So day one of my Notre Dame trip was actually not spent at Notre Dame. I flew into Chicago, where I stayed with my Notre Dame (ND) Friend. To add to the fun, The Bride (who now lives in Illinios) met up with us for a day of sight seeing in Chi-town.
Chicago is a beautiful city! If you have not visited, I'd highly recommend it. It reminds me a little bit of Europe--old, historic buildings, beautiful architecture, and a sense of history. This is probably why I liked it so much. I think that a lot of American cities are so "modern" that they lose any of the beauty that is the past. 
Anyway, after ND Friend picked me up at the airport, we met up with The Bride at "The Bean" in Millenium Park (much more on this later).
After we stuffed our faces, we walked through Millenium Park. It is a beautiful park the stretches all across the waterfront. There are ton of statues and trees and open fields for flag football. There were fountains and photo shoots and a guy on a unicycle (who needed more practice before joining the circus). Two statues really caught our attention.
First, Agora (aka creepy pants statue).
I'll admit, at first, I found the statue creepy. All of these people (106 of them to be exact) with just their legs and feet. They have no heads and no arms and are all facing in random directions. And I think we've previously discussed my fear of feet, so clearly, this kind of statue was not really made for people like me. (Although ND Friend fit right in!)
But then ND Friend googled it on her iPhone and we learned that the statue was made by a Polish artist who grew up during World War II. It is meant to draw on her fear of crowds. She described crowds as being "brainless organisms acting on command, worshiping on command and hating on command" (which makes sense if she grew up in Poland during that time). Although I don't know that I would say that I really love the work, I do think that I have more of an appreciation for it after learning about the motivation.
Second, Cloud Gate (aka The Bean).
Now, I'm no art buff by any means. It was by a miracle that I survived Art appreciation in college. But I do think that Cloud Gate might be the coolest statue I've ever seen. It's called "The Bean" because it is actually shaped like a giant jelly bean. Apparently the artist was inspired by liquid mercury in creating this piece. I think that the brilliance of the statue is that because it reflects the surroundings, it's constantly changing. You can see the clouds move in the reflection.
You see different shades of color depending on where the sun is located. 
People can see themselves in the art. I think it's brilliant.
You know what else is brilliant? The Bride's awesome camera that does time lapse and gets pictures like these of our jumping at the Bean! (Those of you who have read the blog for a while remember where this pose began!) 
And then there were the trees. ND Friend heard on the radio that this year was the longest the the leaves had stayed on the trees EVER in Chicago. I'd like to think that was for me!
So after Millenium Park we walked along The Magnificant Mile to Navy Pier, stopping on the way for hot chocolate and coffee. (Keep count....this would be hot chocolate number 1). 
Chicago is a beautiful city! If you have not visited, I'd highly recommend it. It reminds me a little bit of Europe--old, historic buildings, beautiful architecture, and a sense of history. This is probably why I liked it so much. I think that a lot of American cities are so "modern" that they lose any of the beauty that is the past. Anyway, after ND Friend picked me up at the airport, we met up with The Bride at "The Bean" in Millenium Park (much more on this later).We were all starving, so ND Friend knew of just the place. We started on a trek for a restaurant called Bongo Room. Turned out it was a little further than ND Friend remembered, but trust me...it was worth the walk! This little hole in the wall had the most amazing breakfast food. ND Friend had pretzel pancakes drenched in carmel and white chocolate, I had pumpkin pancakes with amazing brown sugar cream mousse and walnut topping, and The Bride had french toast with cherries and some other fancy stuff. A-Mazing! We all had half orders. You'll see that watching our figures was clearly a priority.....
After we stuffed our faces, we walked through Millenium Park. It is a beautiful park the stretches all across the waterfront. There are ton of statues and trees and open fields for flag football. There were fountains and photo shoots and a guy on a unicycle (who needed more practice before joining the circus). Two statues really caught our attention.First, Agora (aka creepy pants statue).
I'll admit, at first, I found the statue creepy. All of these people (106 of them to be exact) with just their legs and feet. They have no heads and no arms and are all facing in random directions. And I think we've previously discussed my fear of feet, so clearly, this kind of statue was not really made for people like me. (Although ND Friend fit right in!)
But then ND Friend googled it on her iPhone and we learned that the statue was made by a Polish artist who grew up during World War II. It is meant to draw on her fear of crowds. She described crowds as being "brainless organisms acting on command, worshiping on command and hating on command" (which makes sense if she grew up in Poland during that time). Although I don't know that I would say that I really love the work, I do think that I have more of an appreciation for it after learning about the motivation.Second, Cloud Gate (aka The Bean).
Now, I'm no art buff by any means. It was by a miracle that I survived Art appreciation in college. But I do think that Cloud Gate might be the coolest statue I've ever seen. It's called "The Bean" because it is actually shaped like a giant jelly bean. Apparently the artist was inspired by liquid mercury in creating this piece. I think that the brilliance of the statue is that because it reflects the surroundings, it's constantly changing. You can see the clouds move in the reflection.
You see different shades of color depending on where the sun is located. People can see themselves in the art. I think it's brilliant.You know what else is brilliant? The Bride's awesome camera that does time lapse and gets pictures like these of our jumping at the Bean! (Those of you who have read the blog for a while remember where this pose began!) And then there were the trees. ND Friend heard on the radio that this year was the longest the the leaves had stayed on the trees EVER in Chicago. I'd like to think that was for me! So after Millenium Park we walked along The Magnificant Mile to Navy Pier, stopping on the way for hot chocolate and coffee. (Keep count....this would be hot chocolate number 1). When night fell, The Bride headed home, and ND Friend and I headed to a restaurant that came highly recommended by The Bride called Hot Chocolate. We shared (watching the figures remember?) the best mac and cheese ever and what really was maybe the best burger I ever had. And then we each had hot chocolate (number 2)---I had chocolate and fudge, she had white chocolate with pumpkin spice. 
I hope you are all used to my obsession with blogging about food after this prior blog!
I hope you are all used to my obsession with blogging about food after this prior blog!After dinner, we drove through the DePaul and Northwestern campuses and finally we headed back to my friend's adorable apartment (which was built in 1921....see? History!) and spent the rest of the night complaining about how miserable we were and we vowed to never drink hot chocolate again.....
6 comments:
Love it! So glad you could come visit!
Sounds like such an amazing day! I only drove through Chicago at night and was not that taken with it, but your blog and photos changed my mind. OK, mostly the restaurant recommendations... haha
Forgot to also say thanks for sending me the photo! I have them all on my computer and never print them, so it's nice to have one for my office now! (And an updated one of us too!)
Re-living and wishing you were here!!!! Thank you for your awesome virtual journal!! (Not to mention, given our recent conversation, I think the artist of Agora may have touched on a little bit of the reasoning behind p.b.'s hatred of all things Chicago...Oh, art.)
Much Love,
ND Friend
Oh my gosh, Laura, it was so much fun! You should totally go!! It was beautiful---I so enjoyed it.
Kris....thank you SO much for coming and for taking your awesome pictures.
ND Friend---you are the best! Such a fun weekend. And probably if you would have taken P.B. to Agora, you guys would have had a moment, an understanding, and you would have fallen in love. ;)
The Bean is SOOO amazing - thanks for sharing your adventures Tiffany.
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