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DouglasE · 09-20-2004, 09:08 AM

Sunday, September 5, 2004 

"I've got the need. The need for speed!" Yes, folks it means time to experience the WaveSwinger. Now this ride can be as tame or as wild as the operator decides. It was a little wild for me for a very specific reason. I thought, "Hey, while I'm up there I'll take even more pictures". Sounds like a good plan, right? Wrong. My camera takes horrible motion shots. I had totally forgotten and didn't remember until the little chair starts to rise in the air. So the whole time I have my camera out, but I'm clutching it for dear life because it cost me hundreds of dollars and I just don't have that kind of money lying around, donchya know. So I'm being flung around and around and around and inside I'm freaking out that I'm gonna loose my camera. Otherwise, it's not that scary of a trip.

Nathan goes wild for the WaveSwinger

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!

 While it has been years since I've played, I truly do love to play miniature golf. Probably the reason I don't play is that there aren't any put-putts in the city of Philadelphia. At least as far as I know. I'd have to travel out to the burbs for that. I just was shocked that on two separate holes I was able to score a hole in one! How that happened I have no clue. But Jeffrey managed to win the game despite Nathan's best attempts to cheat. Jeffrey and I were having none of THAT! There's no crying in baseball and no CHEATING in miniature golf!

Nathan: "How'd I get myself into this mess?"

Sssssh

DouglasE · 09-20-2004, 09:50 AM

Sunday, September 5, 2004 

We worked up quite a thirst after playing miniature golf. It was time to pop into a restaurant/bar on the pier that is very much "beer central". You know the type of place, lots of heavy wood fixtures, brass accents and various sports events on the monitors up in the corners. The three of us sat at the bar. I wanted a Yuengling Lager, but you just can't get that in Chicago. Heresy! So I opted for a Corona. Nathan had a cosmopolitan. That's Nathan with an N as in Nancyboy. Jeffrey had a beer along with me. We had pretty much done all that we wanted to do at the Navy Pier. So it came to deciding what was next on the agenda.

Before I get to that, let me just say that there other attractions at the Navy Pier. There is the Chicago Children's Museum, the Musical Carousel, an IMAX theater, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and a funhouse maze. Patience and money are at a premium at this point. I would have loved to enjoy all of that, but not on this day. There are also numerous boat, yacht, schooner, ship tours of Chicago that depart from Navy Pier and take you out into Lake Michigan. Don't worry about finding something to eat, there is a snack stand every few feet along with numerous full-fledged restaurants. Short on cash? ATM's abound.

We did wander into this little hall that has wonderful vegetation and fountains, but a wedding party was using it for their reception and we could only skirt around it.

On my way out I continued to have fun with the public sculpture.

One of my top goals for the trip was to go up into the John Hancock Center. I had been up to the observation deck of the Sears Tower numerous times in the past, but had never been up in the Hancock. The Hancock Center is not too far from the Navy Pier. It was a very doable walk and that is exactly what we did. Now, the John Hancock Center has an observatory on the 94th floor. But you aren't gonna get Nathan and Jeffrey up to the observatory when there is a great view of Chicago from the Signature Room Lounge on the 96th floor. It was martini time! We had a table right next to a window of the Hancock Center on the 96th floor. Too bad once again it was a hazy day. It could have been incredible if it was clear and sunny. I think next time I visit Chicago I just might have to get a reservation for the Signature Room restaurant in the evening. I bet that would be incredible.

Groooooovy. On our walk over to the Hancock Center, we passed by this complex which is the furthest east building containing apartments.

The building to the left with the twin spires atop it is our destination: the John Hancock Center

Historic Water Tower - an original building that survived the Great Fire of 1871. Part of Chicago's Magnificent Mile

DouglasE · 09-20-2004, 10:02 AM

Sunday, September 5, 2004

View from the Signature Room Lounge

Another Signature Room View

 Following cocktails at the Hancock, we ventured back to Nathan and Jeffrey's place. It was time to wind down and collect ourselves. Turns out we were invited over to a friend of Nathan's that evening. Gary, Nathan's friend, lives only a few blocks away. We ordered pizza to be delivered to Gary's house for us to have dinner. Gary's apartment is even nicer than Nathan and Jeffrey's. His deck in the back had a great view and was so pretty rimmed with flower boxes all around. The pizza was so-so, but the company was great. Gary was very down to earth and very much my speed. Plus, he has these incredible blue eyes Somehow that evening Nathan got me to reveal more about my past than I ordinarily would. I seemed to be talking a lot that evening. I really didn't get to learn much about Gary, except we have similar taste in movies. The evening went swiftly and soon it was time for us to head back and catch some zzzzz's.

**chezp** · 09-20-2004, 10:02 AM

Another couple of great installments Douglas - I can't wait to see the views from the John Hancock Centre.

luvnwdwgal · 09-20-2004, 08:25 PM

Great updates!!

**Colexis Mom** · 09-21-2004, 07:01 AM

More great updates and pictures Douglas

my2girls · 09-21-2004, 05:35 PM

The pizza was so-so -

Douglas - This is Chicago - just where did you order your pizza from?

Kristine

**DrDolphin** · 09-22-2004, 07:49 AM

Great update and photos!!!!

DouglasE · 09-23-2004, 09:06 PM

Monday, September, 6, 2004 

[b]Today we discovered I made a little boo-boo in my planning. My information was that there would be a free jazz festival at Grant Park over Labor Day weekend. I had just assumed that Labor Day weekend included Labor Day ! Silly me, the powers that be decided not to have the jazz festival continue into Labor Day. Oh well. We went ahead with my plans to visit Grant Park.

Dawn of a New Millenium!

The new century brings a new public park - "Millenium Park".

Much of Millenium Park are formal gardens and promenades.

We first stopped at Wrigley Square and the Millenium Monument which is a peristyle that replicates the original peristyle that stood at the site from 1917-1953. The semi circular row of Doric columns rise 40 feet.

In front of the monument and fountain was a public area which houses temporary exhibits. The exhibit that was currently on display was a presentation by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, entitled "A Family Album of Our Planet by Uwe Ommer". It was a pictoral exhibit that showed all different types of families from around the world. Accompanying the photos were brief descriptions what each family's life was like.

I have a new dream place to perform. It's the Pritzker Pavilion at Millenium Park. What I love is if it rains, they can enclose the stage in glass and then pipe the music out to the audience. Disney fans will appreciate the design. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry. Sound familiar Disneyphiles? The stage has a headdress of stainless steel ribbons. Past the traditional red seating is an open lawn. Above both the seating and the lawn is a criss-cross of beams with speakers attached.

DouglasE · 09-23-2004, 09:44 PM

Monday, September 6, 2004 

I don't know what it is about sculpture, but as an adult, I always seem to be drawn to this medium of art. In the heart of Millenium Park is a sculpture called "Cloud Gate". British artist Anish Kapoor created a seamless steel of highly polished plates into an eliptical shape. Locals are calling it "the bean". Whatever it is called, it beckons you and hardly a soul resists reaching out to touch it. Personally, I love how it plays with light by the use of the highly reflective curves. The sculpture was inspired by liquid mercury. When I was a child I tried to play hookey from school by heating up a thermometer to prove I had a temperature. Unfortuately, the mercury burst and spilled out. So I totally see this as a gigantic bead of mercury.

What is next to the "Cloud Gate" is the Crown Fountain. Crown Fountain is more of an art installation if you ask me. Two 50 foot high glass towers anchor a shallow reflecting pool. The towers are activated with changing video images and lights, and water cascades from the top of each. Currently, the video images are images of native Chicagoans faces. The best part is when a person's face puckers up and water squirts out as if they are spitting on the folk down below. Hilarious!

Frank Gehry also designed this curvilinear bridge that takes pedestrians across a highway and deeper into the Loop.The only Gehry-designed bridge in the world, the 925-foot long BP Bridge is clad in stainless steel panels and has a gentle slope and hardwood deck. It will also provide an acoustic barrier between the audience and the traffic noise on Columbus Drive.

The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a prime indoor performance space for mid-sized arts organizations, lauded for its excellent sightlines and acoustics. The theater offers programs ranging from classical ballet and contemporary dance to classical, chamber, opera and folk music.

Millennium Park’s Lurie Garden is a unique combination of spatial structure, plantings and lighting design. The Garden is defined by sculpted hedgerows and pedestrian pathways. The 15-foot high "shoulder" hedge encloses the Garden on two sides and a hardwood walkway follows a water feature that cuts diagonally through the Garden, separating it into the "light plate" with hundreds of varieties of perennial plants and the "dark plate," which is shaded by flowering cherry trees.

So that was the brand spankin' new Millenium Park...

Next: Grant Park

**chezp** · 09-24-2004, 01:50 AM

The Millennium Park looks beautiful Douglas - I really am going to have to add Chicago into our list of "places to go one day"....

**Colexis Mom** · 09-24-2004, 07:09 AM

More great pictures Douglas! I was watching a show on Chicago the other day that was talking about Millenium Park, that "bean", and the bridge to nowhere (I think that's what it's called)! Great pictures and it looks like such a great place

Hurry back with more