Sweet Home Chicago

I was lucky enough to get home for a couple weeks in September. While there, I gorged myself on pizza, a variety of beer, and Spanish, French, Thai, Mexican, and Italian cuisine. I also checked out some Japanese restaurants, though I found once again that the proprieters were Korean (ironic given that most Koreans continue to hate the Japanese because of acts of brutality committed beford and during WWII, not to mention Japanese failure to atone for said atrocities). The Chicago Art Institute, a walking architectual tour of downtown, a Cubs game in Milwaukee, cycling in Bussee Woods and along the Fox River Trail, boating on Lake something-or-other in nearby Wisconsin, a four day trip to the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore in NW Michigan.......it was a spectacular but busy "vacation". The best part was just be able to hang out with my family and friends. Good company really does make a place. Below are some choice pics.


Above right: The domed roof of the Chicago Cultural Center, initially built as a public library in the late 19th-century.

Above left: The Chicago Art Institute, one of the finest of its kind in the known world.


Above: This shot doesn't warrant inclusion without an explanation. Named for the foul smelling plants that covered the banks of the Chicago river prior to the European invasion, "Chicago" literally means "land of stinking onions" in the local Native American language (Illini? Miami?). This fence surrounds a ventilation shaft of some sort. If you follow the vertical poles down towards the sidewalk, you'll see that they seem to sprout from an onion-like bulb, representing the land of stinking onions that we all know and love.

Right: Me and The Gregory, Cubs v. Brewers, Millers Stadium, Milwaukee. Cubbies won. Holy cow.

Right: My father, John, cycling on the Fox River Trail.

Old friends.

Looks like the Sleeping Bear Dunes portion of my report will have to wait. It's simply too rich a subject to for today. We build up to things like that....