Chicago, Day 2

Our second day in Chicago began with a trip in to the city on the Blue Line, via a bus that mercifully stopped within a few steps of our hotel's parking lot. We stopped off at Union Station to set our bags down in their lockers, which were a rather exorbitant $9 for the day, and had breakfast (cereal!) in Union Station's fabulous Great Hall. At breakfast, I realized that I had lost my sunglasses. We went back to Aurelio's to see if I'd lost them, but this turned out to be fruitless. I'm still sorting through the photos to find exactly where I left them.

Building on our great success in Seattle, we decided to visit the Harold Washington Library- the largest public library building in the world. Aside from the fantastic size of it all, it was worth the trip for what we found. On the upper floors of the library is a "winter garden"- a green space with tables and chairs for the public to enjoy, all sitting in a comfortable, climate-controlled dome. I assume that this is meant to assist Chicagoans in coping with the harsh local winters. The effect is much like sitting in the plaza of a city park, except that you're 9 stories up in the middle of downtown Chicago.

Off of the garden are several historical exhibits. One of the galleries is focused on the life of the man whom the building is named after- Harold Washington, the first black Mayor of Chicago. The library's current location was one of his great projects as Mayor, and one that he would not live to see completed.

In the next gallery was part of the Chicago Public Library's extensive collection of Civil War artifacts, including a saddle used by none other than General Ulysses Grant. As always, there are serendipitous surprises to be found in all of the nooks and crannies of places- and often they're free.

After the library, we visited the newly-renovated Millenium Park. There are several things to be seen here, including "The Bean"-- formally the Cloud Gate, a large metal sculpture that looks a bit like a very chrome lima bean.

Dani found The Bean useful for photographic tricks.

Afterwards, we visited the Crown Fountain, a large sculpture fountain in the park. On this particular hot summer day, the fountain was teeming with Chicagoans of all sorts enjoying the water, which was "spit" from nozzles in the side of 50-foot towers. The towers themselves were decorated with a rotating series of faces, with the mouths of the faces at the nozzles.

My impression of the fountain was that it is a prime example of good public space-- both artistic and functional, and highly appreciated by the folks there. The air was full of the sound of people just having a good time, which is what a city park ought to do.

Afterwards, we headed across the park towards the waterfront and the famous Buckingham Fountain. Along the way, we encountered the Taste of Chicago festival-- which was good, as we were hungry-- but then we encountered the Taste of Chicago festival's price list. Suffice to say that we kept walking towards the fountain.

While Buckingham Fountain is obviously a work of art, it's a work of art somewhat unlike Crown Fountain. It's fenced off and offered no respite from the muggy heat that plagued the city in July. I'm told that there are water and light shows at the fountain, but we weren't there for either. Still hungry, we kept walking towards the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, as when I had last visited the city with my family there was a hot dog cart in front of the museum.

Sadly, the hot dog cart wasn't there. I brought down this beast, but as you can see it was all bones.

By this time, it was three in the afternoon and we were both hungry and a very long walk from the nearest CTA stop. So we turned to our smartphones for help. We found City Dogs in the Loop, and hiked back out to the Red Line for a trip inbound. Once there, we found that there are a lot of things to do to a hot dog beyond the usual ketchup.

It was delicious!

We rounded out our time in Chicago with a trip around on the CTA, followed by a ride out to Lincoln Park and a walk along the waterfront.

The waterfront trail links all of the parks along Chicago's lakeshore, and it was clearly very popular. Among the most interesting features I saw was this pavilion, where several people were sitting around playing chess. The boards were built in to the benches.

With Chicago (or at least its waterfront) thoroughly explored, we made our way back to Union Station and the Lakeshore Limited to Niagara Falls.