Our first stop was in Oak Park, home of Ernest Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright designed a number of homes in Oak Park and there is a complete tour of the homes. Interspersed are some beautiful Victorian painted ladies. The whole neighborhood is impeccably maintained.
We then went to Chicago. What a great city. The energy is amazing and the city has done a great job of making the place nice. The streets are clean and it is easy to get around.We visited Millennium Park, which is downtown near the lakefront. The park has a pavilion with regular seating and a couple of acres of lawn seating. Free concerts are given frequently. The plaza has a modern sculpture called “The Bean” by locals but is really named “Cloud Gate” by the artist. The attached link has a few glitches but is pretty good.
Millennium Park joins Grant Park so there is a huge green belt right in downtown. Grant Park also has the Buckingham Fountain which is symbolic of one of my favorite TV shows with no redeeming qualities. I am referring to “Married With Children” of course.
After touring the parks we went to the Chicago Art Institute. The Institute has an exhibit of Henri Matisse’s art in addition to its permanent art. The permanent art includes the iconic “American Gothic” by Grant Wood and “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper. The Matisse exhibit was good and was another display of artistic evolution. The Art Institute also has a large collection of Monet’s works. I am utterly fascinated by the vision required to produce his paintings.We then went to Larry’s place of work. Larry is a tenor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus. He has been performing professionally for 30 years and has toured the world. The actual symphony hall was closed but I got to see the open areas. We topped the day’s tour with a visit to Excelsior Restaurant for Chicago pizza.
We then headed to the south side and US Cellular Park, home of the Chicago White Sox. The park is very nice, quite an improvement over old Comiskey Park. The park has changed but the clientele hasn’t.
The difference between Sox fans and Cubs fans is like day and night, kind of like the difference between Oakland Velveeta sandwich eaters and San Francisco quiche-eaters. The Sox fans are loud, vulgar, and definitely blue collar. One obnoxious fan close to us was threatened with physical violence unless he stopped dropping 70 decibel “F-bombs” with children in close proximity. The Sox lost to the Angels, even with a 9th inning lead-off home run by Paul Konerko. I was glad for the home run because I got to see Bill Veeck’s homerun pinwheels in action. The pinwheels were brought over from old Comiskey Park.
On the 20th I headed for Toledo, 300 miles away. I stayed on toll roads most of the way. I must be unclear on the concept of toll roads. These are federal interstate highways which were built with my tax dollars. Now I have to pay again so I can watch the traffic cones being aired out for miles while one truck with two workers tootles along in the blocked off lanes.I holed up in a KOA Kampground in Perrysburg, Ohio and went to a Toledo Mud Hens game. The game was very good and the Mud Hens were victorious, 4-0 over the Durham Bulls. The ballpark was quite full for a Thursday night game considering the kids are still in school. And no, Jamie Farr (Klinger) was not in attendance.
I got “home” at a decent hour and was in bed by 11:00 p.m. About 1:00 a.m. the rain started and has only let up for brief periods. I hope I don’t have to do another Detroit thing by driving to Cleveland only to have the game rained out.Saturday is backtrack day because I have to go back to Chicago to get to Minneapolis.
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