We got in late to Chicago, due to that little mishap described in the pictures. We were first told, “Something is delaying our departure from this town, but we’ll let you know more when we know more.” From our windows, we saw folks running in the direction of the back of our train. A little unnerving to say the least. But all ended better than we thought. No one was hurt. Russ now tells me he thinks it was a different train, as we came to a slow stop, not an abrupt stop. And since we were in different cars at the time, I could have heard rumors rather than facts …
Our original plans were to spend some time near the train station, because with our luggage, riding the public transportation to our hotel during rush hour would have been a nightmare. We had planned to go to the Art Institute, because today was the last free day this week, and we like FREE things! But we contemplated skipping it because it would be past rush hour in another hour or two, and just going for dinner would get us on less traveled buses and subways … but like I said, I like FREE things so we went, thinking that if it was great, we’ll come back again, and view more. Leaving our luggage in storage at Union Station, we navigated with our 3 day transit passes the way to the museum. This was HUGE! Beautiful art! (and some weird art – in our opinion LOL) We saw some Renoir, some Monet, some others, but the one we really wanted to see, was “American Gothic” by Grant Wood. We mentioned our friend and Chris’ 6th grade teacher often as we looked around. She brought an increased awareness of the arts to the class. Pictures posted will be for you, Anita! We were able to take pictures as long as the flash was off.
When we got back to the train station, it was dark, and the place where we stored the luggage was closed! So when we finally tracked down our stuff, got on the right subway (a 2 –very long block- walk to the station) and made it to the airport where our shuttle to the hotel was, and made it to the hotel, it was close to 11:00. Yawn. We were so happy to have a place to rest and unpack! You may wonder why we went so far out of the way, and it’s simply that the hotels outside of the main downtown Chicago were about 1/3 - ½ the price, and included breakfast, pool, and exercise room. So a little inconvenience for a chance to stretch the budget is what we chose.
Highlights of Saturday were: Going to The Museum of Science and Industry, Chris’ absolute favorite so far. This huge museum was on our list of reciprocal museums from the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, of which we just renewed our membership. So admission was FREE again. (Remember, we love free, but we would have paid to go here anyway.) We spent most of the day here, and just before closing at 5:00, we left to find Giordanos, famous for Chicago style pizza. 2 buses and about 7 blocks walking later, we found it and had to wait 1 ½ hours! Chris and I shared a small thin crust veggie, but Russ and Jonathan shared a small pan pepperoni one – Chicago style. They really do fill you up! We couldn’t finish it all even though they were very yummy!
Sunday we went to the Broadway play “Mary Poppins” at the Palace Theatre. What an amazing production! The acting was superb, the set changes were remarkable as to how things folded open or slid across the stage, and the dancing entertaining. The special effects also were impressive: Mary pulling the hat rack and tall plant out of her bag that was on a table you could see through (a special effect I still can’t figure out!). She flies with her umbrella over the audience, and slides up the banister. But most impressive was when Bert danced on the floor … up the wall … and on and across the ceiling, down the other side of the wall and again on the floor. The story line was different than the movie, but just as enjoyable, and what surprised me, there were many different songs than from the movie.
After the play, we headed out to Navy Pier. Chris and Jonathan weren’t too thrilled, because we told them it was a tourist shopping area on Lake Michigan. They are such boys! No interest in shopping unless they were on a hunt to get something. So lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company was a success, and Chris tried the shellfish special. Messy but good. Jonathan’s shrimp meal came in a fishing boat. We spent less than an hour at the pier before heading back to our hotel. This weekend was a repair-and-upgrade-the-tracks -weekend and they had to bus us from one part of the subway to the other. We seem to hit all the repair times and detours this summer. But we tried to keep a smile on with our with our AAA (Allsman’s Adventure Attitude).
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