The Night Chicago Died

Okay, so Chicago didn’t die.  But kudos to you if you remember that song.  Anyway, I’m in a picture-posting mood, so here are some random pictures from our trip to Chicago.

View of the skyline from the Shedd Aquarium/Field Museum.  I love the saturated colors in this one.  It was cloudy almost the entire time that we were there, but I didn’t mind since it kept the heat at bay – helpful when you are walking absolutely everywhere.

Sometimes I have no idea why I take pictures.  Again, I just really liked the colors in this one – greens against browns with a little bit of blue sky (some of the only blue sky we saw during our stay).  And I love the great old ”Tip-Top-Tap” sign perched on top.  I wish Houston had better preservation laws and took an active interest in its architecture and history.  Anyway…

I think my father still owns that phone on the far right.  Courtesy of the Museum of Science and Industry.

Another pic courtesy of the Museum of Science and Industry.  Seriously?  If you’re a huge dork like me, you have to visit this museum if you go to Chicago.  So much fun.  Bit of advice: don’t take the El.  Because then you’ll have to walk about 80 blocks through some really scary parts of town on the south side to get there.  And then you’ll have to catch a cab back to the El station and your cab driver will be from Swaziland and he (a) won’t speak English and (b) won’t know what the “El” is.  So you’ll have to direct him for 80 blocks using only hand signals.

That aside, what a fantastic little model of Seattle they’ve built…in the middle of a museum in Chicago.  Yeah.

Okay, last pic from the Museum.  Real pig or highly-lifelike plastic pig?  Your move, holy man.

The only plus side to walking all the way from the El station to the Museum is that you get to pass through the truly gorgeous University of Chicago campus.  When Richard says that he feels like he’s back in England for a minute, that means something.  And apparently, that something is that England has gotten really hot and crime-ridden.

I don’t know about “Interactive Toys in 1793.”  These are pretty much the same toys I played with when I was a kid in the 80s.  Kids these days are spoiled little assholes.  Sticks and frogs are as good as it gets, man.

Chicago Board of Trade.  Not much to say about this one…  It’s a Board.  Where people Trade.

View from…where else?  The Sears Tower.

Little known fact:  Harry Caray’s bottom half was made entirely of small, malformed lesser human beings.  Embarassment over his affliction led Harry to a lifetime of announcing, where he could discreetly hide his freakish lower legs behind a desk and microphone.  When in public, Harry relied upon enormous prank glasses to attract attention away from his deformity.

Last but not least, John Malkovich was kind enough to join us on a pleasure cruise around the lake.  That isn’t annoyance you see on his face from having me repeatedly take his picture while trying to be inobtrusive (which you all know is impossible for me), that’s annoyance at the fact that the I.T. department at his office didn’t get him a computer nearly as cool as mine.  He’s right pissed about it.

Okay…Chicago in a nutshell.  Hope you enjoyed.