May 3
187 miles today. Interstate for 3 hours up to our true starting point of Chicago. On the road by 9:30. Not too much in between the 2 cities except some very nice farmland. Big spreads with dark brown loamy soil so unlike the hard red clay back in GA. About 100 miles south of Chicago we suddenly had a large collection of wind turbines sprout up in the farmland. Lasted for several miles and they extended out both sides of the highway as far as we could see. Granted, it was a bit hazy and drizzly but you get the idea - bunch of them and quite large.
As we crossed from Indiana to Illinois we also crossed into central time zone and picked an hour back up. Since we had time until checking into our hotel, we wanted to drive around the site where the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 was held. The original Exposition area included the roughly 400 acre Jackson Park fronting Lake Michigan, almost 400 more acre Washington Park inland and the mile long and 300' wide Midway Plaisance Park connecting those two parks. Frederick Law Olmsted of New York's Central Park fame designed the landscaping of the entire Expo area. The Museum of Science and Industry is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts and is the only surviving building dating back to the Exposition. The Expo was a huge success drawing over 27 million visitors during the short 6 months it was open in a city with a population of only around 1 million.
Museum of Science and Industry
When we were in Chicago while doing the Great Loop, we did a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home/studio. We bought a book while there "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. Non Fiction that chronicles the building of the Exposition but also some rather seedy aspects of Chicago and a large numbers of unsolved murders that occurred. It's a great read - if a bit haunting. The book got us interested in viewing this area which we completely bypassed on our last visit.
The Statue of the Republic - another remnant from the Expo
We got the car parked and checked into the hotel by mid-day. Reservations for 2 nights at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel. Sounds much worse than it is - like we're staying at the YMCA. The old CAA building was remodeled into a rather nice hotel. Bummed that the game room bar and rooftop restaurant aren't open. Just reopened the rooms April 1 after covid related shutdown. Great location on Michigan Ave. right across from Millennium Park. Easy walking distance to downtown, restaurants, museums, parks, Navy Pier, lakeshore, etc. We strolled over to Millennium Park as it's home to a Chicago landmark - one of the largest outdoor sculptures in the world officially named Cloud Gate, but know by most simply as "The Bean".
The Chicago Athletic Association building - now a hotel
Trying to figure out this selfie thing in front of "The Bean"
More walking took us to Chicago's first skyscraper, a 12-story building called "The Rookery". Built in 1888 after the great Chicago fire. It was designed by Daniel Burnham and John Root who had their office on the top floor. These guys play a significant role in the book mentioned above as they were responsible for coordinating the construction of the Exposition. Another local character figures into this building's interesting architectural history. Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to redesign the lobby area of the building in 1905. The original Burnham and Root designed central light court remained but Wright basically covered the interior surfaces in white marble with Persian influenced ornamentation inlaid in gold.
Spiral iron staircase and light court were part of original design
Second story mezzanine was part of the Wright redesign.
Typical Wright prairie style hanging light fixtures.
Picture above has one of the marble facades removed to show the decorative steel beams from the original design. In the background is a fully encased decorative gold inlaid marble column support. Note the floor has the Root designed mosaic tiles on the right side and the Wright designed tile pattern on the left side.
Walking back to the hotel we found the sign just a block away from the hotel where we'll officially start on Route 66 in a few days.
We may be getting a little better at this selfie thing!!
Rain and cold weather tomorrow so hoping to visit a few museums, but we're finding that many are still closed or on reduced open days due to Covid. Had every intention of spending Tuesday in The Art Institute of Chicago across the street from our hotel. Website showed normal days/times but when we went to reserve tickets today we were told "Sorry, closed Tues. and Wed. due to covid". Oddly, they were open today and we could have spent the afternoon there today if we had known tomorrow was a no-go. I'm sure we'll find something to do and report back on it in tomorrows blog!!
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