A Taste of Chicago

Many people have told me I'd love Chicago. Is that uniquely _I_ would enjoy it? Or any given person would?

Well they were right. Previously I had spent only half a day in Chicago and liked it. Today we rambled down the 90 east until we hit downtown. I certainly don't know my way around and the wife has never been at all so we decided on a road that would take us to the lakefront near the art museum. Traffic was terrible but maybe that's just typical dowtown traffic. We decided that rather than pay to park we'd just check in to the nearest hotel and use their parking. We fully expected outrageous big city pricing. The first place we found was The Congress Plaza Hotel. The place looked elegant. We were pleasantly suprised at the room rate of $99 a night. But then the room was...well the elegance of this hotel has faded a bit. Nothing wrong with the room aside from the smell of too much cleaning chemicals. The parking fee was $24 and the internet connection was $10 a day so now the low price made more sense.

Then we walked about and just opposite the hotel was The Taste of Chicago. We couldn't have done things better if we'd planned for it. We took a look at the food offerings and pressed on to the Art Institute. Only to discover at 5:10 pm that thursdays are free after 5pm. Yes! We toured the modern wing and the contemporary wing.

One exhibit was a pile of hard candies on the floor. And I had seen people eating the same candies. Then a guy grabbed a handful. I said to the wife "people are eating the candy from that exhibit." She was incredulous. We couldn't believe big city art fans could be such philistines.
Then I read the placard which encouraged us to take a piece of candy and taste the art. So I did. And a young woman nearby told me not to eat the art.

Photography was not discouraged in the museum.

Then back to the Taste to have a taste of: ribs, catfish, beef satays, garlic potatoes, collard green egg roll, Sweet Baby Ray's pulled pork BBQ, fried dough and cheesecake...but you know just a taste of 'em.

Train was playing so we sat down to hear "Drops of Jupiter" and a few others. Then we walked through the theater area and back to our aromatic room on the 11th floor. I look down on the El (metro) like a model train set writ large.


Should be noted that thus far the trip has but nearly traffic jam free despite the holiday ( a bit slow near Fort Collins) until we hit Illinois. We actually sat still on the 90 for a few minutes.