Posts

Showing posts from June, 2014

Chicago: The Art Institute Experience

Image
A very wide angle of the Art Institute of Chicago main entrance. Note:  This is the second part of my travelogue on the trip Jennifer and I made recently to Chicago. We went in to and out of the Art Institute of Chicago four times during our stay there.  We spent over 7 hours walking the Institute's extensive floors and spaces; several more hours discussing what we saw.  We trekked through the Southeast Asian exhibit three or four times as it was a transfer area from one large wing of the museum to the other.  I recalled seeing much of that collection's style when I was living in India . The temples there are covered in vast intricate engravings.  I pointed out the Cambodian section to Jennifer before we knew the art was, in fact, Cambodian.  I know my Southeast Asian art styles. But that certainly was not the great attraction for Jennifer and me.  Nor was ancient Roman and Egyptian art.  Nor was African, medieval, nor religious art, all of which are plentiful a

Chicago: the Bean, the Wind, the Booze, the Food, the Blues, etc.

Image
Jennifer snapped this view of Lake Michigan and the sky out our window just before we banked to land at O'Hare International Airport .  We were both impressed by our aerial views on this cloudless day.  It was 66 degrees and breezy.  An incredible June day from my native southern perspective.    Note: This is part one of a three-part travelogue about a recent trip to Chicago. Jennifer and I recently visited Chicago for a four-night vacation.  The trip was terrific.  Chicago is a amiable, clean town with more to offer than we could possibly take in during such a short stay.  As I have in the past with our vacations to Alaska , to Boston , and to DC , I will attempt to capture the spirit of the trip in a three-part travelogue. We arrived about mid-afternoon on the Friday before Father's Day.  Our stay was downtown, centrally located to several attractions but, most importantly, only about a block from the Art Institute of Chicago, our primary reason for visiting the Wi