In the pink

On July 7th, my hero’s birthday, in Hot Springs, AR, someone was trying to decide what colour to paint the wall of their building.  We’d all have chosen Earl Grey, perhaps with a splash of Roman Violet, offset maybe with a touch of Water Chestnut?

Actually, the day turned out pink.

After we’d mooched around the bathhouses and were on our way back to Little Rock, a message arrived from home with a happy announcement.  Our small friends have a baby sister!  So, when we were in Chicago we went in search of a small gift.

For a couple of seconds, I considered a pair of “Babiators”, the safe, durable and awesome sunglasses, presumably, a must have for all the fashionable tots on the beach this season.  Thankfully, a better idea came into view.

A pair of shoes!  These tiny moccasin boots in the softest leather were adorable but just a bit too practical to buy for a gift.  After all, the fun is finding something which is just that bit beyond sensible, isn’t it?

Like a pair of tiger-print ponyskin pumps with a blingy gold logo?

Or a pair of Gucci ballet flats in just the right size?  Hmmm….perhaps, but not at $180 a pair!

But a pair of Stuart Weitzmans, all purple and sparkly with velvet bows?  You bet!

Of course, a gift for the new born baby is as much for the big sisters, isn’t it?  In a family of three girls, purple sparkly shoes are a sure fire winner.

The recipient herself is just making up her mind, maybe wondering how long it will take her to grow into them  

(Isn’t she gorgeous?)

Here we go

Same routine this morning.  We’d more or less packed our bags before going for breakfast just down the street.

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Waffles were beautifully coordinated with the outfit.

The corned beef hash hit the spot too.

My blueberry pancakes didn’t hang around long enough for a photograph

As we walked back I tried to take the photo which explains why those floor to ceiling windows right outside our door (and in our room) are scary.  They’re part of that angled wall…

We had a little light shopping to do on this, our last morning in the city.  More of that later, but I couldn’t resist taking a snap of these two beauties in the Mall today.  I’ll leave you to imagine the faces and will save details of the purchase for another time.

Around lunchtime, we headed for O’Hare for our flights.  The Interstate was as jam packed as it always seems to be and we were glad we’d allowed ourselves plenty of time.

At this point, we were faced with a choice.  Shall we carry straight on to the airport or go right towards Milwaukee and start our road trip all over again?   The vote was unanimous.  Much as we’ve enjoyed every bit of the trip, we’re all ready for home and tempting though the thought is, we really couldn’t hope to have a better experience a second time around!

So, feeling thankful for strong shuttle bus drivers who manage heavy suitcases as if they were empty, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.  Mary’s flight to Los Angeles was leaving at 5.10pm from a different terminal from ours, which was scheduled for 6.10.

As my hero sat reading in the (windowless) lounge, I couldn’t resist taking a look around the duty free shops, not that they are anything to write home about.  However, as I wandered around, I noticed it was tipping down with rain outside, so much so that the other side of the airport was hardly visible.  I heard thunder too and was glad we’d managed to get there in the dry.  Fingers crossed, Mary’s flight wouldn’t be delayed because of the storm – ours was reported to be on time.

I went back to the lounge and we waited for our expected boarding call around 5.30pm…except it didn’t come.  Judith, manager of the BA facility explained that there was “a situation” and we should hold on and not go anywhere just yet.  She checked on Mary’s flight which hadn’t left yet either…oh dear.  Just as we decided to have dinner in the lounge (in the hope of a good night’s sleep on the plane) the flight crew arrived looking a little hot and bothered – clearly, we were going nowhere just yet, then.

The boarding announcement came around 7pm and thankfully we were soon on our way.  It seems as though as the storm came through, the terminal building had been struck by lightning and the source providing the power for our plane whilst it was on the ground had been hit.  Standing on the tarmac for a couple of hours with no air conditioning, the temperature inside the cabin had gone to 45C, at which point the Captain had sent the crew to cool off in the lounge.  Fortunately, it was soon resolved and by the time we got on board, it was more comfortable and we had a smooth, 7 hour flight home.  Sadly for Mary, not only was her flight delayed but her arrival into LAX was less than perfect – it was gone 1am when she finally arrived home.

So there it is.  The 2015 Summer Road Trip, Exploring the Mid West was chalked up to history.  2787 miles on the road from Chicago O’Hare airport; our round trip including one flight from Minneapolis to Little Rock.

We loved it!

Some you win…

On this lengthy road trip, we’ve experienced few duds.  Almost everywhere we’ve been has been a delight and the rest, well, it’s been ok.  So I guess it was inevitable that today, our last full day together, we found the below-average attraction.  Thankfully, we more than made up for it later.

We set out in the car this morning, with a couple of destinations logged into the GPS.  We admired the streetscape it displays here and soon found our way to our first location – the Chicago History Museum.

Hot hot hot today, even going for breakfast this morning, so we parked as close as we could and followed the signs.  “Sharing Chicago stories” sounded good and right up our alley.

Even better was the sign prohibiting guns from the place.  How they’d know if we had a weapon, I have no idea, and having seen roadside ads for “concealed carry vests” (and having had Mary explain what such a thing was) I’m not altogether sure that such things could be spotted at all.

But anyway, first impressions were good.  There was a lively display in the lobby and as we purchased our tickets, I looked forward to learning a little more about this exciting city, the characters who have lived here and the events which shaped the place.

The first story was kind of familiar.  We already knew the name Pritzker from the Frank Gehry designed pavilion and from Hyatt Hotels, too, but to read of the family’s beginnings and have the full story was fascinating.  Good start.

I loved the photo shown on the opposite wall and felt it was evocative of a time, a place and of those people who travelled so far in the hope of a better future.

Actually, the next room wasn’t bad either, exploring the concept of “freedom”.

But somehow, some topics of which I had some knowledge fell slightly short of the mark and labels marking “exhibit removed” didn’t help.

An apt expression.

Our next stop was to watch a film, supposedly an overview of key moments in Chicago’s history but which we found to be a muddled, rather sketchy presentation which confused us all.  Discovering that this was a new feature, launched on July 4 was disappointing – all of us felt that the story could have been told in an altogether clearer style.

There followed a temporary show about the Magnificent Mile and the Fashion houses which could be found along it.  But once again, the story was confusing – we weren’t sure if we were following the street from one end to the other, if we were following the timeline of the fashion houses or if there was any kind of order at all.  It was hard to identify how the garment displayed related to anything on the Avenue and though we enjoyed the fashion, we left feeling even more confused.  In the corner, an electrician was sprawled amongst the mannequins, attempting to repair the turntable on the left hand side of the photo, but he was having little success.

So far, then, we’d learned little about the city but in the main gallery, there was hope.  Here was a full size street car, a train engine and several other large exhibits.  What we didn’t find was any coherence or character.  The story of Marshall Fields store was in one corner, but no mention of Harry Selfridge.  Where was Al Capone and his gang?  Ida B Wells was a really important social activist in the city and was nationally recognised for her work but she was relegated to a minor role as a streetcar passenger and Frank Lloyd Wright was nowhere to be seen at all.

Fortunately, there was a sure fire winner in the form of a temporary exhibition of Vivian Maier’s work.  We’d seen a different show at the Chicago Public Library last year and since then have watched the film and learned more about this mysterious woman and the story of the discovery of her photographs. 

Here, I was delighted to see the full film contact sheets showing all twelve photographs from each of 18 films.  No duds!  Every single shot was great – what a talented woman she was.

The exhibition was well staged too – thank goodness, our morning wasn’t wasted!

Oh, and of course, Lincoln was here too.

We, however, were ready to move on.  Driving along Lakeshore Drive on a Friday lunchtime in 95F temperatures was a fun journey.  As you can see, many Chicagoans were at the beach – can you believe that’s Lake Michigan there?  Looks like the Mediterranean!

Or Santa Monica.  (I’m not sure Mary will agree with me on that one )

My friend Lynn has asked me why she should come to Chicago.  Lynn, isn’t this the answer?

Our next stop was another museum…the Science and Industry this time.

It wasn’t exactly a peaceful place, but at least there was energy and enthusiasm here.

The displays were intelligent and not dumbed down at all, even though most were family friendly.  They were genuinely interesting.

The transport area had a real 727 there, alongside a Spitfire and a Jenny.  All hung above a huge model railway layout – right up someone’s alley

Oh, and whilst we’re looking at the railway layout, here is the Seattle King Street station, built by our friend James J Hill, whose home we visited in St Paul a couple of weeks ago.

I love it when stories come together like that!

Exhibits were fun to explore – this one involved playing with lenses, prisms, mirrors and light sources to make rainbows.

This one demonstrated Tesla’s work on electromagnetism and created an indoor storm every half hour or so.

A little further along, a few children stood around an artificial tornado.  Great – if a little close to home since two such tornadoes have touched down not so far away from where we’ve been recently.  A narrow escape, thankfully.

Two museums in one day is quite a stretch and by now, we were in need of a lie down!  (Did I say how noisy it was in those lofty halls?)  It was past four o’clock too and my hero was beginning to fear the rush hour on Lakeshore Drive too.

Time to go.

Yes, nose to tail traffic the whole way.

It might have given us time to take photographs of the lake and the blue blue sky, but really, all of us were weary and ready for a break.  We finally reached the hotel and went straight out for supper, at Eataly again, because we’d enjoyed last evening so much.

Which brings us to the last night of our trip.  This time tomorrow, we’ll be flying off in our separate directions, but for now, there are still plenty of peanut M&Ms in the bag and miraculously, there’s still some popcorn to be finished.

So why am I sitting here typing?!

Chicago, Chicago…

I think I’ve used up all the titles like “my kind’a town” and “the Windy City”, so I’ll simply say that all of that applied to the city today.  At times, it was also the rainy city.

It was not what we planned.  We’d popped out to Tempo for breakfast (as usual) so that someone could have the first corned beef hash of the trip and I could have a change from the daily self-service waffles the Hampton Inns offer at breakfast time.  It was dry and overcast then, but by the time we’d returned to our hotel, gathered our stuff together and were ready to go, there was the unmistakeable drop of rain on the window.  By the time we reached the door, it was umbrella time.

We made our way to Michigan Avenue where the shops were just opening…

Guess how we spent the next hour or two?

It was dry when we re-emerged from the mall and I was amused to discover that there are other people who take strange photographs!  (Not that I’ve ever taken one of a fire hydrant, as far as I can remember)

The street was beginning to get a little more crowded.  Here, around the Water Tower, there are always small groups of girls and their families, making their way to the mother-lode of American Girl Doll stores, just along the way.  I’ve written about these before here.    We didn’t feel the need to pay a visit there this time, so walked further on up the Magnificent Mile towards the bridge.

We had a destination in mind, about half way along the Avenue: Garret’s popcorn.  When we first came to Chicago, some years ago, their shop was on the Avenue itself and every day we’d walk past wondering what could be so special that people would queue outside?  We’ve now found out.  Popcorn!!  Our choice is always the mix – cheesy and caramel, though this morning I added a small bag of the cashew caramel to the mix as well.

Adding another bag to the collection balanced my hero’s load

Our next stop was a curiosity.  We’d read of Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC, but hadn’t been interested enough to look it out.  But catching the aroma of intense sweetness from quite some distance away, we just had to take a look.  We could also recall that it was linked in some way with the child of someone famous…but couldn’t remember who, so we asked.

Ralph Lauren’s daughter.

OK.  Moving right along…

We were reaching the bridge and the area where I had my little panic last year when I thought I’d lost everyone…so I kept an eagle eye on who was where when I was taking photos.

It’s the area around the river where the great skyscrapers are, where this city is at its grandest, I think.

The bridge is a favourite place for photos – and someone was taking a slightly different approach when he snapped his selfie.

We walked over the bridge, crossed the street and came back over on the other side, spotting this plaque to Henri De Tonti as we went (remember, Tontitown, a few days ago!?)  There is something really pleasing about tying up loose ends like that!

The river is a great setting for the more modern skyscrapers and brings real character to this city.  We love just hanging out here.

Returning up Michigan Avenue, we thought we’d take a look in the Microsoft shop for a few moments.  We’d stopped in the Mall of America branch whilst there and looked at the new Surface laptop/tablets.  This time, whilst Mary worked with Zack to set up her new purchase (!) Brenton ably assisted me with my new toy

This evening, dragging ourselves away from our new purchases, we decided to give Eataly a try.

Tempting though the cheese and salami was, we opted for pasta and pizza – and yes, it really was delicious.

The gelati were good, too.

Oh my.  We never go hungry here

Last stop

Back over the bridge into Illinois this morning, then, for the last stretch of our road trip.  We said a fond farewell to Iowa and the endless fields of corn and drove east, over the river.

We’d not been driving long when we had an unexpected hiccup.

What a good job we brought along the intermediate technology!  This is the same map as we’ve used on a couple of previous road trips including one where it got wet, so it is beginning to show signs of wear and tear.  It’s much loved though and now, we’ve added a bit of a grubby area around Davenport, where some hasty decisions had to be made.

Soon, we were driving along the byways of Illinois, through still more corn fields, though added entertainment was on hand in the form of a crop duster.

There was also the odd fly past of a quilt barn.  Whoops – nearly missed that one.

We had a listing of them, picked up in a tourist office somewhere, but the locations were not that accurate and it appeared not all of them were listed.

Anyway, we arrived in Cambridge and were back on track after our detour.

We drove behind some strange agricultural vehicles and felt sure that the John Deere machines would have travelled a little faster.

Just when we despaired of ever seeing another of those barn quilts listed in the brochure, we hit lucky…

The Illinois block, the beans and corn block, the covered bridge block and the USA heart, all in one.

Then, plugging in the address of another into the satnav, we found this double wedding ring.

Though I think we deserved a medal for spotting this one.

By the time we reached Peru, we’d decided to give up looking.  If we stumbled upon one by chance, then all well and good.

Instead, we came upon Ottawa, where the woman in the tourist office told us that the “Illinois in Bloom” judging is tomorrow, and as previous winners, Ottawa was looking its best and hoping for success.

We hadn’t really come to see flowers, but to visit another Lincoln location: The site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate in the series we’d come across in Quincy.

But our eyes fell upon the mural of the event too.

And taking a closer look, we discovered more murals.  In fact, Ottawa proved to be a fun place to stop for a sandwich and to stretch our legs.

Across the road was another mural, commemorating General Wallace, who died in the Civil War – a friend of Lincoln, no less.

Then, a little further along was another one depicting the glass factory which used to be here, where marbles were made amongst other things.

Of course, Ottawa was definitely in bloom along the way as well.

The murals added a little interest to this small Main Street, though the individual shops were a good mixture and looked inviting too.

But I think it’s the Brush with History we’ll remember here.

Oh, and the various bits of Lincoln-alia.

Oh, and ok, the flowers…

From Ottawa, I’d like to say it was a swift drive into the Chicago outskirts but it wasn’t.  It was a slow drag in nose to tail traffic and the fact we were driving the last/first part of Route 66 made us feel pleased that we didn’t have the whole stretch ahead of us!

Eventually, the city was within sight and we heaved a sigh of relief.

We love it here and were looking forward to checking into one of our favourite hotels and putting our feet up.

But first, there was a pizza to be eaten