britain.  You can, for a fee, go inside the submarine, but we just opted for the free outside info. There was still plenty to check out.

Next we went in search of the fairy castle, which we thought would be fun and awesome and pretty, but was really just a big creepy dollhouse full of weirdly ornate furniture and real jewels with a creepy voiceover playing through weird little telephones.  It was weird.  And creepy.  We finally hit up Molly’s must-see, which was the baby chick hatchery.  I was kind of freaked out at first because there were three freshly-hatched chicks that were all slimy and pink lying prone on the floor of the incubator, and I thought they had all died.  They were, however, just getting used to being chickens, and eventually hoisted themselves up and tottered around.

 Apparently, once they get less terrifying, they are promoted to the cute-chick case, where they run around and peck little bits of hay off of each other or sit in a fluff clump. 

We did some other stuff too, and missed a TON.  (Which, we learned in the coal mine, is 2,000 pounds.  Okay - we already knew that one.) Unless you are some sort of learning-cheetah, it’s impossible to get through everything in one visit.  But, we still saw a lot of awesome stuff.  You might say we came to the museum as newborn chicks, addled and slimy, and left perky, adorable, and fluffy with knowledge.



Chicago Historical Society

Destination: Chicago Historial Society

Date: 12/5/10
Cohort: Chris
Cohort's favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: Isaacson & Stein Fish Market (800 W. Fulton Market)

The Chicago History Museum (or Chicago Historical Society – the names seem to be interchangeable) was another first for me.  I chose this as my next destination because pretty much as soon as I made my list of where to go, there was a Groupon for it.  Learning bargain!

My boyfriend, Chris, was kind enough to join me and have his inaugural visit as well.  Eager beavers that we are, we got to the museum a few minutes before they opened, so we went for a walk around Lincoln Park.  (The actual park – not the neighborhood.)  While I was busy trying to form a snowball out of day-old powdery snow, a bold little panhandler approached Chris for a handout.

We were unable to oblige, but the raspy-tailed little scamp didn’t seem to mind much, and followed us around for a bit.  As we walked over to check out the big Abraham Lincoln statue, I tried out my snowball.  Turns out, the snowball was a lot better than my throwing skills, and I hit Chris squarely in the back of the head.  Oops!   The statue turned out to be The Standing Lincoln, by Augustus Saint-Gaudin, replicas of which stand at his tomb in Springfield and in front of Westminster Abbey.  Chris pointed out that it looks like he’s wearing earbuds.  I was speculating about what Abe could have been listening to, and came across this NPR article!

Once the museum opened, we went almost immediately to the Children’s section and seized the opportunity to become a Chicago-style hot dog.  Here we both are.  We tried to take a picture of us in there together, (there was a mirror on the ceiling so you could see yourself) but it turned out to be really creepy-looking and I chose not to include it.

Then to try out the old-timey bike.   I learned later (thanks for making me do my own research, MUSEUM!) that they eventually came to be called penny-farthings because the ratio of the wheels was similar to a penny and a farthing coin.

Next we hit up the "Chicago: Crossroads of America Exhibition," which is pretty much the bulk of the museum.  We got to sit on “L” Car No. 1, from the first fleet of elevated rail cars, built in 1892.

They had cards outside that helped you imagine you were taking the train home from the World’s Fair.  The card I retroactively selected for this picture of Chris read, “Your name is Osgood Wilson.  You work as a shoemaker.  Your fair favorite was the moveable sidewalk.”

There was lots to learn, a great deal of it about the World’s Fair and the Great Chicago Fire.   Really.  A pretty significant portion of it.  We moved on to the temporary exhibit on weddings; “I Do!  Chicago Ties the Knot.”  I don’t know if you’ve heard, but people often joke that boys get squeamish about weddings, or just plain don’t care about them.  Let me tell you – people are right.  It was downright comical watching Chris tear through that gallery like a dog when you turn on the vacuum cleaner.

As we headed out, we saw Abraham Lincoln’s deathbed.  It was sort of a weird note to end on, but in the museum’s defense, I think you’re supposed to see it on the way in.  So it’s really more of a weird note to begin on.  In the gift shop, I found some sweet “Instant Chicago” capsules that you drop in water to get little sponges shaped like iconic things.  The items listed on the package were, “Hancock Tower, Sears Tower, Football Player, and Chicago.”  We seem to have ended up with a bonus Tennis Player as well.  Or perhaps an angry caveman?

Looking back on the visit, it’s kind of funny (or sad?) to think that my favorite part was pretending to be a hot dog.  But then I got the e-postcard I sent myself from the exhibit that lets you fill the letters of the city with all of the different things you love about Chicago, and it all made sense.

Adler Planetarium

Destination: Adler Planetarium
Date: 11/18/2010
Cohort: Cassie
Cohort’s favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: Fine Arts Building (410 S. Michigan)

I’d never been to the Adler before last night because I’d always heard it was kind of, well, dumb… Luckily, my good friend Cassie, who can find/make a dance party anywhere, suggested the Planetarium’s monthly space bash, Adler after Dark.

We started off the evening with a peek through the telescope at the Doane Observatory, where we saw Jupiter and its Galilean moons; Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, and Io.

Tristan: Which one is Jupiter?

Everyone Else: The big one in the middle…

Tristan: Oh. I thought that was the moon...

Back in the Adler, we picked up some wine and checked out the exhibits to the sounds of thumping techno music coming from the DJ stand. Our favorite by far was playing with Non-Newtonian fluid, AKA Oobleck. Oobleck (so-named after a Dr. Seuss book) is a fluid whose viscosity alters in relation to force applied to it. So, you can stick your hand in slowly, and it will stay a liquid, or you can smack it with a hammer (which I did quite a bit) and it’ll turn solid. Cassie and I hung out and played there so long, and taught other guests about it so enthusiastically that we got recruited to volunteer there by the Scientist running the exhibit. 

We also learned how old I would be on IO, which seemed about right.

We hit up the Atwood Sphere, the wee planetarium built in 1913. Instead of sitting in a big theater, you sit in this little 8-person cart that brings you up into a big ball. It then rotates around you, shining light in through holes in the sphere, and an adorable man named Hans points out the constellations and assures you that the thing dangling between Orion’s legs is a sword.

While we waited for the Night Sky Live show to start, we hit up the dance floor/free snack area, which was where everyone seemed to be. (Rightly so! Dancing AND neatly stacked crackers? Move over, Oobleck!) In order to make sure we had a truly out-of-this-world experience, (thank you, Cassie) we opted to pick up a Green Alien Cocktail on the way. (Note the sweet wristbands they give you when you come in.)

After inventing dances like Orbitin’, Zero-Gravity Dance, and Space Junk in the Trunk, our last stop was the Definiti Space Theater to get a tour of Chicago’s night sky (if you could ever actually see it) from a gentleman who had clearly had enough of trying to teach a bunch of drunk people in a dark room about Astronomy. “People call me Big Ben,” he said. “Like the tower in London.” Not like the theory? Our favorite fact was that Jupiter actually has rings too, but they aren’t nearly as impressive as Saturn’s, which are made of ice, and therefore reflect light. Jupiter’s are just made up of crummy old dust and dirt.  And probably crumbs.  Space crumbs.

And then the arduous task of tipsily getting out of the winding, hilly museum campus and to the train. Thank goodness Big Ben had taught us how to find Polaris so that we could find our way home. Though I think the stunning view on the walk back gave us a pretty good idea of where we ought to be headed…

An introduction

I love Chicago. LOVE IT. I moved here from Maine 8 years ago, and still find myself getting really excited to be living in a big city. There are so many things to see and do! And I have seen and done pitifully few of them.

Let’s remedy that, shall we?

I don’t want to get over-ambitious here – I mean, I have a full-time job by day and a pretty demanding improv mini-career by night. I’m not exactly bursting with free time. So, I’m giving myself a year to visit 50 places of interest around Chicago.

Figuring out the 50 has been super-challenging. People don’t really make lists of such things, because once you pass the obvious top 10, (museums, tall buildings, etc.) the options become pretty vast, and the numbering becomes too nebulous and arbitrary.

Luckily, under DK travel’s website, I found a list of “places of interest” in Chicago. There were 50 of them. Well, 46. (For some reason, some were double-listed… Unless there’s a second Wrigley Field I’m not aware of…) I thought maybe it would be better to not have control over the destinations – just do what DK says, even if I’ve been there before, or it sounds dumb. (Both of which apply to the Hershey Store…) Sadly, this means that there are no restaurants or jazz clubs. Maybe next year? For the 4 remaining slots, I checked DK’s Chicago Top Ten, and found that there were exactly 4 places that had made the top 10, but not the top 50. (How did this happen?) Those four are indicated with stars.

So, here’s the deal, people. I will go to them, write about my time, and take a couple pictures.
My first adventure happens tonight!

The list is below. It’s weird, I know. American Girl Café? UPTOWN? In the same list?

1. Adler Planetarium
2. Andersonville
3. Armitage/Halsted Shopping District
4. Art Institute of Chicago*
5. Avondale
6. Blues Heaven Foundation
7. Boys Town
8. Bridgeport
9. Chicago Children’s Museum
10. Chicago Historical Society
11. Chinatown
12. Devon Avenue
13. Elevated Trains
14. Elks National Memorial Building
15. Emerald City Theatre Company
16. Field Museum
17. Fourth Presbyterian Church
18. Francis Dewes Mansion
19. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park*
20. Gold Coast Area
21. Heart of Italy
22. Hershey’s Chicago
23. Historic Water Tower & Pumping Station
24. Jane Addams’ Hull House
25. John Hancock Center
26. Lincoln Park Conservatory
27. Lincoln Park Zoo
28. Lincoln Square
29. Little Italy, Taylor Street
30. Magnificent Mile
31. Maxwell Street Market
32. Merchandise Mart
33. Museum of Contemporary Art
34. Museum of Contemporary Photography
35. Museum of Science & Industry
36. National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
37. Navy Pier
38. North Avenue Beach
39. Peggy Notebart Nature Museum
40. Pilsen
41. Prairie Avenue District
42. River North Gallery District
43. Shedd Aquarium
44. The Café at American Girl Place
45. Tribune Tower
46. University of Chicago*
47. Uptown
48. Westfield North Bridge Mall
49. Willis Tower*
50. Wrigley Field