Chicago

Gregg got asked to speak at the Unspam conference in Greenville, SC back in January and did such a great job (he was everyone's favorite speaker!) they asked him to come back again to the one they were holding in Chicago in April. This time he took me along on an extended date trip (first one since 2016!) and the kids partied hard with Grandpa and Grandma Blanchard. We all had a great time!

Our flight left Salt Lake in the afternoon on Wednesday, 27 April. As we were in line for security, we recognized Gregg's cousin Becca pass by us. The crazy part is that we'd never even know that he was related to her except that we had just met her at a memorial service for her dad, Gregg's uncle Rex, just a few days before. There has been a lot of . . . stuff . . . in the Blanchard family over the years, so it was super awesome to come together for that and to meet a lot of cousins, etc that we didn't know about. Well, it turns out that she and her brother and mom (Rex's ex-wife) were on our exact same flight! Gregg chatted with them at the gate, and then we ended up sitting right behind them on the plane! Such a small world. They were continuing on to New York, but it was fun to get to know them a bit while we waited to deplane.

We landed in Chicago, caught an uber (my first!) downtown to our hotel, dropped our bags, and then headed back out in search of food. We walked a couple blocks (under the el!) to Lou Manalti's for Chicago style deep dish pizza (!!!). It was a marvelous introduction to the city, I must say.

We walked under the el tracks and then a train went by!

Oh yes!

Our hotel was The Blackstone, hence
the B in tiles on the floor of the elevator.
I liked it because B is for Blanchard. ;)

Bathroom art and wallpaper. It was . . .
interesting.

The next morning (Thursday the 28th), I walked with Gregg to his conference building, where he stayed for the morning sessions while I wandered the city. I walked and walked and walked and walked and just couldn't stop walking because I wanted to see more and more and more. I walked to the Art Institute, and down through Grant Park to the Buckingham Fountain and then over to the Lake and down to the Columbia Yacht Club and then back over through another park/amphitheatre and ended up at the library. I went up the escalators through every floor (I loved the 2nd floor kids library area, but I actually got in "trouble" (asked to leave by the security guards) for sitting on the benches outside the doors because it was "reserved for parents with their kids only". The top floor was called the "Winter Garden" and was a big open room with glass ceilings and lots of windows. I could have stayed there all day, but there weren't very many spots to sit (everything was spaced really far apart because of covid, I think). I looked at displays about Harold Washington, who the library was named after, and some about the Chicago fire. It was cool. Then I walked back to the hotel and crashed until Gregg got there and we headed out for lunch (at a chain called I Dream of Falafel) and more walking.

First glimpse of the library as we passed on our way to
Gregg's conference meeting place.

Walking under the el again.

Have fun! See you later!
(Also, that's the Sear's Tower in the background,
nbd.)

Walked past the Chicago Symphony building. I liked
that it had the names of composers engraved on the walls:
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner.

A cool fountain next to the Art Institute (but it didn't
have water in in yet).

Walking down Michigan Avenue.

Looking back the other way on Michigan Ave.

I crossed a bridge over into Grant Park.

I was bummed to miss Buckingham Fountain's water
show . . . according to this super old sign near it, I only
missed it by a few days, but later I learned that it's opening
was actually a week or so into May and then I didn't
feel quite so sad for some reason.

Water in the fountain and beyond is Lake Michigan.

You can see our hotel from here! It's red brick
with a green roof on the right side.

It's cool how the city skyline runs two directions
in Chicago . . . parallel to the lake and then also along
the Chicago river.

A fire boat!

That's a big 'un!

It's actually the Columbia Yacht Club.

Out yonder where the ferris wheel is is Navy Pier.

bonus video!

"it was noisy"

Heading back I spotted a cool park across the street
and wished the kids were with me to try it out.

This is the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park,
where free concerts are held in the summer.

Just so many cool buildings!

Another sighting of our hotel . . . that green roof is sure
handy for orienting me!

Back to the library!

Harold Washington was the mayor of Chicago
and the library is named after him. He seems
like a good dude, from what I learned.

Looking down on the lobby from the second floor.

Meanwhile, Gregg was here, listening and learning.

Ah, here's the Winter Garden! Isn't it magnificent?

"Most of our problems can be solved. Some of them will take brains, some of them will take patience, and all of them will have to be wrestled with like an alligator in a swamp." -Harold Washington

There is lots of art all over the buildings all over the city, 
but this one was especially delightful.

Origami Chicago Flag that greeted us every time
we got off the elevator in our hotel.

After lunch, Gregg ditched the conference and we spent a few hours wandering through the massive Art Institute of Chicago. It was amazing! We barely scratched the surface, but it was fun to spot some really familiar and famous paintings, along with others that were new to us, but still really awesome.

I liked this one (and Gregg made sure I saw it) because of the
babeeee cooooow! (You have to say that in a really high squeaky
voice every time you see a new calf in the spring ;)

Of course, this one was thrilling to see . . . I had no
idea it was so huge! This was Gregg's fave, since it's made famous
in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

And over here we have Monet.

Just look at those thick globs of paint! Van Gogh
put them there himself!!

More Van Gogh.

More Monet.

And Georgia O'Keeffe! It was especially fun to see this
ginormous clouds pic by her since we learned about her
in school this year. (Also: Monet and Horace Pippin.)

I snapped this sign but didn't take a pic of the painting
because it was the one on the cover of our map.
You can look it up, I guess. ;)

Here's Horace Pippin, who I had never heard of until
we did a whole RAR Family Book Club about him.
Such an inspiring story! Check out A Splash of Red by
Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet for more info.

 Classic!

More O'Keeffe.

I just liked this one because it looked sort of like home,
by Marsden Hartley.

And this one looked like a Christmas card or puzzle,
by Lauren Stewart Harris.

Jackson Pollock, pretty cool.

I had heard that the miniature rooms in the basement were
a must see, and they totally were! I can't believe the detail in
these little scenes!

What a fun way to spend an afternoon!
(Us outside the museum, by the lions that guard
the doors.)

It was drizzling, but that didn't stop us from walking
across the street to Millennium Park to peek at the bean.

Officially called Cloud Gate, but I think the Bean
is quite fitting.

Rainy reflection.

On the inside.

This was supposed to be a fountain, shooting water
out of her lips, but like most water features in the city,
it wasn't working quite yet.

Here's another amphitheater.

And a cool bridge that takes us over the road into Maggie
Daley Park.

This is the cool playground I spotted earlier in the day,
and after seeing it up close, I know the kids would have
a blast here!

Yarn bombing in the wild, along Lake Shore Drive.

This is our awesome view from the hotel
room. ;)

After all that walking (22,000 steps!!) I was dead meat. We just stayed in the hotel room for the rest of the night and ate our leftover deep dish for dinner.

The next morning, (Friday the 29th), Gregg plaid hooky from the morning sessions of the conference and we spent a few hours roaming the Field Museum. My favorite part was saying hi to Sue the T-Rex (which we also knew about from a picture book, called When Sue Found Sue). We wandered through exhibits about the ancient Americas, the South Pacific islands, the history of the earth, ancient Egypt, rocks and gems . . . probably more that I can't even remember. It was a lot. And it wasn't even close to all of it. 

The museum is absolutely ginormous! I can't even fit
the whole thing in one picture!

Yet another famous dino that we read about in a book -
this one is named Maximo and he's a titanosaur.

And he's absolutely huge!

Head waaaaaayy up there . . . 

. . . . tail waaaaayy over there.

Here I am, right under the middle.

I had forgotten about the book called Titanosaur: Discovering 
the World's Largest Dinosaur that we had plucked off the shelf
sometime in the last few years (during Sam's mega dino phase) until
I saw this dino and read this sign. So fun to make connections from books!

I just can't imagine meeting something this large in the wild.

Mostly I took this for Sam so we have a map to reference
while playing Worldle since we don't have a placemat covering
Oceania.

Hi, Maximo! from the second floor.

I was definitely most impressed with the dino sections of
the museum, hence only having pics from those exhibits.

Just the fact that these were mostly actual fossils on display,
and not casts like we see in our dinosaur museum in Ogden,
really impressed me.

This is Sue's actual skull - and it's squashed!
(The squashing happened during fossilization, and I love
that it's not "perfect", even though they recreated a "perfect"
one to have on display with the rest of the skeleton.)

Hi, Sue!

In pictures I've see of this dino before, it didn't have
those bottom ribs on display. Now it makes Sue look
extra brawny around the middle.

I don't know why, but we were just really nerding out
in this room.

The other end of Sue's room had other skulls and bones
and displays.

But Sue was definitely the star of the show in here.

You can really see the squashing from this angle.

We came around the corner after leaving Sue and I was like, 
"Whoa! I know that crocodile! It's Arvid!" See, my uncle Ken
had a terrazzo floor made in his office at Heritage Glass to look
like this exact crocodile, and he named it Arvid. I mopped and buffed 
that thing countless times! So it was fun to see a familiar friend. Haha.

This kind of blew my mind. Whales used to be four-legged
land animals!?!!?!

This giant sloth blew my mind, too - holy smokes!

Saying farewell, till next time!

Eventually we headed back toward the hotel, grabbed a lunch of Chicago hot dogs at Devil Dawgs (we had walked past it the first night on our way to the deep dish pizza), ate, listened to Gregg practice his talk one more time, and then he left to go give his presentation in the afternoon session.  While he was gone, I did absolutely nothing with my body except lay about the hotel room. Seriously. I was SO tired, and I was trying to save my legs for our evening's adventures. I did a bit of reading and a lot of searching for the best Italian Beef sandwiches to get for dinner.

There's the Blackstone with it's easily
identifiable green roof!

Devil Dawgs was super busy, and for good reason!
It was delish!!

Walking back to our hotel with our grub. Just liked
all the contrasting colors and textures and layers.

This was the Chicago polish: grilled onions,
sport peppers and mustard.

This was the Chicago dog: mustard, onions, relish, pickle,
tomato, sport peppers and celery salt (yes, there is a delicious
hot dog in there!).

Part of my research for Italian Beef spots along our planned
route post conference.

Gregg finished up his talk (and rocked it, of course) and I met him at the coworking space and we headed out for our river walk dinner date. We walked along the river walk and enjoyed the architecture and the water. The Italian Beef I ended up choosing was in a cute little Italian restaurant across the river called Buongiorno's Cucina. We ordered their famous Italian Beef (and it was fantastic) and a plate of ravioli to split. We even splurged and got pistachio gelato and an apricot sandwich cookie for dessert. Then we were back out in the drizzle to wander some more. We discovered that a show called Art on the Mart would be playing later and we wanted to see what it was all about, so we walked back and forth past the Mart along the riverwalk, then came back to the Mart to watch the art display and interpretive dance projected on the wall of the giant building (there are a lot of those in this city, it turns out!). Then we walked back to the hotel a new way, past the Sear's Tower (whoops, Willis Tower), and through some new-to-us streets. When we made it back I had hit 26,000 steps (and that was even with my 5 hour stretch of barely moving at all in the middle of the day!). Phew!

These apartments looked like corn cobs to me. The bottom
sections are the parking garage and you can see the cars backed
right up to the edge of the floor!

The Chicago Tribune Tower is in the middle.

The Wrigley Building.

Yummy scrummy!

Here's the Mart. We'll be back.

This is the back of the Chicago Opera House.

We were killing time so we checked out Union Station.

By the time we came out it was really dark and the lights
were really lovely reflecting off the river.

That blue light in the middle is a church practically in
the middle of an intersection. Lots of blue and yellow lighting
around in support of Ukraine, too.

Oh! Looks like the show is starting on the Mart.

The first part was projections of artwork by local
students.

Then there was an interpretive dance about global warming
called floe.

bonus video!

"interpretive dance on a wall"

Our flight didn't leave till Saturday afternoon, so we had the morning to explore a bit more. We threw around ideas like touring Wrigley Field, but we ended up just walking down to Navy Pier and doing a little souvenir shopping (at Target - seriously it's the best place to find city stuff) on the way. Then we grabbed our backpacks and looked for a place for lunch. Everything we passed was super crowded, so we ended up at a local-ish chain, that happened to be inside a gas station, which was decent and at least had a spot for us to sit down to eat. As we were eating we noticed an el station just across the street and thought it would be fun to take a little ride before we caught an uber back to the airport. We figured out the ticket machine for a one-stop fare and climbed the stairs to the top. As we were waiting, we realized we could go all the way to the airport with the $2.00 tickets we bought, so we thought, what the heck. It was a relaxing ride through the outskirts of the city and we got to the airport with plenty of time to rest and wait.

Just as we were about to board, though, there were storms building up outside the window and rain was falling hard. We even got a tornado alert inside the terminal and on our phones. But nobody did anything, so we just followed their lead and waited to board. Finally our flight attendants or pilot or whoever we were waiting for arrived and we got on the plane. Once again we lucked out and got seats next to each other for the right home. Cal and Sam and Grandpa and Grandma met us at the airport with signs and hugs and it was so good to receive both.

Yachts on the river near Navy Pier.

Flower planter or goose nesting box?

I thought the elevator was so fancy in our hotel, I had
to snap a pic on our last ride up.

This was one end of the lobby - the stairs go up to a restuarant
or down to another street entrance.

The lobby the other way.

View of town and the lake from the el station.
That gas station is where we ate lunch.

Pigeon on the platform.

Ridin' the el.

Definitely not fancy, but stress-free and cheap!

Lots of el trains parked right by the airport.

Storm's a comin'!

Listened to this on the plane (highly recommend that format... verse novel read by the author... so good!). It’s been on my tbr list for a long while, and I’m glad I finally got to it. A powerful story of a teen whose brother has been shot and killed and his long elevator ride down from his room to the outside where he’s planning to seek revenge. On that ride he meets a variety of people who make him think about his next steps. Hard topic, for sure, but beautifully and cleverly done.

So glad to be home!

What a fun getaway - and happy to be home with the fam.