Thursday, September 21, 2006

Photoblogging: Chicago


A couple days spent wandering around Chicago. This is the great benefit of this third shift stuff. Well, it's a benefit if you spend the day someplace cool, or it's a damned curse if you're somewhere boring. Luckily, there's way too much to do and see in Chicago in my daily 4-5 hours free than I can begin to touch upon, so one never need sit watching TV in the hotel all day, bored to sobs. Our present hotel is not near anything, but Chicago is a quick drive down from Appleton, and so I have my car to get around.

I do here what I always do--walk the streets at random, which all somehow seem to lead to Gino's East, a.k.a. The World's Best Deep Dish Spinach Pizza.



On with our tour.



I want to live here.

It's a close second place to my desired quarters in the Ansonia building at 73rd & Broadway in New York. Here, I would rent a four room suite on the 20th floor, and my fan mail could reach me at

Uncle Wunelle
The Allerton Hotel
Michigan Ave. at Superior
Chicago


Very Raymond Chandler.

For all the years I've been coming here, I've only recently begun paying any attention to the Chicago River. Somehow the river here seems like some kind of obstacle the city planners have had to work around, something rudely interrupting the vast flatness that is the Midwest. Very different from, say, Paris, where the Seine is the life's blood of the city. But in the last decade there has been an explosion of residential construction on and near the river in Chicago, and this (or something) has caused me to pay more attention. Some river pictures.






I love this railroad bridge, a great teaser for some story we'll never know, some early 20th Century industrial engineer's Viagra moment (how does it stay up that way?).



Well, if you know there's no train coming, you can always use it for a grilling platform!




On a lark, I strolled past an open condo model, and stopped in to see what the 17th Floor would seem like (for a cool half million).





Very cool indeed (and I bet the view at night is breathtaking), but I bet for the mortgage you could live well at the Allerton!

Lastly, some cool architecture pics (or, to be linguistically accurate: some bad pictures of cool architecture).








5 comments:

Joshua said...

Chicago is, I think I have mentioned, my favorite of the US cities.

Though the fire was tragic, it was a boon to the city in so many ways. The all-stone construction and the grid-like mapping really lend themselves to foot traffic.

I do like the pizza, but if you are ever in for an adventure, I can tell you two spots.

On Michigan there is a sushi joint called OYSY that is AMAZING. The lunch special is 12 bucks, and is as good or better than any other sushi I have ever had.

On East Wacker sits the best bar in the known universe: Buddy Guy's Legends. I cannot go to Chicago without getting giddy at the chance to visit. The stage shows, except for the very famous, are free. The appitizers are amazing, and the burgers are HUGE AND GREASY. I used to eat frog legs in Florida, so I gave them a whirl. They are great.

As you can see, I judge towns on food, and Chicago easily passes that test.

And, I think, the people there are all still small town friendly (no one even tried to mug me)

Mandy said...

When I lived in Wisconsin, I used to go down to Chicago often (my best friend lives there, and I have family in the area - I'm technically even a FIB...). It's a really beautiful and interesting city, and definitely very pedestrian-friendly. Sounds like a good way to kill a few hours!

Lucy said...

Everything I know about Chicago I learned from early Oprah, ER, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

wstachour said...

And now from Uncle Wunelle's Journal!

Like Joshua, I evaluate places heavily on cuisine, though my tastes are plebeian. Pizza, burgers, etc. If I drank beer, I suppose there would be much to choose among here.

I do love cities, as I've said many a time, and there is just so much at one's fingertips here. I drive in from the freeway on Ohio and there are a zillion places I'd like to go back and see. If I were king of the world I'd have a condo here (like that half million dollar job) and then some place for weekend getaways in a remote place.

As it is, I'm happy to be able to visit on someone else's nickel!

Dzesika said...

Ooh! Thanks for the pictures! I seem always to fly into chicago, but never stay there. Pity, that. Anyway, it's my top choice for Place to Move To When I Move Back To America (mainly for proxminity to family), and you've given me a few new things to look forward to :) ...

You should definitely go to the planetarium, if you haven't already. It is fantastic.