We caught the Lake Shore Limited, the Amtrak sleeper to Chicago, at Penn Station. We had a charming room with two seats and a toilet. We rode up the Hudson River valley at sunset with the occasional rain showers and then glorious shafts of sunlight. Really, someone should do some oil paintings of this area. We had an almost edible dinner in the dining car, then went to bed and woke up in Toledo. Not, alas, the one El Greco hailed from. No, this is the one that John Denver famously panned. But no place looks particularly good from its railroad tracks.
After a few more hours across verdant farmland and a bit of industrial wasteland, we arrived in Chicago. My cousin Rebecca and her husband Dennis were off at a memorial service, so we let ourselves in. This gave us a chance to scope out their condo which is a block off the lake. My favorite part of their home is the sunroom. I kicked out the cat and set up residence.
When they returned, we were delighted to find out that their son John and my cousin Emmalyn were there for the weekend. We celebrated the family reunion, as I like to celebrate everything, by going out to dinner!
John was considering having the duck but decided against it. Or maybe vice versa….
The next day, to conclude our theatrical tour of the summer, we saw a matinée of War Paint at the Goodman Theatre. With designs on Broadway, this musical stars Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole. This casting of two major divas makes musical theater types feverish with anticipation. The divas didn't disappoint but, once again, and I know it's old-fashioned, a few tunes wouldn't hurt. Every tuneless song is sung like a showstopper and this was just in Act I. Act II has a little more variety and a lot more costumes. As for its chances on Broadway, see my list of shows I didn't like in my comments on The Color Purple.
That evening Dennis barbecued and John had a one-day-early ice cream birthday pie. After nearly a month on the road it was nice to have a home-cooked meal.
The next day, the Fourth of July itself, we went on a tour of the Windy City. Rebecca is a docent with the Chicago Architecture Foundation and does walking tours of the Loop. She is getting ready to start doing the boat tours that are certainly the most famous offerings of that organization. So we booked a tour and sat in the back. Rebecca told us what the lady was going to say even before she said it. Our docent was pretty good. Rebecca will be fantastic. We both posed for pictures with the skyline in the background.
Chicago is a more satisfying place to see monumental commercial buildings than New York is. There is something about the Manhattan grid that makes it impossible to ever find a place to see anything except maybe the Old Pan Am building. The river and the more generous sense of space in Chicago allow you to appreciate the buildings better. Even when they are monikered in ways you’d rather not see….
We went to the top of the old London Insurance building, now a hotel, for a drink on the rooftop bar. I had no idea it was possible to charge so much for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
But the view is, I suppose, what you’re really paying for. And who can resist this view up the north fork of the River along Wacker Drive?
Rebecca told me that John that he should find a restaurant for his birthday lunch. He consulted the phone and found the River Roast, a place specializing in roast meats (this is Chicago, not Santa Monica) right on the river by the La Salle Street bridge. We called Dennis and the crew and before long we were all seated down for a delicious meal. It was fun finding a place that where the locals had never eaten before!
Since it was his birthday John got to sit next to Rebecca.
Our last morning in Chicago was devoted to more art and architecture. That’s the theme of the painting below, I think. Or maybe those are just rectangles and not a skyline. The viewer is the one who creates the meaning...
Rebecca gave us an abbreviated version of her Loop tour. We started at the headquarters of the Architecture Foundation.
We saw great old Chicago favorites like the Board of Trade
and The Rookery.
Dennis and Rebecca wanted to take us to lunch at the University Club. There’s a cool balcony near the top floor. That’s where the arrow slits on the ninth floor are in the picture below. There must be a correct architecture term for that. We will have to ask Rebecca next time we see her.
Unfortunately, Dennis was wearing an extremely tasteful tee shirt and John was wearing those godawful cargo shorts, and both of these were fashion faux-pas for The University Club. So while we were not completely expelled from the premises, we had to eat lunch by ourselves in an enormous gothic room. I missed the lake view, but it was a pretty cool Downton Abbey feeling.
After this, we went off to the Art Institute
