Cars or planes?

When planning our road trips, we do a bit of research to identify places of interest and prepare long lists and google maps of things we’d like to do or see.  Today, there was a clear choice – was it to be the AirZoo or the Gilmore Car Museum?  Both were on the list but we had time for just one or the other.  Which was it to be?

We are headed for Detroit along our route and surely, we will be immersing ourselves in the motor industry along the way.  So perhaps the Airzoo would be a good choice?  But our guide book suggested the main focus was on the military and highlighted exhibits aimed at families with small children. 

We plumped for the cars.

The museum is set in a large area of parkland, with exhibits housed in several large barns.  Equipped with a map and advice from the docent on the welcome desk, we headed out to see what’s what.

First impressions were good and the first hall of shiny old cars whet our appetites for what was to come.

This was way more than a collection of dusty old cars!

Saving a visit to the diner until later, our first stop was a barn filled with Hudson vehicles – a new name to me.

Here was a collection of lovingly restored cars from the days when motoring was part of a glamorous lifestyle for those who could afford it.  Here too was my favourite vehicle, it turned out; quietly sitting in the middle of the display, nothing special in any way…

until I took a closer look.

It’s a 1937 Railton, fitted out by Rippon Brothers in Huddersfield especially for Colonel Rippon himself and the style and finish is breathtaking.

Inside – sorry for the reflections – the rear seats have the advantage of drop-down compartments, with silver cases for cigars, cigarettes and matches, plus four glasses and a couple of hip flasks on “his” side.

On “her” side, is a similar compartment, but with space for aspirin (!), a hairbrush, cologne, smelling salts, chocolate and a notebook.  In between, there’s a shared space with a silver box for sandwiches, a couple of pencils and their mobile phones….   I was immediately thinking that in my road trip compartment, I’d have my sketchbook, scissors, crayons, a pot of water….!

In front, there was a small shelf for the map and other compartments for who knows what?  Gloves?

And the luggage?  All tailor made from matching leather, to fit snugly into the boot.

How gorgeous is that?  Nearby, there was a short film about the couple who restored this unique car – we watched it a couple of times, gasping at the detail.  Spot the first aid kit!

Well, it was hard to follow that.  We amused ourselves by testing a few car horns in the Shell Service Station before making our way into the next barn.

Now, pedal cars were just not going to cut it, were they?  We needed something a little more than that!

Like a pink Cadillac maybe?

This car was enormous!  Even so, there wasn’t a vast amount of room inside.  Just how many acres of space is there in that boot though?

Wow.

Here, each car manufacturer had their models arranged in a building devoted to their brand.  Having ooohed and aaahed around the Cadillacs, browsed around the Pierce Arrow display, we found ourselves in front of an old Ford showroom.

But we’re heading for Detroit, I thought.  I really didn’t want to pre-empt the Henry Ford stuff there.

But this was just a showroom of Model A Fords, without any particular focus or description.  We wandered through, stopping only by one particular exhibit.

“Make this dependable tractor from your old Model A Ford”.

It seems easy terms were available to buy the kit, if you felt the need to do such a thing.  Mind you, the first step was “remove the body from the chassis of your Model A”.

Not a job for cissies then.

By now, we were a little car-blind.  Yes, there was another great Chevvy or a remarkably beautiful Mustang, but they were so static.  I was wanting to climb inside one, to interact in some way or even, to watch as someone else did.  Heck, I’d even settle for opening the bonnet to admire the engine!

(what?)

Just as we’d decided that we’d seen all the cars we wanted to see today, Mary spotted a familiar shape – an Auburn, just like those we’d seen in that beautiful Art Deco showroom a few years back.  Shame about the colour, but hey, it’s still a beautiful car.

We’d really enjoyed our visit to this excellent museum, but after a few hours, we’d realised that we are not quite the petrolheads that much of the museum is aimed at.

Give me a little compartment with a bottle of aspirin and a silver chocolate case every time!

This evening, we headed for Bells, where the evening was just warming up and we were able to snag the last table upstairs.  The food was great and the portions generous.

The beer wasn’t half bad either!

And now we are three

Mary’s delayed flight meant she didn’t arrive till around 9.30pm last night, so plans for a reunion Giordano’s pizza were shelved in favour of breakfast at Tempo instead.

Larger than life, especially for you, Lesley, it was worth waiting for, believe me.

An hour or so later, noting 27224 miles on the clock of our Dodge Grand Caravan, we set off on our road trip proper, heading south out of the city towards Gary, Indiana.  The scenery ranged from a light industrial landscape to steel works after steel works.  Arcelor Mittal appeared to occupy most of the land here in northern Indiana and most of it wasn’t a pretty sight.

At times like this, I look for signs which give some idea of where we are.  On this railway bridge was a big clue.

We were driving along the I20, the very same road we’d driven a couple of years ago, but in the opposite direction.  I well remembered the blog post I wrote at the time, to Chicago via the washing machine because driving on a stretch of the Interstate near Gary was a pretty scary experience.  I was pleased the weather was a little kinder to us today.

As well as driving the car, my Hero always keeps an eye out for his favourite railway landmarks (or perhaps I should refer to them as railroads here?)  Sure enough, he spotted this sign in time for me to snap a picture as we passed by.

For as well as being the steel works centre of North America, this area is a major transport hub too, with railway – sorry, railroad – yards left right and centre.

There were strange vehicles parked in the car park too.

Gary, Indiana hadn’t improved much since were were last here.  Though many of the buildings in the city were of solid construction, they were all but derelict and the whole outlook appeared very bleak.  I didn’t manage to snap the huge mural of the Jacksons, sadly, but pulling up at traffic lights alongside Porky’s Pit gave us time to assess the potential and decide that thankfully, we weren’t hungry right now.

Another bonus for the train fan around here, with a Pullman car on the end of the Amtrak train heading for Chicago.

And shortly afterwards, we were entering the state of Michigan, our destination.  We’d been here before, in that very same blog post in fact, but this time, we’re going to be exploring the “mitten state” more thoroughly over the next couple of weeks.

Soon, we were driving through “Harbor Country” and as if to confirm that, a vehicle towing a huge boat crossed over right in front of us.  Rather than heading for the lakeside, however, we were continuing in an easterly direction right now and spotting a sign for Froehlich’s bakery, closely followed by one for Three Oaks, we realised that we were still retracing our steps from that earlier trip.

Yes.  Of course we drove into Three Oaks and headed for Froehlichs once again.  It was just as good as we remembered!

There were tempting goodies on the shelves, though it wasn’t really the time to be buying such things.

So, we just looked and admired – though actually, I’m none too sure about pickled asparagus!

There was one essential piece of information about Michigan we hadn’t quite grasped yet though, but as my Hero noticed a clock in the store and gave it a bit of thought, it became clear.  Michigan is in a different time zone to Indiana and Illinois.  It was an hour later than we thought!

Taking a last look around this cute little town, we jumped back in the car and began the last part of today’s journey.

It was a more rural route now and within an hour or so we reached the first stop on our route.  Someone began to sing…

A B C D E F G H….I got a girl….

Did you guess?  No, I didn’t know the words either, but m-i-l Bettine does, every one of them!

So here we are for a couple of nights.

We took a quick look around downtown before dinner tonight and found the city to be rather interesting.

Surprisingly quiet though.

Anyway, we enjoyed dinner at Food Dance, sitting under the enormous corn plants.

Had we been staying at the Columbia hotel, paying $1.50, we might have considered a pot of our favourite Jeni’s ice cream, all the way from Columbus Ohio.

But at $11.99 (plus tax) we decided that perhaps for once, we’d resist temptation.  (Note to self: Google Michigan Ice Cream makers)

One thing we are not short of here – breweries!

Culture Vultures

The waitress at Tempo brought over the house standard “amuse bouche” as we sat down this morning.  A prune and a segment of orange is as good as any other way to start the day, I guess, but we had other ideas, needless to say.

The corned beef hash and eggs didn’t last long but sad to say, I couldn’t quite manage all my blueberry pancakes, delicious though they were.

We walked off our breakfast this morning though, heading along Michigan Avenue towards the river and beyond.  It was another lovely day, getting rather warm already though there was a cooling breeze along the river.  I stopped to take a photograph, taking care to avoid the glass skyscraper bearing the current President’s name.  He needs no further publicity from me.

Once over the river and almost as far as the park, I turned back to see where we’d come from.  Chicago is such a fine city and the views are magnificent, wherever we stand.

Our destination this morning was the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, where we knew there was an open rehearsal this morning.

The unmistakeable stainless steel curves of the Frank Gehry structure appeared through the trees.

Though looking the other way, an altogether different structure was proving interesting.  Can you see what it is yet?

Yes, it’s Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, always interesting, always attracting everyone’s attention.  Deservedly so – it’s very clever and a real landmark.

We were soon into the auditorium though, where the orchestra were already warming up.

We chose seats in the shade, together with twenty or thirty others and waited for the rehearsal to begin.

The first rehearsal piece was Alfben’s Festival Overture.  We weren’t familiar with the piece but it was tuneful and the orchestra were making a very impressive sound.  We were immediately captivated.

 

Next, Vadim Gulzman came on stage and we heard the rehearsal of Tchaikowsky’s Violin Concerto.  Gorgeous music, beautifully played.  I loved it and immediately warmed to the soloist, who appeared to have a great rapport with the orchestra and audience alike.  When the final movement came to a close and the orchestra took a break, one of the Grant Park docents came to the front and made a short presentation about the music and in particular, the violin Vadim Gulzman was playing.  Perhaps that’s why he seemed so comfortable on stage, why his performance was so remarkable?

During the break, a chance to stretch my legs, I noticed a few clouds rolling in.  The clear blue sky of earlier had disappeared whilst we’d been listening.

And during the second half, whilst the orchestra were playing excerpts from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, there were rumblings of thunder.

Oooo.

 

By the time the rehearsal had finished, the dark clouds were looming rather closer and working our way towards the exit, we noted that it had already rained just yards from where we’d been sitting.  That network of overhead speakers transmits the sound from the stage, by the way, so that wherever in the outdoor auditorium you happen to sit (even on the grass, beyond the seating area) you’ll hear accurate sound with no lag whatsoever.  Clever, eh?

As we turned right there was the loudest, scariest clap of thunder I’d ever heard, provoking screams from those around us.  I feared we were about to get very wet.

We hurried through the park in the direction of the Art Institute, taking note of the sign to “respect the art”.  But the three sculptures made from old tyres and bits of metalwork were not very attractive and we questioned whether these pieces were sufficient to earn that respect.  Maybe that was why the sign was needed?

We couldn’t resist a glance back at the fountains, popular as ever with the youngsters whatever the weather.

We were simply glad to have made it as far as the Art Institute without getting wet!  We’d been here before, knew we didn’t have long enough to see everything and decided to focus on something in particular.  I picked up a leaflet describing a mini tour entitled “My Kinda Town”, similar to but slightly different from, this one.

It suited us well to have a pre-ordained route with some destination points.   Of course, we’d see things along the way, but by having a focus, we could manage our visit well.  We began with the architecture fragments, something which had taken my eye on a previous visit.

From there, we headed past this figure in a most peculiar pose, I thought – or is it just me?

We did a pretty swift scamper through the Impressionists.  All very familiar, many of them, we’d seen before.

actually, quite liberating to scoot past Degas’ little dancer

and scuttle past La Grande Jatte, reminiscing about Columbus OH as we did.

Much as we love visiting art galleries, on occasions, it’s great to have permission to walk straight past a painting or four

to float right on past the water lilies

and the haystacks.  Because if we always stopped in front of the same old same old, we’d never see anything else, would we?

Like Georgia’s Sky above Clouds which was the next work on our mini tour.

We made a brief stop in the cafe, overlooking the pavilion from this morning through the screened windows.

and progressed in search of So What, by Judy Ledgerwood, but failing to find that and instead looking at a few pieces of Andy Warhol’s work and something rather familiar…

Well, we Murakami experts recognised Dob immediately, didn’t we?!

I liked the Jasper John Alphabet too, but in a weird way, also liked this wall…

opposite the entrance to the loos, intentional or not, the wall with faded patches as if paintings had been removed was an amusing feature and I suspect someone had had some fun there.

We continued our whistlestop, focused tour through the Roman gallery

to see Chagall’s American windows.

Three of them, side by side.

So reminiscent of Chagall’s windows elsewhere, in that remarkable and instantly recognisable blue.  So painterly.

then, right next door was the reconstruction of the Chicago Stock Exchange.

But my Hero gasped and described it as soulless.  Where was the life, the energy, the people?! Sure enough, it was an empty room and as far from the old trading hall as could be.  The subdued lighting didn’t help and feeling a little disappointed, we moved straight on.

To Nighthawks.  A very familiar painting, last seen just a couple of months ago in London, but still as potent as ever.

and Nightlife just around the corner, the last image on our mini tour, which had proved to be just right and perfect for our short drop-in visit.

We said Hi as we walked past American Gothic on our way out, back at home after a short holiday in London.

And I rather liked this familiar image, so reminiscent of the Peruvian ladies we met in the Sacred Valley which we passed by on our way out of the galleries.

By the time we reached the entrance though, people were running through the doors looking rather wet.  The storm had broken and it was pouring with rain.

We settled down and waited for the rain to ease before opening umbrellas and sallying forth.

It was a rather different walk back to our hotel from this morning’s hot and sticky trek.

We’d had a fantastic day though and really didn’t mind getting wet.

The trouble was, the storm had delayed Mary’s flight and rather than arriving in Chicago as scheduled at 4pm or thereabouts, she was travelling via an unexpected diversion to Des Moines, where she remained until almost 7pm.  As I write, we are keeping everything crossed that she’ll be landing at O’Hare shortly, some eight hours or more since leaving Los Angeles this morning.

Hopefully, there will be no further travel surprises! 

Photographs

A friend has emailed to say that she is having trouble with the photographs loading on my blog.  She is using Firefox on a PC and I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing similar issues.  If you are, would you please drop me an email or leave a comment below and I’ll see what I can do.

Thank you x

Are we having fun yet?

We started the day just as we always start a day here

with breakfast at Tempo.

The corned beef hash person was happy.

And since Mary the waffle-eater wasn’t here yet, I did my best and sampled a banana-nut waffle on her behalf, just to make sure it was good enough for her.  I think it might meet with her approval.

Suitably stuffed, we made our way onto Michigan Avenue.  Our main target for the day was the Murakami exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Institute and with the weather forecast to turn showery later, we aimed to be there sometime in the afternoon.  Before then, we decided to mooch along the Miracle Mile, pop in and out of shops as we pleased and generally enjoy being in one of our favourite places.

We popped into the shops at Water Tower Place, where the fountain which sits between the up and the down escalators amused us just as much this morning as it has done all the time we’ve been coming here.  Those water hollow shapes look like glasses, don’t they?  So clever.

In the shops, I found nothing special and didn’t really think the topless look was what I was seeking.  The reasonably priced stock in Chico’s was disappointing, with a preponderance of synthetic fibres and designs best described as nunty whereas the elegant Eileen Fisher clothes were way out of my price range today.  Never mind, we’ll hold out for some discounts in the next three weeks, eh?

There in the shopping centre was a cute Lego figure, life sized, characterising the Windy City.

But outside, the sun was shining, the temperature was rising and we were enjoying the walk.

A little further along the Magnificent Mile, I found my way into Sephora and whilst my Hero went off to explore something more interesting than make up, I spent half an hour discussing chemical peels with Brianna, who kindly shared a few samples of the $88 product whilst recommending (and selling me) the $27 one 

Further along Michigan Avenue, by the Du Sable Bridge, we came across these two large figures: Abraham Lincoln and a another more modern chap.  We recognised Abe Lincoln, of course, but didn’t know anything more until we came back and googled.

Here, by the river, it was a few degrees cooler, with a pleasant breeze blowing from the lake.  The Architecture Tour boats were doing a brisk business, but we were feeling thirsty and spotted a sign in the window opposite.

Ghirardellis ice cream parlour and chocolate shop would do just fine!

So sitting looking out of the window overlooking the bridge, we spent a good half hour with our rootbeer float and chocolate malt shake, watching the world go by before heading back out into the afternoon heat with the intention of making our way to the art gallery.

But along the way, there was a known distraction.  We knew of a Microsoft store along here and it was no accident that we “just happened” to stop by and find the new Surface Studio, launching in the next couple of days but here for us to try and play with.

Oh. My. Goodness.  We want one.  (Each) ! 

Dragging ourselves away, we eventually made it to our main target – the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The exhibition we wanted to see had only just opened and since Illinois residents get free entrance on a Tuesday, it was pretty busy.  Never mind, there was still room for the two of us!

We’d decided to absorb ourselves in this single exhibit and not try to see everything.  So, with the whole afternoon stretching ahead of us, we settled down to watch the introductory video.  The artist explained his work and how it had developed, influenced by traditional Japanese themes.  Though some of this was familiar, we hadn’t grasped the fact that there is no division between “high” and “low” art in Japan; that a piece of Manga comic book art is valued as much as a Hokusai print.  Well, perhaps that’s pushing it a little far, but generally speaking, there’s a lack of snobbishness regarding “commercial” work and Murakami was not embarrassed to describe his own work as populist and very commerical.

During the film, we were introduced to a character he had designed early in his career, called Dob.  Some way between Mickey Mouse and Sonic the Hedgehog, iterations of Dob popped up in many of the works throughout the exhibition.  At different stages of Murakami’s career, a variety of events had caused him to reassess his priorities and one definite theme early on was the atom bomb.

So one of the first, large pieces was this very striking canvas with the remains of a firework alongside, displayed on the pink plinth.

Around the corner was another video presentation though, with explanations of how these huge pieces were created.  The artist himself creates the original design, which is then transferred to the full sized panels using silk screens and layers of paint, applied by a team of artisan workers in the vast studio.

There were examples of works at every stage here, from the pencil sketches to the imagined colour designs, silk screen panels and finally, the full size finished segments.  I found this really interesting and could have spent longer just working out how this all comes together.

The end results were so precise, so carefully executed, it was hard to identify the artist’s hand at all, beyond the initial concept and drawing.  Meticulous detail on an enormous scale.

And cute.  A good deal of cute – because it’s Japanese, after all. (Even if the mushroom cloud is still there in the imagery)

The concept of superflat was explained and applied to this piece in particular.

But we’d already been drawn into the next room, where a whole wall full of daisies was smiling at us.  This was Murakami at his most commercial with a small, repeatable – and marketable – design, almost a logo, created specially to repeat and to sell.

Fascinating.  And yes, meticulous.

The next piece to catch my eye was entitled “Graduation”.  I rather liked the fun image of a small character being shot out of a machine of some sort, out into the world.

The small character had been acquired by/identified with Kanye West and the works which stood alongside were both created for the star, including this album cover

My Hero was already in the next room though!

These are enormous works, too large for me to capture in one photograph and the detail is incredible.

In this series of paintings, a recurring character is that of the arhat, an elderly Buddhist figure who wanders through the countryside.  Murakami included these figures in several works, varying the scale and the interpretation.

These are screen printed in layers, much the same as his earlier works, and the high gloss finish was difficult to capture.  Layer upon layer of paint was evident but the surface was incredibly smooth and shiny.  Polished, even.

Here were the arhats, huge larger-than-life figures and tiny little chaps right down there at the bottom of the canvas too.  All screen printed with a variety of interesting visual texture in there.

Some of the printing revealed the bare canvas in places – here as part of the polka dot background.  The matt surface was quite a contrast to the high gloss finish of the tree in this corner of the work.

These were huge canvases too.

Last but not least was a piece of work created by Murakami epecially for this exhibition, entitled “The Octopus eats his own leg”, based on a Japanese saying.

Here again was a blend of traditional and contemporary themes, referencing classic Japanese prints in a highly original way.

It filled all four walls of the last gallery of this area and could easily have kept us looking and noticing small features for several hours.  We loved it.

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by what we’d seen, we followed the crowd to the Museum store, where Murakami merchandise was selling so fast, there was no time to take it out of the boxes.  Everything was limited to 5 of a single item per customer, including these $40 T shirts which will surely turn up on eBay soon.

What an afternoon!  How glad we were to have seen this and to have learned so much about the artist and his work.  So shell-shocked were we though, we didn’t want to overlay what we’d seen with any other art right now.  It was time to return to the Sofitel.

It’s actually down a leafy street nearby and yes, our feet were glad it wasn’t so far away!

This evening, we ate dinner at Eataly, another long time favourite.

The weather forecast was warning of an incoming storm, so we took our brollies with us and kept our fingers crossed.

Thankfully, we got there and back in the dry. 

The pleasing scent of Essence de Sofitel greeted us upon our return.  We recognise the aroma from Sofitels worldwide, but this is the only one to have a display and explanation of the concept.  Fascinating!

Another grand day in the city then.  Tomorrow, we look forward to Mary’s arrival and the real fun can begin!