Blogs from Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America - page 74

Whilst Dan was at work, I went downtown again, this time to visit the Field Museum. Luckily this was not actually a museum of fields which would have been very dull, but a science and natural history museum, housing the skeleton of the largest T Rex yet discovered, which someone decided to call Sue, not really an appropriate name for the most fearsome predator to ever walk the earth. The museum is huge - I've not been to the Natural History Museum in London for years, but I would guess it's as big, if not bigger, and would take a full day to fully explore. I only had the chance to take in the Darwin exhibit (where I had to restrain myself from accosting passers by and telling them I was in the Galapagos myself recently), ... read more

An early start as Dan had to see off his friend who was leaving for Texas this morning, then he had to go downtown for a drum workshop type thing. While he was there, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art where there was an exhibition called Sympathy for the Devil, a collection of art created for or inspired by rock music. Some of it was pretty cool, like the Velvet Underground and Peter Saville stuff, but some was just weird - the art created for Funkadelic at the request of George Clinton for example bordered on cartoon porn. This collection took up the bulk of the museum and the only thing worth mentioning also on display (if you can call it that) was a couple making out in the middle of the room, which ... read more

In August, Grace and I made it to Chitown to take an architectual boat tour. Neither of us had done one before and it was what our friend up there wanted to do for his birthday. It was unique way to see a fantastic city. We also attended a White Sox game at US Cellular Field.... read more

CHICAGO Plane Travel: We sat on a plane in London Heathrow late afternoon. The long queues and normal security checks too ages as expected in London. We were flying with BA and since this was a 9 hours plus flight I was hoping for some good plane entertainment. As it turned out the screen they had were tiny and moreover the TV was not on demand so I missed the first half an hour of my movie. Since, there wasn't much choice I decided to watch Shrek again and fell asleep half way through. I spent most of the flight then sleeping and everytime I half woke up I just had a small headache. I can't remember what I had for dinner but it wasn't very good! So overall this was probably one of the worst ... read more

Jay and I were excited and happy when we read in the paper that there is a Christkindlmarkt (an open air German Christmas market) at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago during the whole Christmas season. We both have fond memories eating Currywurst (Bratwurst with curry ketchup and sometimes a small roll) and warming our frozen fingers with mugs of Gluehwein (a hot spiced wine). Gluehwein is the only thing that can make my toes feel warm when I'm standing there freezing in the sleet and snow. I always buy a paper cone of roasted, candied almonds. The scent of roasted chestnuts and almonds permeates the whole square like the aroma of freshly baked bread. Jay's day is made by a good Currywurst. When we lived in Berlin, a favorite subject for discussion in newspapers and among ... read more