Cold and Hungry in Chicago
Growing up in central Illinois, I have been to Chicago many times. In fact, a couple years ago I traveled to Chicago for work every week for a year. I flew in, took the train to the Sears Tower, stayed at a hotel a couple blocks away, occasionally took a cab to one of the many unique neighborhoods for dinner and then flew home. I had seen and done many things in Chicago over the years but I hadn’t really opened my eyes to it for a really long time. With this in mind, on my recent Chicago visit my sister and I planned a whole day for taking a photo tour of Chicago. The day we chose was Tuesday…which ended up being a drizzly, overcast, cold day. It wasn’t ideal, but we set out anyway.
The same year that I was traveling back and forth I read a book by Erik Larson, “Devil in the White City.” If you haven’t heard of it, it is a book that follows the architect for the World’s Fair of 1893 as he planned and built the “white city” and a serial killer who was loose in Chicago at the same time. I found the history completely fascinating and it made me appreciate the architecture of the buildings that were created for World’s Fair, such as the Museum of Science and Industry, that still stand today. The train ride from Midway to the Sears Tower had a whole new meaning for me, but I still hadn’t visited any of the Fair’s buildings. So on our photo tour, an obvious choice to visit was the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry and the Osaka Japanese Gardens which were built as part of the Wooded Island for the Fair.
After the Osaka Gardens we headed downtown to Grant Park and the Agora structure, which is 106 headless hollow structures that appear to be wandering about and to Millennium Park to view the “Cloud Gate” structure, or the “bean” as most people call it. I didn’t know the history of the “bean” before, but I am now so amazed by it. It is a seamless structure designed to showcase clouds floating among the Chicago skyline from every angle viewed and is also meant to be a gate by which visitors could pass under and view their reflection floating much the same as the clouds. Amazing.
Our intentions were to tour and photograph the whole day, but we found ourselves very cold and very hungry and after a couple hours sought warmth and nourishment at Penny’s Noodle Shop. Fresh ingredients put together to create subtlely spicey and flavorful food. Although it wasn’t the day we had planned, we had a great time and, of course, you can’t go wrong with a day that ends with Thai food.
To view more pictures from Chicago, click here.
