I spent a whirlwind weekend in Chicago with Jonny and Jenny, beginning February 24. When we were done, I counted the things we did together--museums, restaurants, concerts, Church, watching the Academy Awards on TV.... We did 19 things in three days! The variety and richness of those events is suggested by the above photo of me at the Garfield Park Conservatory, posing by a Moorish fountain!
I flew into Chicago on Thursday night and didn't recognize Jonny and Jenny as they pulled to the curb at the O'Hara Airport. They were driving their new Honda Civic, which I had never seen before!
Jenny worked on Friday, but Jonny had the day off from both school and work. We took the train from Hyde Park into the city.
We were at The Field Museum early...
to catch its world class special exhibits on "Gold"...
and "The Horse."
We walked inside a gold-plated room and ogled gold ingots, gold coins, antique gold statues, and modern gold statues--the Academy Awards.
The Horse exhibit had displays of horses throughout history, both in real life and in art. Jonny and I didn't enjoy the Horse exhibit as much as the Gold one. We have always preferred gold to horses.
I got my thrills for the day posing on a saddle--the one spot where photographs were authorized in the Horse exhibit (my other photos are from Google Images).
Then it was back on the train into downtown Chicago.
We couldn't miss a quick stop at the Art Institute...
for a look at the Asian rooms with their exquisite Japanese baskets...
paintings by the Spanish Baroque masters, such as Ribera...
and, of course, our favorite Impressionist paintings.
We traipsed through the Chicago Cultural Center, passing a lunchtime jazz concert en route...
to see the exhibit of Chicago street photographer L.E. Erickson, whose 100,000 images were not discovered until the estate sale after her death.
We ate felafel for lunch at one of Jonny's favorite downtown spots, squeezed between bigger shops and run by Middle Eastern immigrants...
and then we stopped for banana cream puffs at a specialty shop inside a tunnel under city skyscrapers. In his work for the Chicago Mayor's Office, Jonny has learned the city history and city highlights.
We finally reached Columbia College, home to the "Louder than a Bomb" city-wide high school poetry competition.
Jonny and I attended a preliminary round hosted by a University of Michigan grad student, who was a published poet.
Four inner city high schools brought teams of poets to the round we attended. The poems were moving, flamboyant, dramatic, and often excellent, on such topics as domestic and gang violence and, of course, teen love. One boy began his poem, "You say I'm like my father, but I never met him." A girl wrote "Ode to My Pistol" from the viewpoint of a young woman imprisoned for murder. Judges evaluated each live reading and the winning teams moved to the next round, with a final, all-Chicago competition in early March.
The exhibit in the nearby gallery was on "Reclaiming Black Male Identity Through the Art of Tatooing."
I took this photo while waiting for the train back to Hyde Park.
Friday evening, Jenny joined Jonny and me at Buddy Guy's Blues club...
for Creole and Cajun food (shrimp etoufee, red beans and rice, jambalaya, and gumbo) and three Blues acts.
We saw Jimmy Johnson...
the Chicago Blue Angels...
and Eddie "the Chief" Clearwater.
Eddie was a blues legend, born in Mississippi before World War II and emigrating to the Chicago blues clubs in the 1950s. The crowd roared when he appeared.
By the time I got back to Hyde Park on Friday night, my pedometer said I had walked nine miles! Still, I was excited for the new day... Jonny, Jenny, and I visited the Garfield Park Conservatory on Saturday morning.
It was lush and lovely, in contrast to the bitter Chicago cold outside.
In addition to the lush zones, we also wandered through a picturesque cactus garden...
checked out a pineapple plant...
and paused by Chihuly blown glass lily pods surrounding a koi pond.
Architecture is serious business in Chicago. The city houses the world's first skyscrapers, and it has an impressive array of beautiful buildings of various historical styles.
The Chicago Architecture Foundation runs some twenty tours per month. We took the Art Deco walking tour, and we loved the "Jazz Age" buildings from the 1920s and 1930s, with their rich, stylized decoration. Our tour guide was a no-nonsense woman with imposing knowledge--"the best tour guide I've had in years," Jonny said.
This classic Art Deco building has found an unlikely tenant, while the Chicago Board of Trade bears stylized statues halfway up the huge tower. Jenny and I both wore our quilted, calf-length parkas with fur ruffs, which are de rigeur for Chicago winters.
Even the mail boxes and lobbies of the buildings we toured had stylish, gilt Art Deco designs.
There were pro and anti-abortion parades marching past us as we walked around the city.
Jonny and Jenny both love Indian food, and Chicago has a street filled with Indian stores and eateries. J&J disagree on the best low-cost Indian cafe, so we stopped to order take-out biryani for Jenny at Ghareeb Nawaz...
and then ordered for Jonny and me at another cafe down the street. We ate while watching a Bollywood film on the overhead tv (again, thank you, Google Images).
After lunch, we drove to Fort Sheridan, north of Chicago. It was built in 1877 and presided over by Sheridan, the famous Civil War general. The old barracks, officers' quarters, and statue of Sheridan were evocative in the fading winter light.
We hurried back to Chicago to eat dinner at the quietly stylish "Anteprima." We enjoyed the homemade pasta.
We stopped at a supermarket for a sweet treat for Jenny, "gummie tummies."
In the evening, we watched a top-rated new Chicago play, "The Big Meal." The play portrayed the life of a married couple through a series of conversations at mealtime. A cast of eight actors played the couple, their parents, and descendants at many stages of their lives, from the couple's first conversation as dates to the woman sitting, hunched over the table, as a widow.
After Church on Sunday, we ate at The Original Pancake House in Hyde Park, where, as Jonny said, "You see everyone." I looked for the Obamas, since their Chicago house is nearby, but I didn't see them.
The food was over the top--caramel hot chocolate smothered in cream, large glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice...
French toast and bacon...
and an apple pancake.
We made one more trip downtown to see an exhibit at the Art Institute that opened on Sunday and was on a topic which fascinates me--early Renaissance France.
While there, we checked out a collection of John Marin watercolors that Jonny loved, Chagall stained windows that we all loved...
and some pieces of modern art.
We then walked thrugh the stunning Chicago cityscape...
to the dance center auditorium for a matinee performance by the Mark Morris Dance Group, one of the premier modern dance companies in the U.S.
"Sorry, Dave, but the dinner tomorrow night is formal." The two of us spent the March 3-5 weekend in Last Vegas at my firm's shareholder retreat. The Trump Tower, our hotel, was shimmering and golden in the daylight, and part of the rich jewelry of the city at night. 
The views from our bedroom took in the whole valley. 
Dave was in St. George, mowing the lawn in levis, when I called to tell him he'd need a suit. He rented a sleek black number from a local tuxedo shop and I hurried to the Las Vegas mall for a red satin blouse and rhinestone-covered earrings and sandals. They were easy to find in Vegas! 
and at The Phantom of the Opera afterwards. Dave and I like the flamboyantly staged Las Vegas musicals even better than their classically staged Broadway versions. 
While I attended firm meetings on Saturday morning, Dave wandered the Strip, catching with his camera the biggest, most brazen Vegas icons. Certainly, huge, fake Greek statues at Caesar's Palace. 
Definitely, the colorful, flashy, seasonal installations at the Bellagio Conservatory (now was that Chinese New Year or Easter?) 
Of course--the hanging signs and gondolas at The Venetian. 
And, yes, the newcomer--the "eraser" statue and leaning towers of the new City Center complex. 
When we finally left the glitz of Las Vegas, it felt postively homey to go down-scale at the Texas Roadhouse in St. George. We ordered a steak, grabbed some peanuts, and slouched in our booth as we watched the waitresses line dance. 
