Out on the Town(s)

Our sweltering afternoon at a Cubs game was just the beginning of our long, hot stay near Chicago. During the time we were there it was so hot that a street in the city literally buckled due to the high temperatures. Our spot at the RV park—on gravel with absolutely no shade—was like sitting on a stove-top so during the heat of the day we’d usually head for someplace cool. 

Twombly sculpture: LIke or dislike?

The Art Institute was at the top of my list of things to see. One day really isn’t enough to take it all in so I made a short list of artists I didn’t want to miss. Unfortunately for Russ that meant that we crisscrossed the Institute many times over as I worked my way through my priorities. Russ began to question the logic of my strategy when we stopped to get directions for the third time at the same information desk. I saw work by some of my favorite artists--Sargent, Van Gogh, Rauschenberg—but I was blown away when I walked around a corner and saw a roomful of found-object sculptures by Cy Twombly. I’m not a big fan of his paintings but these sculptures were amazing. Russ was less impressed. If we’d had those thought bubbles over our heads mine would have read “These are fantastic!” while the one over his head would have said “I can’t believe this crap is in a museum!”

I couldn't resist hamming it up

Our next day trip into Chicago was to the Museum of Science and Industry. I’m going to say upfront that we both thought it was a little light on content—a great place to take kids but not as informational as we had hoped.  One thing that really was impressive was the German U-boat from WWII. Reading about how they moved such a massive object –they could only lower it down several stories from the ground level  four inches at a time and actually built the building around it—was  fascinating.

One of the pleasures on a trip like ours is finding something fun in someplace unexpected. Surprisingly, one of days we enjoyed most wasn’t in Chicago at all but in Sycamore, the small town where we stayed while we were in Illinois. 

Having fun with watercolors

To beat the afternoon heat we decided to go to the movie theater in Sycamore where the first thing we saw when we pulled into the parking lot was parking meters. As former Seattlites we immediately began to groan, expecting meters like the ones in Seattle that require a fistful of quarters or a credit card to get you even close to the 2 hour maximum time allowed.  What a pain. We only had a dime and a quarter in change and the movie was more than an two hours long. But when I hopped out of the car and read the meter I started laughing. For a dime we could get four hours of parking and for a quarter we’d get twelve whole hours! That set the tone for the afternoon. The movie theater was in great shape even though it was built in the 1930s. The prices were retro too. The total cost for our afternoon out—parking, movie, popcorn, soda, and dinner for two from a local Italian restaurant—was thirty-five dollars. Houses near the downtown were gingerbread Victorians that looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Spending time in Sycamore reminded me of those slow-paced summer days when I was a kid with what seemed like all the time in the world.

It ain't much but it's a fish