The End of This Trip

It's sad to come to the end of this adventure.  We arrived home Friday October 28th
after an 11 hour drive from Quebec City to Halifax.  That stretch of road is very familiar to us. We marvelled at how little traffic there is on the Trans Canada once you
turn south and east from the 20 at Riviere de Loup.  Compared to the US the Maritimes are empty.

But we are also very glad to be home.  Lots to do to catch up on missed calls
and chores.  We've been gone for 49 days!  That's the longest either one of
us has been away on a trip together.  Prior to that, I spent eight months in
France - attending language lessons 12 hours a week - hitch-hiking around Europe with my best friend the rest of the time.  It was a formative experience for me at the age of 19.  It's not something I'd recommend to everyone but it sure
hones your sense of judgement and direction.  (No GPS assistance back then!)

That sense of direction was challenged multiple times on this trip through the southwest US.  As I've said, the GPS can be wrong!  I would sit in the passenger
seat with two different sets of maps and the GPS and we'd still get muddled. 

Chicago was more than just art and architecture and the way home. When the
weather got bad we went to see a movie - Ides of March with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling.  I bought myself a ''vintage" Roots backpack/purse.  Blair is more flamboyant.  He bought a Chicago fedora! Now he just has to convince himself to wear it.

We took in some music too - not the famous Chicago Blues sound - but a rock concert at a well-loved Chicago club called the Double Door!  The performer?  A guy by the name of Rich Robinson - the former lead guitarist in the successful group The Black Crows.  Blair was very keen and it was only a ten minute walk from our place. 

No question it was loud!  We were the oldest 'young' farts there - to mangle one
of Blair's expressions. 

We reluctantly left Chicago on Friday October 21st. We would have liked to have stayed longer, but we wanted to get back to Perth to celebrate my Dad's 86th birthday on the 28th.    And the warm sunny fall days had given way to chilly ones - skies filled with slate grey clouds.  Time to get home and get the house ready for winter.

So, on the 26th we joined my brother and his family with Mom and Dad at the Red Lobster in Ottawa:  It was a fine celebration!

I've enjoyed writing about our trip especially because Blair was along to take so many pictures and add his thoughts to the account.  We discovered that keeping a blog requires commitment - and some good material!  Once again, the pictures were essential. (Blair says he feared on many occasions that he had caught the Japanese shutterbug disease - he took more than three thousand pictures - 14 gigs of data!)  Writing a blog also requires you to be on the lookout for strong wireless signals at every motel/hotel/bedandbreakfast.  It's almost as important as having a phone. 

On the subject of phones, we went without one  in the US, mainly because my cell phone company (Bell) charges exhorbitant prices for out-of-country usage.  We could have purchased a cheap phone with a phone card.  We could have used Skype through the wireless function on my 'smart' phone.  But the one thing we could not do was use a pay phone:  they are truly an endangered species if not completely extinct.

We covered 13,576 kms...the Mazda 3 handled them all exceedingly well. It helped that gas in the US was two thirds the cost of gas in Canada.  We went from as low as $3.19 a gallon to as high as $3.69.  In Halifax, the regulated price of gas is about $1.23 a litre which works out to $4.92 for a US gallon (I think I have the math right.)  ... $1040 approx in gas...no I still haven't done the currency rate calculations and I have to double check the sums.

We hope you enjoyed our stories from this trip.  Thanks for sharing it with us. It really amplifies our own experience of travel to know that others may be dropping in from time to time. It was a trip of a lifetime.  I'll let you all know what our next one will be. 

TTFN!  (TaTa For Now!)

Chicago: Frank Lloyd Wright

I'd never really though much about 20th century American architecture or

Frank Lloyd Wright until I read a devastating novel based on the life of a

woman who knew him intimately. "Loving Frank" is written through the eyes

of Mameh Borthwhick who had an unconventional and scandalous

relationship with him in the first decades of the 20th century. (I recommend the

book!)

He was a brilliant man with a vision that changed the way American

architects would build homes.  His houses are set back from the street so

they would blend in with the trees and other surroundings.  This is the one

I visited in Oak Park, Chicago.  It's the first home he built and eventually

housed his studio too.

He was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement - designing beautiful furniture

and windows.  This one was 'salvaged' by the Art Institute when the house it

was in was demolished.

We made the 20 minute drive out to Oak Park on a cold, windy morning.  The

house and studio are owned and run by a foundation that does a good job at

fundraising:  There's a 15 dollar fee for an hour long guided tour.  I don't

consider that expensive.  But then we were told we couldn't take any pictures

of the interiors of the house!  Copyright protection.  So, of course I later spent

ten dollars buying the full colour guidebook of the house.  So, since I couldn't

take notes with my camera, I scribbled down notes as we walked.

What struck me were that the rooms - lined in oak - were low-ceilinged and dark.

Of course it was a dark day.  But my first impression was that it didn't feel like

comfortable family home.  The first thing you see  carved into a wooden plaque

over the fireplace in the living room is Wright's motto:  "Truth is Life!  Good friend,

Around these hearth-stones speak no evil of any living creature....."  I can't

argue with the sentiment, but it does feel rather dour. 

Yet with every addition to the home, his design genius shone.  I loved the room he

built for the dining room.  Again, a low ceiling, but this time illuminated by an

electric light filtered through one of his beautiful glass designs.  This website

allows you a glimpse of some of the rooms:

http://www.architectstudio3d.org/AS3d/about_oakpark.html

And I was amazed by the 'playroom' he built for his six children.  It features

an enormous barrel arch ceiling...with window seats at children's height.  You

can get an idea of it from this artilce in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10164/1064748-37.stm

 Once the tour was over we were free to take as many pictures as we wanted of

the exteriors and of other homes (now privately owned) in the same neighbourhood.

He designed the sculpture (below.) It is an image of 'creativity' struggling to burst forth!

The rest of the pictures below are simply more examples of his work.  (At one
point a resident glared at Blair for being an uncouth tourist.  He survived!)

Chicago Day Two - Look Up, Look Way Up!

I really wanted to take a boat ride - not just any boat ride.  This was a boat ride on the

Chicago River and its tributary canals for a tour highlighting the city's high towers. 

Monday's blue skies gave way to cold clouds with rain in the forecast.

Blair wasn't that enthusiastic - he would rather have stayed in bed - but once it

started raining it would limit our possibilities considerably. And cinephile that he

is, he wanted to check out the skyline for familiar movie settings. 

I have to say that Chicago's skyline has changed my attitude towards modern citiyscapes.  Even on a a grey day with flat, non-reflective light I was amazed by the sharp, crisp effect created by the human imagination - so beautiful that it was almost on the same scale as the towers of the Grand Canyon.

We scored a 'two for one' coupon ($38) for the twelve noon tour starting not far from the Lakeshore on a short branch of the river.  Judith was our guide...one of several dozen (hundreds?) docents or volunteer experts who know the names of just about every architect whoever practiced the art in Chicago.

She pointed out that the second tallest building in the world (right) is now called the Willis Tower.  People here still think of it as the Sears Tower.  The Willis outfit simply bought the naming rights!

 These towers (left) are Marina City and were designed by Bertram Goldberg - completed in 1964.  An apt description in Wikipedia compares them to giant corncobs.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_City
Blair loved them because he recognized them as the stars of an album cover by one of his favourite bands, Wilco.

 The building to the right is the Trump Tower.  I wish I could remember all the things Judith said about it. What I do remember is that every new development that goes up must provide public space at ground level - parks or boardwalks of some kind.  Of course the footprint of each of these vertical monsters is small, but every bit of public greenspace and waterfront has big impact.  Trump is only the 12th tallest building in the world right now. 

The gleaming glass giants somehow fit with the 19th and 20th century  stone towers.  The tallest building in the shot below is the clock tower of the Wrigley building.  The ornate carved features really set off the straight lines of the later buildings.

This place, built in the 1930s, was the largest one in the world, at the time of its construction. 

There's so much more to say.  But I don't know anything about architecture...I wish I'd recorded Judith's talk...then I'd have the references to google the background of each of these places.  

We were frozen after the ninety minute cruise.  We ended up at a restaurant for deep dish Chicago style pizza.  It's funny.  Deep dish - it has a big cake-like pie crust with high sides. The filling of tomato sauce and assorted other choices doesn't measure up to my favouritie Tomavino's Ambrosia pizza.  And we noticed that in Chcago, deep dish style is now mostly for tourists.  Best to try the thin slice pizzas (after a long wait) at Piece - back up at Wicker Park. 

But we didn't care.  we had to get rid of the chill from the river tour.  What better way than with a pizza from Gino's East.  Sorry no picture of the pizza.  What WERE we thinking?

I decided to ignore my growing ten pound bulge?  (Time for that in November:)

The Abegweit"?! In Chicago?

We're on the Chicago Lakeshore, heading for the Navy Pier not far away.

Moored amongst sleek yachts and sailboats -

is the silhouette of a ship that was undoubtedly a ferry. 



As we got closer we recognized her name: 

The Abegweit?  How on earth did this vessel come to be here?  Abegweit is the Miqmaw name for Prince Edward Island - Cradled on the Water - and has been the name of at least two of the ferries that connected Canada's smallest province to the mainland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Abegweit_%281947%29

And sure enough this was one of them.  It was decommissioned in 1982 and sold to the Columbia Yacht Club where it now serves as a training facility and headquarters. 

 

Blair remembers many occasions waiting for hours to board the ferry back in the 70s.  Those days are over now that there's a permanent bridge to the Island.  But it's nice to see the Chicagoans kept the name of the ship and its connection to Canada. 

We carried on to the Navy Pier - a big entertainment spot with a Children's Museum, a shopping mall and a tavern where we rested our weary buns.  This wasn't just any tavern - it was Harry Caray's tavern. 

(picture to come soon)

He was the long-time voice of the Chicago Cubs - the guy who sang "Take Me out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field.  He's passed on, but his tavern is a virtual museum to his character.  There's a bronze bust of his head in the entrance where visitors - famous and not - have their pictures taken.  We couldn't resist the temptation.  The walls are lined with pictures of celebrities next to the bust - from Burt Reynolds to Bobby Hull.  But no one asked for a print of our photo.  I wonder why? Blair's name starts with a 'B.'

Our last stop before we caught the bus was also unexpected.  We got to sit on Bob Hartley's couch!  You remember?  Bob Hartley was a psychiatrist played by Bob Newhart in his first TV series. 

I have to say we were more in need of massage therapy than psychotherapy at that point but the sculptor had definitely captured Newhart's spirit.

Then it was back to Wicker Park and one of its many fine restaurants for supper. (Cumin - Nepalese/Indian cuisine) We were both in bed by ten.  You could hear the noise of the El not far away, but it wasn't loud and I think it eventually lulled me to sleep.

The Chicago Institute of Art

From Millenium Place we climbed a graceful curving pedway to the Chicago Art Institute and then had to descend several stairways to get to the main entrance.

Blair and I love the works of the French Impressionists.  Wherever we travel we try to take in the big public art collections - the Orsay and the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery and the Tate in London, The MOMA and the Met in New York.  They all have awesome displays.

But we both agree that Chicago has the best group of impressionists of any we've seen in North America.  Beautiful Van Gogh's, Monet's, Pissaro's, Renoirs, Degas. 

Then there are the moderns:  Picasso, Braque, Morot and Modigliani;

and the Americans - Hopper with his Nighthawks and Grant Wood's American Gothic. 

And Georgia O'Keefe! 

It was a Monday - but the gallery was very crowded.  They weren't all tourists.  There were people who were clearly taking time away from work to browse the walls and the halls.  And everywhere you looked there were reminders of the great generosity and great wealth of the benefactors who contributed money for construction or for collections.  Millions and millions of dollars.  Of course I kept asking what this says about the differences between the US and Canada - two rich countries.  But in the 19th century Canadian millionaires were not trying to build collections of European art the way they did in the US.  For example when we were in Cleveland last year we learned that two of its wealthiest families spent a year traveling around Europe in 1860s and - impressed by all the classical monuments and great masters - determined to buy a bunch to show that America could be as grand as Europe.  Perhaps Canada never had that much disposable wealth...or maybe Canadians were closer to Europe and thus less impressed by the ostentatious nature of some of its culture.

The Chicago Institute of Art celebrates America of course - these beautiful stained glass windows by Marc Chagall - the America Windows.

There's so much!  It's the second largest gallery in North America. 

Blair loved the furniture collection - art deco and bauhaus style; even if you don't like art it's worth the visit to experience the graceful space.

Check out the website.  http://www.artic.edu/aic/

By the time we were finished in the gallery, we were pooped.  And we sure didn't want to face the late afternoon rush hour crowds on the El.  So with regular rest stops at conveniently placed benches we walked along the Lake Michigan waterfront.  The battery in one camera was just about dead but there was still life in our other one.  And that was a good thing.  Check out the next chapter for an unexpected look at a piece of Maritime Canadian history!

Chicago - Where wind and beans go together:)

Gorgeous day - only a bit breezy.  No sign of the big winds suggested by Chicago's nickname as the 'Windy City.'  Turns out that name's history is fairly hazy.  True, Chicago has its fair share of wind.  But there's an equally popular belief that says the name describes the boastful, arrogant character of  its citizens, following the 1893 Chicago World Fair.  Blair prefers the version that goes like this:  Back in the 19th century there was a powerful rivalry between Cincinatti and Chicago.  They were both big into the meatpacking business. The term 'windy city' was first coined in a Cincinatti newspaper to describe Chicago - whether it was for its boastfulness or its winds - nobody knows for sure.

So we headed along Milwaukee N. to catch the 'El' or 'L' - the clunky
rapid transit trains seen speeding through all kinds of movies such as The Fugitive or
Ferris Buehler's Day Off or Risky Business.  Three of my favourite movies by the way.

The El isn't particularly different from any of the others in different American cities.  But
it's neat to be able to sail along overlooking the city.  In some places, it's unbelievable how
close it gets to the apartments and houses along the tracks.  

No sooner had we stopped at the train station than a voice rang out directed at Blair.  "Ya need some travel information? Sir?  Sir!?"  Blair doesn't automatically respond to the 'sir' moniker.

But we couldn't ignore the loud voice attached to a bulky, uniformed transit employee. His advice - buy three day passes down the street, then come back and get on such such and such a train and get off at such and such a stop. 

We were heading to Millennium Park and the Chicago Institute of Art.  This was a natural starting point for a couple of art lovers and sculpture gawkers. By the end of the day we were exhausted and sore but exhilerated.  And the rest of the week would provide similar emotions.

Millennium Park is close to the lakeshore, adjacent to the Art Institute and surrounded on three sides by beautiful, tall, old buildings.  But the piece of sculpture at its centre holds its own - a magnetic, gleaming, oblong glob of mirror-polished metal.   It was created by Anish Kapoor and it's official name is Cloud Gate but everyone here, naturally calls it 'The Bean!'

With our appetite whetted for spectacular art we headed across the plaza to
the Institute of Art.  Check it out in the next chapter!

Art, Architecture and a Way Home - Intro

(This is the first of a series of chapters devoted to Chicago.
It's the only way I can think of to tackle our experiences and
impressions.  There'll be 8 to ten of them I expect.)

After a month on the road, we've learned a few lessons!
One of them is this:  If you have to drive into the downtown
of a big city try to do it on a weekend.  So, equipped with
our trusty GPS we arrived easily at our destination.

Thanks to our Lonely Planet Guidebook, we'd found a B & B in a
neat neighbourhood, just outside the downtown core, but right on
the "El" line.  Even better, they had a studio apartment available!
(www.wickerparkinn.com)

So, we spent Sunday afternoon learning about our new digs
and felt very much 'at home.'  This city is so relaxed!  Not like
NYC or Boston or St. Louis.  There's a cafe on every second block -
good coffee and good food. There was one called Filter and another
called The Wormhole.   And even here, outside the downtown
core, there's cool architecture and a sense of humour.  Check out
the store at the bottom of this group of pictures.

Wicker Park's Flat Iron building

It's the boring store!

We were going to go in, but a busload of kids arrived!