Our Fun Continued For Several Days In Chicago……….

As I was saying in my last post, The Art Institute was my favorite place we visited on my weekend getaway with my sister for her 60th birthday.  I am NOT a museum kind of person.

I have been to many over the years and have enjoyed them, but I don’t make my travel plans around them.  This one was special, and I really enjoyed the exhibits.

They have a Monet collection which was truly impressive, primarily because of how extensive.

This is a Van Gogh, which I thought amusing.  He painted this during a stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum.

“The Drinkers” by Vincent Van Gogh in 1890.

My favorite piece that I saw at the museum was this Renoir.

Aside from the vibrant colors in the painting, I was drawn to the delicate and detailed interpretation of their faces.

I loved it so much, I bought a magnet in the bookstore.

“Two Sisters” By Pierre-Auguste Renoir  1881

This one I found quite thought-provoking.  It’s a collage on paper by Max Ernst.  It’s called, “The Massacre of the Innocents” done in 1920.  When I first looked at it, something about it caught my eye ………..

9-11!

The more I studied it, the more I knew this had to be an artist who was interpreting their vision of a scene from the Twin Towers being hit.

Imagine my dysphoria when I looked at the placard for this piece of art.

Clearly, it was made in 1920.

I think our next stop was Navy Pier but, although it was a fun place to see, there really wasn’t much that either of us was interested in except the  Chicago Children’s Museum.  We didn’t have time to go in but walked through a free area.

We did walk to the end of the pier, walked back, bought some Garrett’s popcorn, hopped on the trolley and returned to The Drake.  (I wanted to fill a request from Poo for caramel popcorn.  He has grown to love it since his daughter lives in Chicago and usually brings him a bag when she visits.)

The next day was fun-filled as well.  We took the Architectural Boat Tour and learned, (more than I can remember), about the history of the buildings, and the redevelopment of the river area.

While we waited for our boat tour to embark at 5:00, we walked to a restaurant/deli/market, called Eataly, to grab some lunch.  This place was the brain child of Mario Batali, who used to be on the daytime TV show, The Chew.

I was ecstatic to find that they offered a gluten-free pizza at Eataly ……… made to order!  I think I might have died and gone to heaven in that moment.

I have to say, since I was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity about 4 years ago, I have tried my fair share of GF pizzas and I am here to tell ya, most of them are mediocre, at best.  This pizza was, in fact, the closest thing to a real “wheat flour” pizza I have ever tasted!

Fun Mansion Fact:  It was leased as dormitories to the School of the Art Institute before it was eventually converted into condominiums in the 90's.

The two neighborhood tours took most of the day and, regrettably, it was time to head home.   Or in our case, to the lake where we will spend the rest of the Fourth of July week.  Not really regrettable though because there was more fun ahead of us, but the Chicago trip was incredibly enjoyable.

Most of my family tries to spend July 4th at the lake.   There is always plenty of food, fun and family time.  It is a time we spend catching up with siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts and our children.

Even among the chaos of multiple families, sometimes exceeding 40 people, we manage to have a great time!

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that one is ready.”                                                     –  Henry David Thoreau

xoxo, Katy