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Chicago

 We headed west some more this week. It's always fun when states have "Thanks for visiting" or "Come back soon" signs. 

4-H was started in Ohio!


We stopped at Bowling Green, Indiana




Beautiful sunrise the next morning



We drove along the George Rogers Clark Trail


Lovely weather at sunset


Since we were in the Chicago area, we saw this billboard as we were driving along




Aren't these interesting little delivery trucks?


Bringing in the fall harvest


We headed to Pullman National Monument, which is more of a historic district than one distinct site. The visitor center was in the clocktower building


When you walk in, it is like you enter a Pullman car.


The next section looked kind of like a train station.  George Pullman built an entire town around his company, housing and everything.


The last section of the visitor center museum looked like the factory, with the worker's gate at the entrance


We learned about the Pullman Porters and the strike--employees were laid off, wages were cut but the rents were not!




This is the actual worker's gate outside



This building is kind of in ruins, it was where they produced Pullman cars

Another day we headed into Chicago--did you know there are driving routes to go around ALL the Great Lakes or you can do them individually?


We stopped by to see the Robie House, built by Frank Lloyd Wright. We were kind of on a hunt for sites mentioned in The Sixty-Eight Rooms, the first of a series of novels that we had read. The Robie House features prominently in one of those novels.





Then we drove into downtown Chicago


We all agreed that window cleaning, especially on skyscrapers, would never be a job we would do!


We parked--the wonders of modern technology, we could pay for a parking spot before hand, save a few $$, and then just check in with a barcode when we got there!


We walked over to Lake Michigan to see the boats and the water. 


Then we walked over to see Cloud Gate, known more colloquially as "The Bean". We had seen it before, couldn't resist coming back to see it again.



This is known as the Crown Fountain, not far from the Cloud Gate in Millennium Park. The fountains are constructed with clear bricks on the outside, they are supposed to "spit" water every so often, besides the water that cascades down the entire structure. 


It didn't seem to be working--this one was acting like it was wanting to "spit" but nothing came out



We went to find the Historic Route 66 beginning sign. What we missed is that there is an "end" sign in Chicago too! Normally, people drove from Chicago to California, but I guess they decided to put an "end" sign in Chicago for those that drive from California to Chicago!


We were headed to the Art Institute of Chicago


The Sixty-Eight Rooms is the first of a series of novels based on the Thorne Rooms. These are miniature rooms, at a scale of 1:12, that are all intricately recreated historical rooms.


It was really hard to get a photo of them, because of the glass reflecting




It doesn't say so, but I SWEAR this a reproduction of the entry hall to Andrew Jackson's residence, The Hermitage



We also did a blitz tour of the rest of the museum--SO many amazing pieces of art to see!





There was a medieval art section, had a lot of pieces of art that felt like you were walking into a cathedral


Also: armor!



We saw Monet


Seurat


Look at the close up--all those dots!


Degas


Georgia O'Keefe


And our favorite: American Gothic by Grant Wood. I loved the rustic wooden frame on it


We got Chicago hot dogs for lunch


We drove by Chinatown to get a picture of the gate and to pick up some takeout


Sights as we drove back to the campground:

We got to see the cute/odd delivery trucks again!

 
Before we left Illinois, we stopped by the Chicago Illinois Temple 



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