August 1, 2023 - Buildings, Bean, Steps, Torture
The Travel & Leisure staff at Boo’s N.E.W.S. travels to Chicago for a special in-depth look at the Windy City.
Nuggets of Information: We Built This City ... We Built This City on Swampy Soil
Until this past week, I had never spent any real time in Chicago – only passing though on the way to Wisconsin. But after spending a few days in this lovely city with my family, I have made up for lost time and am now a huge fan of this fair city.
We crammed a lot of activities into a short period of time. One of the highlights was the Architecture Boat Tour. As we cruised the Chicago River on a beautiful summer night, our docent shared with us the history of Chicago, the challenges in building a city with massive buildings on fairly unstable ground, and the backstories of many of the most recognizable buildings in the world. It was fascinating.
Of particular interest was the explanation of why and how they reversed the flow of the Chicago River back in 1900. Before then, the Chicago River was the primary dumping ground for livestock waste, for the slaughterhouses, for city markets and businesses – pretty much everything that could be dumped was dumped. This all flowed into Lake Michigan, which serves as the drinking water source for the city. In 1887, after outbreaks of cholera and typhus had ravaged the area, the Chicago city government decided to reverse the flow of the river.
In 1889, the Sanitary District of Chicago was established, and over the next 11 years, they engaged in a massive project based on a simple premise: water flows downhill. The surrounding tributaries were dammed and a perpetually deepening canal from Lake Michigan to the lower Des Plaines River was dug out, removing 26 million cubic yards of glacial drift and 12 million cubic yards of solid rock. On January 2, 1900, the dams from the tributaries were blown up, and the subsequent rush of water entered the now deeper Chicago River, the flow was successfully reversed. Our docent joked that they sent St. Louis all their waste and in response St. Louis sent them Budweiser beer. Ha! Docent humor is almost as solid as Dad jokes.
Side nugget #1: One of the buildings we visited was the Hancock Tower, which includes a 360 degree view of the city/Lake Michigan. We opted for the “TILT Thrill Ride” which as the name implies, tilts viewers out over the edge of the building.
Side nugget #2: As part of this trip, I started reading “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, which describes two significant, simultaneous occurrences: the development of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the emergence of H.H. Holmes, considered the first serial killer in the United States. Larson is a skilled writer, alternating chapters between the World’s Fair work and Holmes’ dark activities. It is completely mesmerizing. I highly recommend this book.
Enrichment: Taking Time to Reflect
“Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” - from Scarlet Begonias, Lyrics: Robert Hunter, Music: Grateful Dead
The most common response we got while planning our trip was “Be sure to go see the Bean!” The Bean, the nickname for Anish Kapoor’s breathtaking reflective sculpture (officially called “Cloud Gate”), is one of Chicago’s most popular tourist attractions. It is big and shiny and … bean looking. I caught a few glimpses of it while on my morning walks, and from Lyft rides, but I didn’t get the full experience until we visited it last Friday afternoon.
At first came the sense of fun and whimsy from this big old bean just sitting there. Loads of people taking pictures, kids happily running around, smiles everywhere. As I got closer, and really looked into it, especially in the middle/underside, I had some surreal, almost optical illusion experiences. Not dissimilar to a fun-house mirror. Although we were looking at reflections, there was something just a little off in those reflected images. Lines were now bent, curves were curvier. It was a bit unsettling, but not in a vertigo way. Just … not quite real?
That sense of altered reality was replaced by something more meaningful. As we watched Samantha and Alex spend time together, taking pictures and videos, I reflected on their closeness as sisters, and the changes that are going on in their lives right now. We watched Samantha, who is weeks away from going off to college, direct Alex to pose in different ways. We watched Alex, about to be more independent than ever before, direct Samantha to pose in different ways. As we watched them playfully running around having fun, being silly, being sisters, I looked up at the Bean and saw my own reflection, standing next to Lisa. Two parents watching their kids be kids. I wondered how many times we have watched our kids from the sidelines. From gymnastics to swimming to softball to karate to Girl Scouts to school events – for the last 18+ years we have watched these kids be kids. This time felt different. It felt as if I was watching them play together as kids for the last time.
I know (hope) we will be together plenty of times in the future, but they are young adults now. The opportunities for them to play together as silly carefree kids are mostly in the past. Watching them at the Bean, I felt both profoundly happy and profoundly sad. Unlike my initial reaction to the Bean as it being not quite real, this second reaction felt incredibly real. So much of our energy lately has been spent looking forward to what is coming. But on this one beautiful July afternoon in Chicago, at the Bean, the reflections that will stick with me weren’t from the polished stainless steel.
Workshop: My Chicago Dogs Are Barking!
Our vacation involved various forms of transportation, including planes, Lyfts, a boat, a bicycle taxi, a curved escalator and the famous “El” trains. But the one that really stood out was walking. From Wednesday night to Sunday night I walked over 75000 steps, which is around 35 miles. Some of it was intentional, some was due to unseen forces conspiring to send us down the least efficient path.
The intentional walking included solo walks in the mornings around the River North area, Magnificent Mile and the stretch along Millennium Park. We also chose activities that led to lots of steps:
Visiting the Museum of Science & Industry – the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere. (highly recommend)
Navy Pier – we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Lirica while the twice-a-week fireworks show went off nearby.
Taking in the White Sox-Guardians baseball game – walking fueled by the requisite Comiskey Hot Dog.
Activate Chicago – a super fun interactive gaming center where your group does different physical challenges as a team. Big fun.
Some of the unintentional walking included:
When the convenience store 5 minutes from our hotel didn’t have what we needed, they sent me “just a couple blocks over” which translated to another 20 minutes away.
Lisa had a different flight home since her work booked it, so at O’Hare we dropped her off at her gate (M8) and walked to our gate (M40) which then had a 3-minute walk down a loooong corridor to the plane.
Back in Atlanta we got off at E45 – the farthest gate in the farthest concourse, also with a really loooong corridor from the plane. We walked all the way back to the main terminal, foregoing the plane train. From there, baggage claim and the walk to the Rideshare lot.
Chicago is a great city for walking. I thoroughly enjoyed just wandering around, looking at the buildings, the river, the parks. It was fun to explore, and to just start to get to know my way around.
Good thing I am in Heal to Toe Express!
Selected Content: Can You All Check in on Me Periodically?
I do not profess to be an expert in relationships, but I have learned a thing or two in my days on this planet. One tip I’ll share is to support your partner’s unique interests, even if they differ from your unique interests, and even if they could potentially lead to you being stretched over a rack, flayed, gouged or dismembered. Which is how I ended up at the Medieval Torture Museum.
My wife Lisa, the “Muse of Boo’s N.E.W.S.”, had this tour at the top of her list, so while our two teenagers slept in, we explored the dark and unsettling world of torture. I walked around apprehensively, becoming more and more unsettled, as I learned about various instruments for inflicting pain. Many involved iron shackles, wooden beams, sharp pointy objects and most terrifying, the song from the “1-877-Kars-4-Kids" commercial playing on a loop.
My big takeaway is that if I ever do get access to a time machine, I will NOT be going back to the medieval period. My uncontrolled sarcasm paired with my soft typing hands and large cranium would make me an ideal candidate for the local hooded torturer.
Lisa had a different approach – seeing this as a learning opportunity. She listened to the audio tour, became adept at many of the interactive misery implements, and took copious notes. Her Temu search history now includes “Men’s XL Head Crusher.” Should I be nervous? I would much rather prefer the t-shirt in their gift shop that says “I HOPE YOU STEP ON A LEGO”- classic! Torture Museum Gift Shop T-Shirt humor is right up there with river tour Docent humor and Dad jokes.