Sweet Home Chicago

I edited the title from "My City is Better Than Yours". I still think it is, but I just finished watching the most inspired musical ever, The Blues Brothers.

Ahh.. Chicago.. Nevermind that I almost live closer to Milwaukee where it's an even mix of Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packer fans. We only have a few days until school starts so I took my kids downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park. Millennium Park was something of a debacle that cost nearly half a billion dollars, but it sure is a nice showcase of a park.

This is the faces splash fountain. My son says this is the best splash park ever! It is really great. The faces are always changing and are quite mesmerizing.
Periodically, they "Blow" water onto the wet kids underneath. A friend of my parents is one of the faces. I think it's on a several day randomized cycle, so it isn't as though you can just sit there and wait for a particular person to come up.

Millennium Park also has Cloud Gate, but no one really calls it that, it's "The Bean". I love the way the features at the park have the backdrop of stunning Chicago skyline. Our fair city is the birthplace of the skyscraper and citizens of Chicago take a big interest in her architecture.

Also at Millennium Park are many gardens including this lovely prairie garden. You can see a glimpse of the Sears Tower in the background. For a longtime, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world. now it's like second or third.


Prior to our visit to Millennium Park, we'd been in the Art Institute of Chicago. My son, at age 10 is kind of interested in the nudes. "Artists are always interested in the human form." is what we said. Anyway, The Art Institute has the best collection of impressionists in the world.
I love the beautiful ladies by Renoir. Probably because they share the same hobbies as me:
Here are a few other iconic paintings at the Art Institute. We barely had time to scratch the surface. I didn't photograph any Picassos, or Mary Cassatts, or Matisse, or Gauguin and we didn't see much outside of this period. Click the pictures to enlarge and see the artists names. Sorry they are wonky.. I'm really an amateur:


Remember when Ferris Beuller went to the Art Institute on his famous Day Off? click HERE for the clip.

My children were great at the museum although it does get to be visual overload. They brought along their sketch pads and did some drawings, but they were pretty anxious to get out to the splash park. There are dozens of other worthy things to do to enjoy Chicago. Maybe we'll even get to have the Olympics here. It's a long shot, but we are in the running!

My blog is really not for dialup is it? Sorry! I love big pictures...