Whirlwind Chicago

We are riding the 'high' of having squeezed in a 4 day trip to Chicago without kids but with our dear friends Ros & Marc to celebrate a special birthday

First off, it truly is the windy city

Secondly, yes, we 2 did drive - there and back = 18 1/2 hours...

It is a fantastic tourist city - we crammed our schedule full but still left so much for a second or third or fourth visit!

Friday afternoon: Chicago history museum; then settled at our rented apartment; grabbed a bite of super yummy Mexican food and saw a fantastic play at a community theatre. It was about one of Chicago's 'projects' black ghetto towers.

Saturday: met Ros & Marc at the airport; found a funky cafe for brunch (the Bourgeois Pig) in our neighbourhood (Lincoln Park) and then headed into town on the "el". We took part in Doors Open Chicago by wandering into the river museum and the Chicago Cultural Centre (to see the stunning Tiffany mosaics and dome); we walked the Magnificent Mile and explored the wonderful Millenium Park. However, the highlight was the Chicago Architectural Foundation's tour by boat along various branches of the Chicago river.
Then it was a zip back to our hood to see a weaker stage production (4 shorter plays about the Middle east - a couple of us nodded off...) but a yummy late meal at a French bistro.

Sunday morning meant we were due earlyish for brunch near the University of Chicago (southside) with a high school friend of my sister's. We had a great induction into many things Chicago - politics, weather, university, neighbourhoods, schools, etc. Since the rain had stopped, we toured the campus a bit and wandered down to the Obama residence ( a block away is a boarded-up mansion of similar size and vintage...). And then we ended up in a great bookshop, congregating in the kids section, much to my love's dismay...

The 4 of us then hightailed it into the centre of town to the world-famous Art Institute of Chicago. Our goals were to eat in the renowned restaurant (this trip had a lot of eating involved), see the American art collection, and soak in the building. Tick off all those boxes, plus two exhibits of wartime posters (one general and one the TASS collection from the USSR). And yet we still only saw about 15% of the exhibits.

Despite being crazy tired, I was persuaded to go to the Chicago International Film Festival. We saw a comedy about teen phone sex. Truly. It was the only that had tickets left for an hour or more and I was complaining of falling asleep in the lobby. But it did turn out to be a highly amusing take on small Norwegian communities. Unsurprisingly, back at the flat, we just cracked open a bottle of wine and ate gourmet chips - no fancy dinner, no take-out, nothing!

Monday morning everyone slept in and so we ended up failing to see any of the leafy ex-burb of Oak Park with Ros & Marc. They had to scramble for the airport ultimately. However, my love and I got to meander through Frank Lloyd Wright's old stomping/house-building grounds. We also did the guided tour of his first house and studio. Not bad from the outside (compared to most of his work, I would say) but very interesting on the inside - the kids would have LOVED the playroom with barrel ceiling, tiered seating, loads of space and light. It turns out that like many visionaries, he had a tumultuous domestic life to say the least (3 wives, a mistress who was killed by a mass murderer, big rifts with partners, etc) and yet a strong commitment to bring women into the professions of architecture and draughting (he mentored over 100 women at the turn of the last century).

We left a wee bit behind schedule, but the drive was fine (well, I say that not having driven the car one kilometre). But we read - using the new e-reader - and munching on licorice, processed what we had just seen in the Windy City as well as caught up about career thoughts and people we had seen too much of or too little of recently.

Can't wait to do it again!