The G in Chicago : 2022 trip
Good evening LJ readers,
how are things? Hopefully well. I : am back! from a recent trip for which I had a chance to take with my friend John. I had last visited with my friend Eric in 2015. Often when vacationing, my friends John and Brian and I all travel together. This was the first time in which just John and I went!
* Sunday
We headed out in the early afternoon, driving west through the corn fields of Indiana and then north to Illnois. We passed rows of giant, oversized windmills - a site possibly common in California or Europe but less so in the Midwest. Stopping at a Big Lots for a break, I happened to find a ginger and lime-flavored Icee, a rare / discontinued flavor of the drink for which John and Brian and I had originally "discovered" during an earlier trip to Denver, CO and which we amusingly thought 'tasted like cleaner' lol. It doesn't really, of course.
We arrived at Red Roof Inn in nearby Morton Grove (room 211 for John, 127 for me) then headed out for some food. I randomly found bubble gum (yes, bubble-gum!) flavored cereal @ a local Dollar Tree. Stopping at a strip-mall Starbucks, I was impressed by the black and white jungle mural on the wall and also was nicely able to find a location-based Chicago gift card too!
* Monday
Today was a combination "city day" / "food and culture day". We headed downtown to the Millennium park area. Mr. J nicely used an online website, pre-paying for parking there, and got about half off! Good for him. Our first stop was the large Art Institute of Chicago, an architecturally-distinct building with two or three 'second stories' and lots of great art - miniatures in the basement, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Wood's American Gothic and many others : I saw works by Monet, Warhol, David Hockney, Cindy Sherman, even a rare Francis Bacon.
From here I walked through the next-door outside gardens and re-met John at "the bean", i.e. the oversized reflective Cloud gate sculpture, then walked north and west from there to the Chicago Cultural Center, a converted library building with a large, pretty glass dome actually designed by the Louis Tiffany studio many years ago. A gallery or two or art was there as well.
We continued north to the biggest Starbucks in the world - literally! The Chicago Roastery. Four stories + a small rooftop seating area at the top. The 4th floor was the coffee cocktail bar, the 3rd was the rare coffee floor (where I ordered an "off menu" item of a tall shaken chai tea), the 2nd the bakery and cafe' floor ("home of the $9 mushroom pizza piece" - which I had, heh) and the ground level the merchandise one. I was able to pick up a rare roastery gift card as well - an all black one.
The famous 'bean', i.e. Cloud Gate
* Tuesday
Today was a "nature day". We drove east to the Lincoln Park area, nicely finding free street parking, and while John explored the (free!) zoo, I myself - having seen in the zoo, albeit in the rain, in 2015 - walked around the outskirts, passing the brown honeycomb arch and boardwalk area around the southern lake. I looped back around to the (closed that day, but which I had also seen in 2015) conservatory, then re-cut through the nice lily pad pond just north of the zoo.
From here I re-met John and, after moving the car slightly closer, walked to our dinner destination - the Chicago RH! (i.e. Restoration Hardware). A converted brick building, it was quite lovely - five stories plus an outside balcony part. After visiting the rooftop, we slowly walked downstairs (the 4th floor was 'modern', with customized wallpaper - likely not for sale, the 3rd the children's floor with oversized beanbags and quirky nightlights, the 2nd towels and bath fixtures and the ground floor the restaurant, at which we ate before heading up to the top). Being almost empty when we first arrived, we were able to nicely chat with many of the staff.
* Wednesday
Today was a "shopping day". After checking out of the hotel, mr. John nicely drove us to an RH outlet (am I slowly making John a fan? haha). I almost got a concrete side table, but passed. From here it was on to the Shaumburg Ikea, one of the biggest I had seen despite the store opening in 1998. The store was distinct for a few reasons : having three floors, the eatery (entirely digital, ordering-wise) was on the top floor and the warehouse on the bottom level (4 more rows than my Ikea, but not as deep). The 'large' and 'small' items were folded into themselves across the two floors, making the ability to just get one type or the other rather tricky. The whole store was set up like a hexagon, as well! - with a circular pathway on the top two floors.
After that we drove back home! Having listened to a CD of music picked out by me from John's mp3 collection on the way up, we listened to rock and electronic music from Sirius XM on the way back. Ironically, if memory serves me correctly, we actually stopped at the same exit the Big Lots we visited on the way down was at! - but didn't go in again.
For a gallery of 12 pictures, one may click here ~
Okay. Have a good night!
Take care,
* Geoff
how are things? Hopefully well. I : am back! from a recent trip for which I had a chance to take with my friend John. I had last visited with my friend Eric in 2015. Often when vacationing, my friends John and Brian and I all travel together. This was the first time in which just John and I went!
* Sunday
We headed out in the early afternoon, driving west through the corn fields of Indiana and then north to Illnois. We passed rows of giant, oversized windmills - a site possibly common in California or Europe but less so in the Midwest. Stopping at a Big Lots for a break, I happened to find a ginger and lime-flavored Icee, a rare / discontinued flavor of the drink for which John and Brian and I had originally "discovered" during an earlier trip to Denver, CO and which we amusingly thought 'tasted like cleaner' lol. It doesn't really, of course.
We arrived at Red Roof Inn in nearby Morton Grove (room 211 for John, 127 for me) then headed out for some food. I randomly found bubble gum (yes, bubble-gum!) flavored cereal @ a local Dollar Tree. Stopping at a strip-mall Starbucks, I was impressed by the black and white jungle mural on the wall and also was nicely able to find a location-based Chicago gift card too!
* Monday
Today was a combination "city day" / "food and culture day". We headed downtown to the Millennium park area. Mr. J nicely used an online website, pre-paying for parking there, and got about half off! Good for him. Our first stop was the large Art Institute of Chicago, an architecturally-distinct building with two or three 'second stories' and lots of great art - miniatures in the basement, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Wood's American Gothic and many others : I saw works by Monet, Warhol, David Hockney, Cindy Sherman, even a rare Francis Bacon.
From here I walked through the next-door outside gardens and re-met John at "the bean", i.e. the oversized reflective Cloud gate sculpture, then walked north and west from there to the Chicago Cultural Center, a converted library building with a large, pretty glass dome actually designed by the Louis Tiffany studio many years ago. A gallery or two or art was there as well.
We continued north to the biggest Starbucks in the world - literally! The Chicago Roastery. Four stories + a small rooftop seating area at the top. The 4th floor was the coffee cocktail bar, the 3rd was the rare coffee floor (where I ordered an "off menu" item of a tall shaken chai tea), the 2nd the bakery and cafe' floor ("home of the $9 mushroom pizza piece" - which I had, heh) and the ground level the merchandise one. I was able to pick up a rare roastery gift card as well - an all black one.
The famous 'bean', i.e. Cloud Gate
* Tuesday
Today was a "nature day". We drove east to the Lincoln Park area, nicely finding free street parking, and while John explored the (free!) zoo, I myself - having seen in the zoo, albeit in the rain, in 2015 - walked around the outskirts, passing the brown honeycomb arch and boardwalk area around the southern lake. I looped back around to the (closed that day, but which I had also seen in 2015) conservatory, then re-cut through the nice lily pad pond just north of the zoo.
From here I re-met John and, after moving the car slightly closer, walked to our dinner destination - the Chicago RH! (i.e. Restoration Hardware). A converted brick building, it was quite lovely - five stories plus an outside balcony part. After visiting the rooftop, we slowly walked downstairs (the 4th floor was 'modern', with customized wallpaper - likely not for sale, the 3rd the children's floor with oversized beanbags and quirky nightlights, the 2nd towels and bath fixtures and the ground floor the restaurant, at which we ate before heading up to the top). Being almost empty when we first arrived, we were able to nicely chat with many of the staff.
* Wednesday
Today was a "shopping day". After checking out of the hotel, mr. John nicely drove us to an RH outlet (am I slowly making John a fan? haha). I almost got a concrete side table, but passed. From here it was on to the Shaumburg Ikea, one of the biggest I had seen despite the store opening in 1998. The store was distinct for a few reasons : having three floors, the eatery (entirely digital, ordering-wise) was on the top floor and the warehouse on the bottom level (4 more rows than my Ikea, but not as deep). The 'large' and 'small' items were folded into themselves across the two floors, making the ability to just get one type or the other rather tricky. The whole store was set up like a hexagon, as well! - with a circular pathway on the top two floors.
After that we drove back home! Having listened to a CD of music picked out by me from John's mp3 collection on the way up, we listened to rock and electronic music from Sirius XM on the way back. Ironically, if memory serves me correctly, we actually stopped at the same exit the Big Lots we visited on the way down was at! - but didn't go in again.
For a gallery of 12 pictures, one may click here ~
Okay. Have a good night!
Take care,
* Geoff