Downtown & Magnificent Mile

Starting with the Architectural society, where they had a great scale model, and I began out day downtown. As someone into the visual display of data, I was really impressed. They did a amazing job of dealing with three dimensions and annotating their 3D map. Somehow it made it easier to intepret, being grey, and little 2D signs highlighted buildings were always easy to spot on the the 3D model.

I find it an unpretentious city. People are extremely friendly.


This tower shares a name with me.






We had a picnic in a courtyard by the Art Institute, and then walked the Magnificent Mile. It is touristy, and I have done it before, but you have to do it. It's worth seeing. It was funny what I did and didn't remember. I remembered the Wrigley building from when I was 16, but I had forgot the Tribute is embedded with stones from sites around the world (including a few random ones I have since visited like Trondheim cathedral or Parliament in London).





Look! I found another crosswalk robot, like the one on College St, here in Toronto.


We went up the Hancock tower.




Even Tiffany's Atlas sculpture is apparent now a Blackhawks fan.

Then we went to a free classical concert in Millennium Park, featuring the Northwestern orchestra playing the music from The Red Violin.

Pilsen

Pilsen in a Mexican neighbourhood in Chicago. Lady Redjeep knew that her husband had taken visitors there. She had me interested as soon as she said 'mural'. I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do. We took the El to 18 Street Station and then just tried to explore based on what we read on wikipedia (which turned out not to be too accurate), but we eventually found a lot of wonderful art on the sides of walls, murals old and new as well as mosaics. The station itself is impressive. We also had a great, late, Mexican lunch. I took so many photos, I'm going to embed a slideshow, but first I'll highlight a few.






And this one is for reqbat :

Visiting the Art Institute, Chicago

My first day visiting Lady Redjeep, I hoped to catch a poetry reading at Northwestern, so I stayed in Evanston, rather than going downtown - though that only resulted in blisters on my feet, and the knowledge that despite a good sense of direction, a map is a good idea. I did see the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, which did contain some beautiful items, in a somewhat haphazard way. Their visiting exhibit was sponsored by the Canadian Consulate. It contained many prints by Bill Reid, which were variously identified as 'Tshimsham' or 'Haida' rather than Bill Reid (and if they wanted to list his affiliation they could have been consistent and accurate by identifying him as Haida). It seemed odd to me - his art is on our currency and he is quite well-known in Canada. But I did enjoy the art from the southwest, with which I am not really familiar. The Kachina dolls are fascinating.

My second day, I set off for downtown on the El, to go visit the Art Institute. Apart from visiting , and generally seeing Chicago again, this was my only real goal. They have got Stanley Cup fever, though, despite being an Original Six town, it seems this is not the most popular choice of sport, and some of the support was bandwagoning*. I was really amused by the Blackhawks paraphernalia in various places.

The special exhibit was about a transformative year for Matisse (1816-1817), and was packed, but interesting. They also had a great exhibit of local printmakers educated at SAIC. I spent all day there, which is easy to do at the Art Institute. They really do have a tremendous collection. There were things I recalled from visiting in my teens, like the Georgia O'Keefe paintings, and the miniatures, which I had forgotten until I saw them again. I had to skip some of their collection as there are so many hours in a day.

I walked around a little bit, but then got back on the El, to get back to Evanston and meet Lady Redjeep for dinner and movie.

I like the concept of the elevated 'subway', even if it is loud. It gives you a really unique view of the city, without interfering too much with traffic.





*Yes, that is a verb. I say so.

Southern Walkway

I found this vehicle hilarious.



But I found the hiking sign-post for a Lord of the Rings filming even more hilarious.



A geodetic marker for any earth science nerds. Never found one by accident before.





Apart from birds, I could hear a sports announcer's voice echoing around the hills. I would have guessed rugby, but I passed a giant cricket pitch... so I'm not sure.


When I came down from the hills I was in Newton. The houses are small, and cute and often have corrugated tin roofs. There was a sort of hospital/medical area around the University of Otago's medical school. (Why the U of Otago has a medical school there and not in Otago, I don't know). I stopped for lunch (it was 3:30 and I was starving) in a café called the Recovery Room.




I like the little kid painting of an octopus.


Sometimes Wellington looks like the set of a wild west movie ... well, except for the electrical wires.


Sometimes it's all dainty and Victorian.