It’s a Great Place to Visit

If only I had a nickel for every existing picture of smiling tourists at the end of Chicago’s Navy Pier. There are lots of reasons that so many people would take advantage of this photo opportunity. For one, you can get yourself pictured in front of the mighty Lake Michigan, or turn around and become the foreground of a sprawling Chicago cityscape. Also, the picture will stand as concrete evidence that you forked out the 30 dollars for parking, and walked the long distance to the end of the pier. Now don’t get me wrong here, I truly do love Navy Pier, but enjoying its length is not friendly to the cash-poor. During this Chicago trip, Sara, Zoe and I took a ride on the gigantic ferris wheel in the middle of the pier. The on-line reviews for the wheel mostly said that its something the avid Chicago tourist needs only do once, but I thought it was cool enough to do again. It’s not meant to be a thrill ride, but I think it was really neat to be up so high looking down at our southerly neighbor, in all its windy glory. Zoe was not a ferris wheel fan. Perhaps she was afraid because the big gaps between the doors and the floor were a touch bigger than she is, but I prefer to think that it’s because she was well past nap time. No matter Zoe’s opinion, we had a great time on Navy Pier.

Space Moose

This is a space moose. It tried to eat me.

Lions and Tylers and Fares...oh my!

An art museum isn't worth its salt unless its watched over by vicious lions. The lions that guard the Chicago Art Institute are particularly threatening because they are gigantic. During our first trip to Chicago while Randy, Diane and Tyler were out we didn't go into the museum because there just wasn't a huge enough chunk of time to fully enjoy the price of admission. Instead we did some posing with these ferril felines and continued our walk up Michigan Avenue.

Boy was it a sunny day. Here's a picture of the Tyler as we crossed over the Chicago River. See the boatload of people getting floated around in the river down there? That's one of those boat tours that seem to be around in every big city. We've always wanted to take one of these river cruises, but the $30 fare is a bit pricy...instead, we discovered that you can take a water taxi down the river for only 6 dollars or so. We took the taxi to get back from Navy Pier later this same day, it was awesome! I guess the only difference between the river taxi ride and the boat tour is that the taxi driver doesn't talk at you. I think I'd rather save the 24 dollars and go without the chatter. Besides, I can look up all the info I need to know about Chicago on my beloved Wikipedia. Every year they dye the river green for St. Patrick's Day. One year Sara and I ought to go and see it.

Nectar of the Gods

We very much enjoy Giordano's Chicago style pizza. If there were a golden calf in my immediate vicinity, and I were the idol worshiping type, I would most definitely make the calf an offering of Giordano's pizza. I've dreamed about it, I've written essays about it, I've eaten it. Oh how I've eaten it. Mmmm...

Anyhow, our first trip to Chicago with Randy, Diane and Tyler was on a Saturday. We weren't expecting the high volume of traffic that we encountered on the way there, so we didn't pull into town until about eleven o'clock or so. We parked Arthur, the Buick at the Sears Tower, scurried on up the Western hemisphere's tallest building, looked around, and came back down. By the time we were once again ground-born, it was well past feeding time. We crossed the street to our usual Giordano's location, (letter E on the map in the blog below), only to find that the joint was full full full. To more fully view our dismay, please see the picture above.

Instead we treked along the green line to letter D and ate there. There weren't quite as many people at D, so we put in our order and started waiting. The savvy Chicagoan knows that you must order your pizza as soon as possible because those stuffed kinds take about an hour to cook. By the time we were shoveling pizza into our mouths it was about four o'clock but every second of waiting was worth it! We were hungry, and it was good, and it changed my life. I recently heard that Zeus actually eats Giordano's Chicago style pizza on Mt. Olympus. Pure ambrosia.

Kason and Sara's walking and floating Chicago tour

It ends up that Sara's parents and brother are big time Chicago fans. We made the trek down south two times while they were out here. Trips to Chicago are tons of fun, its a ginormous city full of famous stuff, and close enough to not have to pay for a hotel. We've been down that way enough times now to finally have our tour figured out. Please see the map above, which we will eventually put in the "Kason and Sara's walking and floating Chicago tour" brochure. The next many blogs will be a more picturesque and detailed rendition of this, our tour's summary from the brochure:

Welcome to Chicago, the Windy City! We look forward to discovering the sights, sounds and smells of America's third largest city with you. We will begin at the Sears Tower, where you will have a breathtaking view of the city from 108 stories up. Get out your credit cards ladies, because next we will walk along Jackson Drive to the world famous Michigan Avenue! As we walk North we will pass the lions that stand guard at the Chicago Art Institute. We will now pause for a very long time and visit the art museum. For you uncultured swines that don't enjoy world famous art, you can go hang out at Grant Park, site of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential acceptance party. We hope you're hungry because we are now going to stuff ourselves to the gills with Giordano's Chicago stuffed crust pizza. After eating we will waddle over the river, heading east on Grand avenue, and clear down to the end of Navy Pier. After spending a few minutes staring out over Lake Michigan we will walk back to the west end of Navy Pier and ride on the ferris wheel. To finish our tour we will take a relaxing boat ride on the Chicago river, enjoying the many skyscrapers along the way, back to the Sears Tower. We hope you enjoy our beautiful city!

Lemons at the Lakefront Brewery

The Lakefront Brewery tour and Friday night fish fry is the acme of Milwaukee culture. We were serenaded by a polka band while Randy and I feasted upon fried fish parts, and the rest ate hamburgers. Our fellow diners very much enjoyed their wide variety of beers and we drank our weight in Golden Maple Root Beer. After dinner we enjoyed the tour wherin we learned the fine art of brewing, and the history of beer. You may recall from a previous post that Zoe became a temporary Lakefront Brewery spokesperson, and can be seen in one of Lakefront's advertisements in The Onion newspaper. To this day Zoe really does prefer their root beer over any of the other brands. Of course she may not be the best source for soda critique, seeing as how at this point in her life her favorite food was lemons.

Imposters in Gotham

Sara waited in line for hours to meet Batman at Six Flags. We're not totally sure if it was the real Batman, but I submit that it was not. There seems to be a lot more Adam West under that suit than there is George Clooney. As planned, while Sara and Zoe distracted Batman, Randy stole his mobile.

Great America, Great Wonderful America

Is it true that in every elementary school across America there's some kid who insists that he or she will grow up to become a professional roller coaster designer? No, that kid was not me, I think my dream job was to become a scientist or a banker (I was an ultra geek), but I always dreamed of going to a real amusement park. Utah's beloved Lagoon never really did it for me, perhaps because back then they polluted local television with the most obnoxious of television commercials (by the way, those commercials were better than Star Wars compared to the Jared's Jewelers advertisements of today). All my thrill park dreams came true when the whole family drove 60 miles south, just over the Illinois border, to Six Flags Great America. And Great it was!! Holy cow, I've never had so much fun. Tyler bought us flash passes, which are these amazing devices that allow you to book yourself a spot at the front of the line of a ride about every 15 minutes. And boy did we get good at it too, we ended up running from one ride to the other, cutting to the front of the line, getting our heads tossed back and forth violently on some nutty ride, and rushing off to the next one still dizzy. The best ride there was Raging Bull which we ended up going on over and over again. Boy howdy, there's no other way to do Six Flags. Thanks Tyler.

Zoe also enjoyed Six Flags, but for different reasons. She was able to hang out with a variety of enormous cartoon characters, with whom she danced and laughed. There were all sorts of things on the ground for her to touch and sample, much to her parents' and grandparents' disapproval. We also took her on a number of "kiddie" rides, which she seemed to enjoy in a very bored sort of way. The pinacle of the trip for her though was definitely the funnel cake, which she was able to enjoy at the modest cost of only $4 per spoonful. You learn a lot about a person by how they act at Six Flags. I never knew that Tyler has the potential to be an olympic sprinter, or that Sara can scream better than those chicks in black and white horror films. I also never knew that Foghorn Leghorn looked so good in a vest.

Santiago's Sail

Santiago Calatrava's building which currently houses the Milwaukee Museum of Art was completed in May of 2001. That's not very long ago. The 217 foot fan closes up at night and during inclement weather, and has become one of the symbols of Milwaukee. Calatrava is a Spanish fellow that has been taking the architecture world by storm this last decade. Our art museum was his first work in the United States, and he is currently overseeing the design of what will soon become the country's tallest building, the Chicago Spire. You've probably read in previous posts about how excited I am for my spire to be built down in the Windy City. Next time Calatrava's in town, I'm totally taking him to lunch.

So one morning in June Sara woke up unable to see. That's certainly not a preferred vision status, so we took her to the emergency room and found out that she had ulcers on her eyeball. Eeeewwww!! All's well now, thanks to the treatment that she got from some very good optomolotritionologists, which included wearing an eye patch for a week or so. Needless to say, a vast quantity of pirate jokes were instituted at her expense.

Inside the MAM

Who'd a thunk that the Miwaukee Art Museum was so much more than a world-reknowned building that looks like a giant Oriental hand fan. We've been telling ourselves to go in and see what lies inside for a long time, but it took our visiting relatives to finally get us to do it. Sara's cultured me up good when it comes to art, and one of our favorite artists is Dale Chihuly. He does incredible glass sculptures, including the one pictured here, which is located in the Milwaukee Art Museum. Can you imagine designing and blowing all that glass? I can't either, mostly because I have no clue what is required in glass blowing, but I'm sure that while doing it, one should be careful not to breathe in. To make it even more impressive, Mr. Chihuly has only one eye, which I'd imagine really throws a wrench in the glass blowin' gears.

I was very impressed with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the works of art inside it. The collection was very large and the exhibits were put together well. I love how you can look out any window and get a fabulous view of Lake Michigan. I know that Randy, Diane and Tyler enjoyed the art museum because they stayed inside on a beautiful sunny day to see it...and that says a lot. Milwaukee often gets sort of a beer-drinkin', Favre-lovin', Harley-ridin' reputation, but it also offers a lot of the finer things in life if you know where to look for them. Its not hard to spot the MAM, and I'm very glad that we finally stepped inside.

In-Laws Visit the US North Coast

We're entering the cold and less-shiny portion of the year, so I declare a flash back to the sunny days of summer! Jennifer, Nathen and Annie must have given a good Midwest review because a month after they left Milwaukee, we played host-family to Sara's parents and brother. The Milwaukee area has plenty to offer over the summer, and we found ourselves rushing from one place to the other during the week they were out here, trying to fit in all the great stuff we wanted to do. I figure that if they're gonna drive 1500 miles to visit us, we better show 'em a good time. I am very proud of myself for having fed my in-laws all four indiginous Milwakee menu must-haves, including cream puffs, frozen custard, fried fish and various sausages...but more on that later. I'm very fortunate to have in-laws that totally rock, so prepare yourself for some heaping spoonfulls of blogging bliss!