Thursday 22 June 2023
Today JC chose our first activity today, a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago. However, before we got there I was desperate to find a Tourist Information. Strangely enough they are very hard to come by in Chicago. I'm used to railway stations and tourist areas having kiosks with maps and guides, but I just couldn't find any. After a google, I discovered there was one in the ginormous Macey's and we walked in to find yet another wonderful Tiffany ceiling. I also found a heap of maps and guides which made me very happy.
Anyway, back to Art. It was a lovely museum entrance, and then we headed for JC's favourite, ancient Asian (mainly Chinese) art.
He has a love of their old porcelain and pots which I don't share - at home he has an old Chinese saucer (which I thought was just a random old bit of pottery) which I planned to as a ring tray until he exclaimed how precious it was to him. So he pottered around ooh'ing and aah'ing: I tried to understand, but needless to say I forgot to take any photos.
I was more engaged when the stained glass appeared, America Windows by Marc Chagall and stained glass by Frank Lloyd Wright (remember him from Tuesday?).
Not to mention the Hartwell Memorial window, another Tiffany marvel, relocated from a church in Rhode Island.
We sauntered through the galleries - a Monet here and a Turner there.
Renoir and Collier (picture loved for its subject matter).
Seurat and Van Gogh
Matisse and Picasso
Pollock and Kandinsky
I loved most of these (the last two are lovely) but then it got a bit too modern for me...
Hockney and Litchenstein
Baer (piece is called Brilliant Yellow) and Hesse (piece is called The Hang Up). This latter piece had a museum attendant watching it, I think to stop people swinging on it. I asked her if people regularly tripped over it and she just looked at me, unsmiling, as if I was an idiot.
Anyway, once I was all cultured up - my lack of art knowledge never ceases to amaze JC - we headed for a Ruth treat, mini golf. It was an 18 hole course and I was comprehensively beaten by JC which made me more irked than it should. I'm not a great loser!
A bit more traipsing around Millennium Park (and its Pritzker stadium) and a sad and unloved paper-stand, superseded by modern life and now used as a bin.
Then it was down to Adams Street (yay) for supper in the famous https://www.theberghoff.com/.
The evening was not yet over as the sun had set and JC had plans. We headed down to the Buckingham Fountain which we knew was lit up at night. What we had forgotten was at 2100 (and perhaps at other times) there is a water display. The speakers surrounding the fountain suddenly spluttered into life broadcasting loud up-beat classical music, reminding me of Vietnam and their communist style tannoy broadcasts. The foundation spurted up and the light show was pretty magnificent.
More night train shots followed. JC's will be far more awesome than mine, but mine did only take a smidgen of the time to take ;-)
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