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icepixieChicago pictures and commentary under the cut!
We spent Friday afternoon at the Art Institute, which was a good choice. They had a special exhibit on Fashion and Modernity that was nifty.
They also have lions out front:
And some Tiffany lamps inside:
And the third-largest paperweight collection in the world!
Pretty.
Pretty. BUT LOOK AT WHAT IT'S GROWING OUT OF.
Millefiores.
Looking much like Christmas candy.
The Institute also has a collection of over 100 "miniature rooms." AKA? DOLLHOUSE MUSEUM. And they were incredibly, painstakingly detailed dollhouses, too. I had a good time there, even though the glass in front of them thwarted many of my photographic efforts.
American kitchen of some era or other.
Entry hall of gorgeousness.
There's even a little half-finished painting!
I'll happily take that bathroom off your hands...
The DETAIL.
The info card called this "A Tennessee Plantation." It's actually the Hermitage in Nashville, once the home of Andrew Jackson.
I started getting a little silly.
I'm not a big fan of Chagall--in fact, I usually find his work actively ugly--but I like the colors here.
Saturday was the wedding! Train schedules were not in our favor, so we got there rather early. But it meant we had time to eat breakfast in a coffee shop and poke through a paper and craft store, so that worked out well.
Highland Park has the cutest public library ever.
The two pictures I managed to get of the ceremony. I was seated behind some very tall people. (Whit, was there supposed to be a bride's side and a groom's side? 'Cause if there was, we kind of missed that...) The ceremony was quite lovely and moving. I especially liked the rector's (reverend's? lady in charge of things?) homily, which was so well-structured and personal and a bit funny, and really just made the former rhetoric teacher in me dance with glee.
Whitney's older sister was at our table during the reception, and she looked absolutely fabulous in her Old Hollywood garb.
We each got a rose petal folded in our napkin, and I...got a little restless at one point. By the end of the reception, I had almost all the table's rose petals in my glass.
The best picture I got of the wedding. I really enjoyed the bubbles. (Johann enjoyed the bubbles that night as well. Or, well, his reaction was more like, "New thing in my space, must investigate--OH GOD IT POPPED ON ME!")
The getaway car. We actually ran into Whitney, Daniel, and the driver back in the church parking lot when we walked back to get to Kate's car, and the driver mentioned it was a...1929 Ford? I think? Something like that.
With an appropriate hood ornament.
Smiling regally at the crowd.
After the reception, since we were in the neighborhood, we made our (very, very cold) way to the Chicago Botanical Gardens.
They have fountains:
And water gardens:
And a statue of some eighteenth-century dude picking a statue of a mushroom or something, I'm not sure:
And appropriately enough in Frank Lloyd Wrong country, boxy trees:
Japanese garden from afar.
Heron, perhaps skulking around in search of koi...
Attractive vista.
Attractive vista with dramatic lighting!
Hummingbird moth.
We went into the greenhouses to warm up at this point. (Pretty wedding guest dresses + 65F and cloudy = brrrrr.)
Orchid log.
Mmmm, chocolate.
The desert greenhouse.
We then wandered into the...I guess it was the humid subtropical greenhouse? Or the Zone 7a greenhouse? Basically, my yard. They had crepe myrtle trees in there, blooming away. It was bizarre seeing them in a greenhouse.
Pitcher plaaaaant!
I have some neighbors who would love these things.
Strange and bright plant of some kind.
Back out in the cold. The pretty cold.
Sunflowery things!
Dahlias.
Shrimp plant. ...Nom?
On the bridge to Spider Island, which was not as cool as the name promised.
Although it did have some creepy birch trees. I think they were watching us.
Kate telling us to hurry up already, the garden's about to close.
The fountain at the entrance got much cooler at sunset, when it looked like it was spitting clouds.
Or FIRE.
Sunday morning, I woke up to this:
My suitcase had a little fur coat of its own by the time Johann was done with it.
We had a lazy brunch of leftover pad thai from the previous night's dinner and then headed to the Museum of Science and Industry, which I was keen to see. But they had closed the Coal Mine exhibit for annual maintenance. WOE. It was still pretty cool, but argh.
Trains, planes, and...some kind of hot air balloon thing? So many forms of transportation all in one place!
Plaaaaaanes.
Chicago about to get crushed under the wheel of a 727. As you do. (P.S. Most thorough model train set evaaaarrr.)
So thorough it even has Seattle on the other side! (I think the official idea was that you could trace the flow of goods across the country from Seattle to Chicago and vice versa, but still.)
It's called "The Rocket." It probably went about twenty miles per hour. Awwwww.
Gadzooks! Thirty horsepower!
Srsly, this is a car. "This 1896 'comfortable' model, at about three horsepower, was more powerful." More powerful than what, exactly? Your average stagecoach could go faster, because it had four horses! (P.S. They had a great little exhibit on how to tell the difference between Eastern and Western stagecoaches, as well as between Conestoga wagons and Prairie Schooners.)
I hit up the "Art of the Bicycle" exhibit next, which began with this old model. Notice anything missing?
Can you imagine trying to balance on this thing?
I would actually take up bike riding if I got to ride something this cool-looking, I think.
I buzzed through some kind of "in the future, we will live like THIS!" exhibit, which featured the above sartorial curiosity. I don't think I'd be caught dead in it.
They had one of those nifty holodeck machines where the butterflies would land on your shadow if you stood still long enough.
...And then I hit the part of the museum where the curators just said, "Screw it," as far as I can tell.
Bear in a tutu? Why not?
Penguins going to a party? Sure!
I DON'T UNDERSTAND. (But I do enjoy the visual puns.)
We went to the Blue Man Group's show after that. It was fun! Weirder even than I expected, but fun. I definitely didn't realize there was quite so much audience participation (and spent part of the show cringing in my seat, thinking, "Don't pick me, don't pick me, don't pick me," as loudly as I could), but the giant beach balls they released into the audience for us to bat around were definitely cool. And I enjoyed the paint drumming a lot.
Monday morning, we flew a kite on the beach.
I think it's a law that every time I'm near a beach with Chandra, I have to get a picture of her staring out to sea. Well, lake.
Also of her doing something dangerous-looking.
Except it wasn't really that bad, because she was walking on some kind of wall intended to prevent beach erosion, and the other side wasn't so far to fall.
Chicago! And grass!
Amusing beach art. The last one is courtesy of Ellen.
Kit-flying! This was the most eager-to-fly kite I've ever encountered. Admittedly, the wind was quite good, and we were well away from entangling trees and buildings, but still. What a great kite.
What a great weekend, really. Yay vacations and friends!
We spent Friday afternoon at the Art Institute, which was a good choice. They had a special exhibit on Fashion and Modernity that was nifty.
They also have lions out front:
And some Tiffany lamps inside:
And the third-largest paperweight collection in the world!
Pretty.
Pretty. BUT LOOK AT WHAT IT'S GROWING OUT OF.
Millefiores.
Looking much like Christmas candy.
The Institute also has a collection of over 100 "miniature rooms." AKA? DOLLHOUSE MUSEUM. And they were incredibly, painstakingly detailed dollhouses, too. I had a good time there, even though the glass in front of them thwarted many of my photographic efforts.
American kitchen of some era or other.
Entry hall of gorgeousness.
There's even a little half-finished painting!
I'll happily take that bathroom off your hands...
The DETAIL.
The info card called this "A Tennessee Plantation." It's actually the Hermitage in Nashville, once the home of Andrew Jackson.
I started getting a little silly.
I'm not a big fan of Chagall--in fact, I usually find his work actively ugly--but I like the colors here.
Saturday was the wedding! Train schedules were not in our favor, so we got there rather early. But it meant we had time to eat breakfast in a coffee shop and poke through a paper and craft store, so that worked out well.
Highland Park has the cutest public library ever.
The two pictures I managed to get of the ceremony. I was seated behind some very tall people. (Whit, was there supposed to be a bride's side and a groom's side? 'Cause if there was, we kind of missed that...) The ceremony was quite lovely and moving. I especially liked the rector's (reverend's? lady in charge of things?) homily, which was so well-structured and personal and a bit funny, and really just made the former rhetoric teacher in me dance with glee.
Whitney's older sister was at our table during the reception, and she looked absolutely fabulous in her Old Hollywood garb.
We each got a rose petal folded in our napkin, and I...got a little restless at one point. By the end of the reception, I had almost all the table's rose petals in my glass.
The best picture I got of the wedding. I really enjoyed the bubbles. (Johann enjoyed the bubbles that night as well. Or, well, his reaction was more like, "New thing in my space, must investigate--OH GOD IT POPPED ON ME!")
The getaway car. We actually ran into Whitney, Daniel, and the driver back in the church parking lot when we walked back to get to Kate's car, and the driver mentioned it was a...1929 Ford? I think? Something like that.
With an appropriate hood ornament.
Smiling regally at the crowd.
After the reception, since we were in the neighborhood, we made our (very, very cold) way to the Chicago Botanical Gardens.
They have fountains:
And water gardens:
And a statue of some eighteenth-century dude picking a statue of a mushroom or something, I'm not sure:
And appropriately enough in Frank Lloyd Wrong country, boxy trees:
Japanese garden from afar.
Heron, perhaps skulking around in search of koi...
Attractive vista.
Attractive vista with dramatic lighting!
Hummingbird moth.
We went into the greenhouses to warm up at this point. (Pretty wedding guest dresses + 65F and cloudy = brrrrr.)
Orchid log.
Mmmm, chocolate.
The desert greenhouse.
We then wandered into the...I guess it was the humid subtropical greenhouse? Or the Zone 7a greenhouse? Basically, my yard. They had crepe myrtle trees in there, blooming away. It was bizarre seeing them in a greenhouse.
Pitcher plaaaaant!
I have some neighbors who would love these things.
Strange and bright plant of some kind.
Back out in the cold. The pretty cold.
Sunflowery things!
Dahlias.
Shrimp plant. ...Nom?
On the bridge to Spider Island, which was not as cool as the name promised.
Although it did have some creepy birch trees. I think they were watching us.
Kate telling us to hurry up already, the garden's about to close.
The fountain at the entrance got much cooler at sunset, when it looked like it was spitting clouds.
Or FIRE.
Sunday morning, I woke up to this:
My suitcase had a little fur coat of its own by the time Johann was done with it.
We had a lazy brunch of leftover pad thai from the previous night's dinner and then headed to the Museum of Science and Industry, which I was keen to see. But they had closed the Coal Mine exhibit for annual maintenance. WOE. It was still pretty cool, but argh.
Trains, planes, and...some kind of hot air balloon thing? So many forms of transportation all in one place!
Plaaaaaanes.
Chicago about to get crushed under the wheel of a 727. As you do. (P.S. Most thorough model train set evaaaarrr.)
So thorough it even has Seattle on the other side! (I think the official idea was that you could trace the flow of goods across the country from Seattle to Chicago and vice versa, but still.)
It's called "The Rocket." It probably went about twenty miles per hour. Awwwww.
Gadzooks! Thirty horsepower!
Srsly, this is a car. "This 1896 'comfortable' model, at about three horsepower, was more powerful." More powerful than what, exactly? Your average stagecoach could go faster, because it had four horses! (P.S. They had a great little exhibit on how to tell the difference between Eastern and Western stagecoaches, as well as between Conestoga wagons and Prairie Schooners.)
I hit up the "Art of the Bicycle" exhibit next, which began with this old model. Notice anything missing?
Can you imagine trying to balance on this thing?
I would actually take up bike riding if I got to ride something this cool-looking, I think.
I buzzed through some kind of "in the future, we will live like THIS!" exhibit, which featured the above sartorial curiosity. I don't think I'd be caught dead in it.
They had one of those nifty holodeck machines where the butterflies would land on your shadow if you stood still long enough.
...And then I hit the part of the museum where the curators just said, "Screw it," as far as I can tell.
Bear in a tutu? Why not?
Penguins going to a party? Sure!
I DON'T UNDERSTAND. (But I do enjoy the visual puns.)
We went to the Blue Man Group's show after that. It was fun! Weirder even than I expected, but fun. I definitely didn't realize there was quite so much audience participation (and spent part of the show cringing in my seat, thinking, "Don't pick me, don't pick me, don't pick me," as loudly as I could), but the giant beach balls they released into the audience for us to bat around were definitely cool. And I enjoyed the paint drumming a lot.
Monday morning, we flew a kite on the beach.
I think it's a law that every time I'm near a beach with Chandra, I have to get a picture of her staring out to sea. Well, lake.
Also of her doing something dangerous-looking.
Except it wasn't really that bad, because she was walking on some kind of wall intended to prevent beach erosion, and the other side wasn't so far to fall.
Chicago! And grass!
Amusing beach art. The last one is courtesy of Ellen.
Kit-flying! This was the most eager-to-fly kite I've ever encountered. Admittedly, the wind was quite good, and we were well away from entangling trees and buildings, but still. What a great kite.
What a great weekend, really. Yay vacations and friends!