Chicago 2012
Part 2
The next day, on the way to the Museum of Science and Industry, we noticed the crowds outside Wrigley Field from the “L” at Addison station ahead of a Cubs game. I admit – I’ve never been to Nationals Park, so this was a bit of a novelty for me to see.
This sign struck me as rather heavy handed. This is on a Bank of America branch in the Loop area downtown. Specifically, the “NO TRESPASSING. Police take notice.” part was what struck me as excessive. Really, Bank of America? Isn’t this a bit much?
Mom and Sis posed for the camera while we waited for the bus to get to the museum.
The Swiss Jolly Ball exhibit.
The three of us posed for photos at the beginning of the Mythbusters exhibit. First we posed normally (left), and then we were supposed to look scared or something for the second one. I hadn’t quite read the entire memo on the second one by the time that they took the photo, and so the photo ended up being described as “scared, crazed, clean hands!”
This part of the Mythbusters exhibit tested the “Three Little Pigs” theory about houses built with straw, sticks, and bricks. Needless to say, the house I built, shown here, isn’t going anywhere. And considering I built it without doors or windows, I think that the occupants of this house wouldn’t be going anywhere, either…
Mom’s house goes through the blower to see how well it holds up. Turns out that it didn’t hold up as well as my big monster of a house…
Mom and Sis each try pulling the tablecloth out from under the dishes.
Sis attempts to “change like a superhero”, and put on the superhero outfit in a given time. She didn’t do as well as she had hoped, partly because the cape was already knotted in such a way that you couldn’t undo it.
Mustache mood ring. Apparently I was feeling quite satisfied.
All of us took a moment to pose with the clown cutouts. Mom and I just smiled, while Sis made various faces for the photos.
Mom takes a moment to pose in front of a funny mirror.
Tesla coil demonstration in the Science Storms exhibit.
Avalanche disk in the Science Storms exhibit.
The avalanche disk again, seen from above.
One of the things we did while at the museum was see the liquid nitrogen demonstration. Here, a girl holds one of those party favors that you blow into and they go “foo”, showing how it works just from the evaporating liquid nitrogen.
At the end of the liquid nitrogen demonstration, they made ice cream. I got Mom to volunteer to help with the demonstration. Here’s Mom stirring the ice cream mix while the person running the show adds the liquid nitrogen, and then the remains of the ice cream after everyone had a cup of it.
The Pioneer Zephyr train was on display near the entrance. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to fully check it out, but that’s something for next time, I suppose.
One thing about Chicago is that the exit signs are different. Local ordinance requires that exit signs be built to very specific requirements, which makes them unique within the city. You also get “stairs” signs, and in this case, in a store on the Magnificent Mile, there is a “fire escape” sign.
Following a brief shopping spell, we hit the Red Line to head back up to Rogers Park. This turned out to be far more exciting than we would have otherwise expected. There was a fire somewhere ahead of where we were on the line, and without sufficient track connections to single track around the problem area, our train was offloaded at Chicago station. This was something I’d experienced before on Metro, but never in Chicago. Mom, meanwhile, had never experienced a “meltdown” on a transit line before, and so she didn’t quite know where she was going. We ended up taking the 146 bus and then the 26 bus to get back up to Rogers Park.
Back in Rogers Park, we went to Giordano’s for some authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza. It was awesome. If you’ve never tried it, you must do so the next time you’re in Chicago. The top photo is one of my slices, and the bottom photo is the second half of the pizza after we each got a slice.
On Sunday, we got a photo of everyone for Dad, who couldn’t make it out for this trip. First we got photos of Sis and Chris. The left photo was posed, where Sis was like, “who is this?” and then the right photo was the real one.
Then after that, Mom got a photo of the three of us. And if I do say so myself, this photo looks way better than a similar photo we took in 2010.
At the Glenwood Sunday Market, I got more fruit photos. I don’t know how creative these are, but they’re pleasing to look at, and fun to take.
And then these are beets. I obviously have lived a sheltered life, because I never would have thought that beets looked like this in real life. I’m used to the kind that comes out of a can…
I was particularly interested by a cup of iced coffee that had just had some half-and-half poured into it. It was neat watching the milk and cream move through the otherwise mostly clear liquid. This photo was the alternate for one that I had featured on the Main Page in August 2012.
Tofu samples on toothpicks.
After we finished at Glenwood Sunday Market, we took a walk along Lake Michigan and saw the beach.
After the lake, we headed over to Navy Pier. There, I got to look at all of the different boats running around Lake Michigan.
This boat amused me. If you look at the full-sized image, you will see that the guys in this boat first of all, noticed me photographing them, and second, started posing for me.
This was another “wow moment” photo, like the photo of the little girl at the fountain from three days earlier. You can tell that she is completely absorbed in what she’s seeing, and enjoying every moment of it.
Another thing I saw at Navy Pier was a lot of birds. They were everywhere, doing their thing all around the pier.
The bird in the lower right above is actually part of a larger photo of the skyline. I love this photo because of the bird, but I have no idea how I want to present it. Do I focus on the bird? Any ideas?
Mom poses in another funny mirror. This one gives her quite the forehead, don’t you think?
I saw these signs in the window of one of the stores at Navy Pier. The first thing I thought when I saw these was, “Why don’t you tell us what you really think about your customers?”
Like the fruit earlier in the day, I also had some fun photographing the flowers.
After we finished at Navy Pier, we met up with Chris and headed out for dinner. We went to Indian Garden, which Sis and Chris found on Yelp with their phones, and we went based on the ratings. It was definitely awesome. First, it was a third story location with a really good view. It felt “big city”. Then the food was really good, too. We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly at this restaurant.
Since this was out last night in Chicago, we got group photos. We did this at Chicago station. First I took a picture of Mom, Sis, and Chris, and then when a woman walked by, I got her to take a picture of all of us.
On our last day in Chicago, Mom and I got checked out of our hotel, dropped our stuff off at the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago Union Station, and then headed out for a bit.
We visited the Target in the former Carson Pirie Scott Building, which was somewhat a mixed bag as far as these things go. On one hand, it is a reuse of an historic building. Also, the Target was pretty nice. It had two levels, the lower level had terrazzo floors, and it had a different signage scheme than most Targets do. Very minimalistic. However, I quickly got the feeling that Target really didn’t want to have to retain certain historical elements of the building. A lot of stuff was there just because Target was required to leave it there and not demolish it, and they made no effort to incorporate these unique elements into the decor, opting instead to just paint over them. For instance, the capitals on the columns were rounded and were intricately carved (or formed – I don’t know, but you get the point), and Target just painted them white. That kind of treatment is almost worse than demolishing them, because it makes them stick out as not being part of the decor, and it sends a message that if they had their way, they really wouldn’t have kept these historical elements.
After Target, we went to meet Sis at her office building to go out for lunch.
This is Sis’s building. Very impressive, if you ask me. It’s a mixed use building with offices on the lower floors and condos above. Considering the location of this building, I don’t even want to know how much these condos cost, but I guarantee you that I wouldn’t be able to afford it.
We ended up going to Soupbox, which is a small restaurant that sells exactly what it says on the tin: soup. It wasn’t bad. After lunch, we said goodbye to Sis (or so we thought), and then headed out again. We stopped in this store that sold all sorts of faux-historic items like from the early 1900s. A man with a bowler hat and a waxed mustache would not look at all out of place in one of these places. Then we got a call from Sis: due to a plumbing problem, the office was closing early, and she was joining us again. How cool!
We spent some time there, and then headed over to the “L” again. Time to ride the “L” one last time for this trip…
Surprise: I got a 5000-Series train for the first time! I was not expecting this, but I’m certainly not complaining. Compared to the 2200-Series cars, the 2400-Series cars, the 2600-Series cars, and the 3200-Series cars, these cars have more longitudinal seating, and more electronic things, like LED signage. Unlike when Metro in DC updated its 1970s-chic look with the 5000-Series cars, these cars leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that they are CTA railcars. The color scheme is the same, the styling is the same, and the announcements are the same.
After we got off the train, we all headed towards Union Station. One thing Sis pointed out was the Chicago Board of Trade Building, which was capped by a statue of Ceres. She said that it was her understanding that people said at the time that since the building was so tall, people wouldn’t be able to see that the statue had no face, and so the face was left blank. I took the above picture, and what do you know – blank face. I don’t know if that story is true or not, but the face is indeed blank.
When we got back to Union Station, we bid Sis goodbye, and headed into the Metropolitan Lounge to await our train. Soon it was time for the trip back to Washington to begin…
On the train leaving Chicago, we got our last look at the CTA Red Line for this trip. This, however, is the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line, and I’ve never been this far south on the Red Line. The furthest south that I’ve been on the Red Line as of this writing is Roosevelt.
At some point on the trip (possibly the outbound trip), I was talking to @MalnurturedSnay on the Twitter about railroad signals. I used the term “Darth Vaders” to refer to these railroad signals. The name comes from the fact that they somewhat resemble the helmet of Darth Vader from Star Wars. I tweeted this picture to clarify what I was discussing.
Around midnight, we rolled into Toledo, Ohio. I commented, “Holy Toledo, we’re in… Toledo!” I know – bad joke.
Around Toledo, I had my adult beverage for this trip. I had one of the little tiny overpriced bottles of wine that they sell in the Cafe/Lounge car, and drank it straight out of the bottle. I figure, we drink single-serve bottles of beer straight out of the bottle, so why not drink a single-serve bottle of wine straight out of the bottle, too, right?
Crossing the Potomac at Harpers Ferry. I think from here, we were only about two hours from DC.
Crossing Interstate 270 in Montgomery County. This is the bridge that is marked “Railroad Bridge” if you’re driving the highway. Northbound Exit 11 is visible in the photo.
Ride On’s Gaithersburg facility. I noticed that this is where the Champion cutaway vans went after they were all removed from service a week before we left for our trip, after far too many fires.
After we got home, we headed off to Arundel Mills while the house cooled off a bit. There, I found some monogrammed coasters. And I made them spell something. I promise that I’m normally more mature than this…