Day 14 (Chicago)

Maura and I were lucky enough to be staying in Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park is like the Upper East Side in NYC. It has gorgeous old apartment buildings and my Aunt Marion and Uncle Dick have a glorious view of Lake Michigan from their apartment window. Dick grew up in Chicago, but he and Marion have lived in their apartment in the ballpark of 45 years! This apartment building was built in the 1920s and Marion and Dick have kept all the old tile, flooring and appliances. It is MASSIVE and has two spare bedrooms and ours was just off the living room with a great tv and bathroom to boot! We got up on our own body clocks for once. We had been really hustling to get up and get out for the past few mornings so we sort of took our time and lazed a bit. We came out of our room to a bustling Marion, who had cut up all of the gigantic pineapple Maura had brought them the night before. The origin of this pineapple is Maura's glorious mother, Gail, who sent it and some much adored food stuffs when we landed in Sioux Falls. Marion and Dick RAVED for what seemed like years about this pineapple. It essentially made their morning! We had coffee, Maura heard the tale of Alleva cheese (a family joint in Little Italy) and then we decided that Maura and I would head out to the Lincoln Park Zoo and meet them at The Chicago Art Institute later that afternoon. We walked in the VERY gusty Chicago wind down to the park and checked out this famous place. What a sweet zoo. Our hands down favorite was this Andean bear that jumped in his pond while we watched! We had some serious bear love on this trip. We headed down State Street for lunch and then stopped at my parents old apartment on Cedar Street. Quite the digs!

We walked around so much that it got late pretty fast, but there were Dick and Marion, awaiting our arrival on the steps of The Art Institute. We immediately headed down to the Thorne Rooms. This gallery displays tons of teeny tiny miniature rooms decorated, built and designed by Mrs. James Thorne. The smallest details are included: the views from the windows, the embroidery, the flowers, the wallpaper, the rugs. Everything is perfect and SMALL. Apparently Orson Welles visited the opening as a teenager and was very inspired by the lighting. When someone asked him his inspiration for the new film techniques in Citizen Kane he said one word, "Thorne". Everyone thought he was making a reference to "Rosebud", but it turned out to be Mrs. James Thorne and her rooms! Next we took a tour of the impressionist rooms (my personal fave) and then headed to the Matisse exhibit. Definitely take a moment to check out some of his more experimental work...really incredible. After squeezing in American Gothic and Nighthawks, we trapesed out to Millenium Park. If you haven't heard about the BEAN, check it out!


To top off the day, with Marion in the driver's seat, Dick gave us a driving tour of the South Side of Chicago. We went all around the University of Chicago campus and then grabbed dinner at Medici, an adorable Italian place near campus. We somehow made it home in one piece, be that one tired piece. We packed for the next day and then watched Maura's favorite film of all time which is a new one for me: Adventures in Babysitting. Only got through the first half before passing out, but highly recommended on the fun meter! Dreams of Wooster...