Warped Reflections and City Streets

A week ago I flew to Chicago to meet our host daughter who is back visiting us through Project 143.  My flight arrived early in the day at the airport, and her flight arrived very late in the day, which left me a whole day without an agenda.  I brought some good books to read, but rather than sitting in the airport all day (after getting stuck there last summer I’m less excited about spending long stretches of time in the airport) I decided to leave my luggage at the hotel and hop on a train to go downtown to visit the American Writers Museum, which was a great choice of a museum to go to alone rather than with kids. They would have been fine visiting there, but without them, I could go very slowly and read everything I wanted to read.  Also, because I taught English years ago, I was probably way more excited than they would have been.  My  English teacher heart was reawakened reading about all sorts of great American Writers and the impact they had on our culture, or what they reflected about American culture throughout history.  It’s not a really big museum, but was the perfect place to spend 2-3 hours, and the displays were really interesting.  My favorite part, hands down, were the interactive typewriters you could use to write on creamy paper with museum letterhead on it.  I didn’t take any pictures of the museum because I was just intent on experiencing it.

After exciting the museum I crossed the street and something delicious at the Nutella Cafe, and then because it was such a nice day outside, I decided to walk around Millennium Park for a bit.  Everyone was out and about on such a balmy winter day.  It was just as crowded down there as it was in the summer, but I enjoyed seeing the ice skating rinks, the big Christmas trees, and of course I had to visit the Bean again.  Every time I see it I’m surprised at how much I like it.  I love how the reflection completely morphs every time you take about 3 steps.  It really is brilliant public art.

When it started to get dark, I hopped back on the train, rode back to the airport and checked into my hotel for a shower and a little nap before heading to the International Terminal to meet our host daughter, who is so happy to be back and having a great time at our house.