CHICAGO #2 BUT STILL #1

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We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Chicago; what a great city it is. It has been the right mix of sightseeing and leisure and also a catch up on sleep after three busy weeks on the go. I know I may take some stick for saying that we have busy but it has been nice to take a step back from travelling and take it easy. That is not to say that we haven’t got out and about in the city. We certainly walked the city - in fact we never took a bus to any of the sights. The weather in Chicago has been stunning; blue sky everyday albeit a tad cold. Temperatures in the last few days have been in single digits so once again the hat, scarf and coat have been well worn. Sitting at the airport this morning I am appreciative of the weather we have had as it is obvious that it is going to change over the weekend – hopefully the East Coast will be dry. It is certainly going to be warmer. A few on our flight may find that a bit tough; it is Marathon Monday after the weekend, so many are heading across to run the event. Some are wearing their last year’s finishing shirts. Good for them and I wish them well.

Quite possibly the best attraction we went to was the Shedd Aquarium. This was also the first place that our City Pass tickets became gold. We had walked from our hotel to the aquarium, which took us about an hour. When we arrived we were amazed to find that the line to buy tickets stretched all the way out of the building, down the stairs and out into the park. With our City Pass tickets we went round these people and headed straight through a door to the side – we were inside within a minute. At this stage I did not have the heart to tell those further back in the queue that inside the doors was a Disney inspired line; you know the backwards forwards ones. They were in for a long wait. The main attraction at the aquarium is the Beluga whales show. The whales are large and white but as graceful as dolphins and we got to watch them perform with their trainers. The show area has a backdrop that is Lake Michigan and I kept getting Simpson’s inspired moments where the whales would suddenly jump out the glass windows and swim away; Matt Groening would understand. They do not do the leaping up through hoops but their ability to follow instructions and identify where they were supposed to be in the water is incredible. They had been on their own in the pools as we found our seats but they were able to identify their own trainer within moments of them walking to the side of the pool. We also watched a 3D documentary Pole to Pole, part of which was on the march of the penguins. Here I had visions of NZ’s whacky weeks with our own ‘Happy Feet’ who, when lost, came ashore north of Wellington to a hero’s welcome. In hindsight old ‘Happy Feet’ must rate as the most expensive piece of shark bait ever returned to the Southern Ocean. Anyway, I digress – the documentary was extremely good and I do believe that any nature programme narrated by David Attenborough is already extra special. He really is the voice of nature.

When we went to the top of the John Hancock Centre we were told that Chicago’s greatest pizza delicacy was a ‘deep dish pizza’. Thankfully for us we were served one of these pizzas by Rob and Danielle – more friends of my cousin Mark, who had put us all in touch. What a great night we had with them and their lovely daughter Madison (who gave the access all areas tour of the house) and we loved the pepperoni and sausage pizza. They have a beautiful home near Lincoln Park and they made us feel very welcome. We are hopeful that we may see them in a couple of weeks as they have just done a walk on role in the sitcom “How I Met your Mother” so we will be watching out for that. I am envious that they will get to watch it in the home cinema room to die for – think a mini Gold Class in Auckland. The night also gave me a chance to continue my local beer drinking. Rob served me a Goose Island beer and it could not have been more local. The brewery was virtually across the road. As an aside the Deep Dish was first made by Pizzeria Uno in Chicago and is a high sided pizza with the filling stuffed to the top of the crust. It was created with the idea that people would eat pizza with a knife and fork rather than their hands – I managed two pieces in this sitting and it was stunning. Thank you Danielle and Rob!

We managed a shopping day along the Magnificent Mile, which I knew was coming as Narelle had been very restrained on the trip so far. There was a feeling that she would fold at some stage especially when I was ahead on purchases. Her initial trip out on Saturday had only been to get the lay of the land and today was the final push. So that was the reason I found myself in a Bloomingdales soon after the doors opened. However, much to Narelle’s disgust I was the first person to buy something – chalk another purchase up to me. Not to be outdone Narelle has since moved into her stride and is now the proud owner of a few new items.

The retail service in the USA so impresses me. We went into one shop and suddenly we had very attentive staff. I like the fact that you are welcomed into a store and then they introduce themselves, ask you your name and then it’s all on. In the time that Narelle found an item to try on they had already prepared a fitting room with tops and accessories that “may just go with it” – all the items in the fitting room were of the right size. All the shop staff we have come into contact with have been helpful right from the moment we visited T-Mobile on the first day. In one of the men’s stores we were given a Chicago magazine so we could “try the restaurants too” – it is all very clever as it does make you want to buy something. So I guess the flip side is you do leave a bit guilty when you don’t! Anyway, to cut a long story short anyone worried that Narelle’s shopping mojo had gone be rest assured that she is back in the game.

If the service is good then my disappointment has been the coffee. The café culture in NZ and Australia has not really been adopted here yet; and quite possibly it won’t be. The idea of sitting down for longer periods of time to enjoy a latte seems foreign so most coffee is on the go and much of that coffee is still filter. They say that 4 out of 5 Americans drink coffee, and the daily consumption equates to some 400 million cups. It is quite staggering to consider this fact. At an average of about $2.50 a cup this is obviously a lucrative industry. Starbucks still rules the way with numerous outlets including supplying a lot of the hotels we have stayed at. I have been told that more Starbucks closed down over the last few years than anything else so it must have been huge before the crash. I have got used to heading to a Starbucks, which is not that unusual for me as I was a regular at the Sylvia Park outlet for three years. However, I do miss the personal touch from the baristas, who in NZ and Australia tend to “own” the machine and spend time creating their signature with the milk froth. From Twitter comments it is obvious Stephen Fry believes that one of the bonuses of working on “The Hobbit” is being able to drink a NZ Flat White. It is but a small grumble after four fantastic weeks in the US. I was amazed to learn the fact that coffee is the second most used product in world after oil.

I mentioned in one of my last blogs about military personnel and their treatment in the US. I must add some more to that as I read one of the most fantastic articles in the USA Today. It was about the wounded returning to the US from Iraq and Afghanistan and it was very moving. Unbelievably some 47000 have now returned from the battlefield with injuries, many of them serious due to wounds inflicted by the dreaded improvised explosive device (IED). The story explains how the reception they have received is very different to those who returned from Vietnam – and in fact paints the picture that today’s soldiers have been better received due to the perceived errors made in the 60s and 70s. One of the biggest changes has also been the willingness and expectation for soldiers to tell their stories to others, which has told their story and has also assisted in their rehabilitation. They speak to motivational groups and tell how they have overcome adversity – often through the loss of limbs. Basically their attitude is if what they have been through has not killed them then nothing should stand in their way. They snowboard, mountain bike, dance and live life to the full. One has a Purple Heart on his license plate with the wording “NICETRY” – it’s intended to be a direct message to the suicide bomber who lost his life while trying to blow him up. The soldier says “A guy blew himself up trying to kill me and he was the only one who died that day”. I don’t want to be morbid but it is worth reading as the stories are inspirational. The link is http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-03-05/wounded-veterans-iraq-afghanistan-life-at-home/54223324/1

I never thought that I would enter a Maori meeting house in Chicago but we did at the Field Museum. Tucked away in one of the upstairs galleries was a beautifully carved meeting house originally from Tokomaru Bay in the 1880s. It was quite a welcome sight of home. It has obviously well frequented since its opening in 1993 and there is a note on the door saying that they still work closely with the descendants in NZ and by doing this it can be used for public meetings and weddings. It makes up one part of a wider display on the Pacific Islands but the house is actually on its own, which gives it greater exposure. There are also some fantastic carvings on the walls. The girl sitting at the door ensuring shoes were being removed dreamed of visiting NZ one day. She was interested to hear that NZ schools have similar cultural rooms on campus. So, if you are in Chicago and want a little taste of home head upstairs at the Museum. I also found out that TV3 did a story on it in 2010 http://www.3news.co.nz/Maori-meeting-house-helps-Chicago-gang-problem/tabid/423/articleID/170631/Default.aspx

The big display at the Field Museum was on Genghis Khan. He is a person I do not know enough about so the subject material was extremely interesting. I guess we all know of the people he killed and the havoc he rained down on people throughout Asia and Europe. What I did not realise is how he has been recognised. The New York Times named him ‘Man of the Millennium’ in 1995 and many military researchers consider him the greatest military commander in history. He certainly built an Empire that dwarfs most others – at one point it stretched from Turkey to China, Pakistan in the South and Russia in the North. How he did this was to basically take what he wanted and kill off those who disagreed with him – basic political takeover 101? His armies were made up in much the same way as the Romans had conquered land centuries before. Across this empire he introduced passports, paper money and he set up a basic form of diplomatic immunity. His early Pony express allowed easy transportation of items and communication from one end to the other. He was a revered figure of the Mongols and even today some 16 million men have been linked to one man’s DNA at the same time he lived. I can only imagine that with his five wives and 100s of concubines he managed to father many a child. It was an excellent display and both of us came away having learnt a lot, which is hard to explain in one paragraph so I have given the basics.

The permanent exhibit that the museum is well-known for is "Sue" the T-Rex. This is the most complete T-Rex ever found in the world and it stands just inside the main doors of the museum. The bones were discovered in 1990 by a lady called Sue Hendrikson and was bought by the Field Museum for US$8.36m in 1997. Everybody has a photo next to Sue - it is huge! I use 'it' as the scientists have no way of determining whether the dinosaur is male or female. Part of the display is a 3D documentary (we are getting good at these) was on how they found the fossil and managed to put it all back together; not an easy feat and to this point they have put 90%!o(MISSING)f the skeleton together. The dinosaur room that goes with it is amazing and it is hard to believe that creatures this big roamed the planet - they really are colossal in size and would dwarf some small jet planes.

The other major exhibit was on the Museum’s collection of Egyptian Mummies. They had been with the Museum for many years but the astounding thing they had done was to give them a CT scan and x-ray, which allowed you to see within the coffins and bandages. From this they can ascertain age and sometimes the sex. It almost gives the mummies a personality as you can see images of smiles or observe jewellery that they were wearing at the time of their death. The most startling one was a female found in the sands of the desert. The hot sand had removed all the moisture from the body and naturally mummified the body – you could still see the line of muscle within the skin. It seemed strange to be looking at someone who walked the earth nearly 5500 years ago. Someone who looked walked and communicated in much the same way we do.

If one political family has left an indelible mark on Chicago then it is the Daleys. Both Richard J Daley (55-76) and his son Richard M Daley (89 – 11) have been mayors. The first Mayor Daley ruled the city with an iron fist and was quite a controversial figure in the 50s and 60s. He quelled the riots by force and was seen to be a Kennedy supporter in the 1960 election. However, he did encourage Chicago to embrace what it had and brought the Picasso sculpture to the city when many argued against. It is now one of the more treasured sights in Chicago. His idea to Keep Chicago Beautiful was reborn by his son when he took office and the tulips along the streets were inspired in his time. They really pushed the city’s assets and felt people would come to see, work and live there. Over the last few decades many inner city suburbs have become more suitable for living and some depressed areas have had a make- over. It is not to say that everything is fine – I was very alarmed to hear that police are investigating or have investigated 120 homicides since January 1 this year.

There is a lot of great architecture in Chicago but the Tribune Building takes some beating. Situated at the top end of the Magnificent Mile it is a large stone building that was built in 1922 to recognise the 75^th Anniversary of the Tribune’s founding. To set itself apart from all other Gothic architecture in the city it has over 100 individual rock fragments set into its structure. There are bits from Edinburgh Castle, the Parthenon, Westminster Abbey, the White House, Roman Ruins from Turkey, the Arc de Triomphe and China’s Forbidden City to name but a few. However, my personal favourite is a piece of Moon Rock 3.3 billion years old and returned to Earth by the Apollo 15 astronauts. Some cynics and sceptics would say that this is just a dusty old piece of the Arizona desert but I am a moon landing believer and will not be swayed by arguments against.

So that was Chicago. We enjoyed all that it has to offer. One tip for those heading there is to buy the City Pass, which is available at most of the major attractions. A City Pass and comfortable walking shoes and the city is yours! It cost US$166 for the two of us compared to US$169 each if we had done the ticketing separately – and it saves you time when you arrive as you can bypass the queues; just remember you may get some dirty looks as you head in but that is a minor inconvenience. We have already found out that we can buy one in New York for later in the tour.

Now it’s onto Boston for a night and then into Philly for the weekend – this will be our first experience of an Amtrak train.

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