Chicago!

Rick and I went to Chicago for a long weekend April 12 - 14. The real reason we went was because three of my quilts were in the Tarot Art Quilt Project show at the Spring International Quilt Festival. It was the first (and probably last) time that all 78 quilts would be shown together, and I didn't want to miss it. So we turned it into a mini vacation.

Our flight was awful, Saturday morning 6AM from Richmond. We had the most obnoxious child (with matching parents) directly behind us. He kicked my seat the whole way; all three of them ran at the mouth the whole way. I did not go to jail; I didn't even hit the kid (even though his dad told him I would).

We picked up our car rental (after getting a nice long tour of O'hare, thanks to their crummy signs) , and headed downtown. Our first stop was the Shedd Aquarium. It was really ***cold*** outside, very windy. We got there before the aquarium opened, and I needed a rest room. There was a small building with a little food shop and rest rooms, so I went in there. Metal toilets; Rick could hear me scream outside when I sat down. The aquarium was great, usual stuff but in an awesome building. Plus a dolphin show that made us even more eager for our trip to Discovery Cove this fall. And Beluga whales, I'd never seen any in person don't know if they were a "couple", or a mom and child, but the reminded me of me and Rick - they couldn't stand to be apart, without physical contact. The whole time they were swimming around they were touching.

Here's me, bundled up against the elements, and Rick with the fish he wished he could take home:

Then off to the quilt show, our real reason for coming. It was huge, beyond anyone's imaginings, all in one giant room (with concrete floors, much to my knee's dismay) - quilts and vendors for miles around. WE found the TAQP exhibit, and Rick took the obligatory pictures of me with my three quilts (Two of Cups, Eight of Cups<bad photo of me>, Six of Swords):

Rick did some of the quilt show with me, and then he left me on my own. After about another hour, my knee hurt so bad that I called him to come get me. After some serious icing and a nap, we returned to the show for another 45 minutes or so before meeting some of my on-line quilting buddies for dinner. I was honestly disappointed in the vendors at the show and bought very little fabric. There were lots of specialty fabrics - handdyeds and painted and kimono scraps and feedsacks - but what I wanted to see was the normal quilt fabrics that people like e-quilter and hancock sell but that I can't buy locally, all the newest Hoffmans and Kaufmanns, etc. "Normal" fabric (sort 0f). Dinner with my friends was good; well, actually, dinner itself was rotten expensive hotel food, but the company was good. It was nice to put faces with names. Unfortunately, both Rick and I were really really pooped. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Up early the next morning to meeting some of the other members of the TAQP for breakfast. I won't tell how Rick escaped the $11 parking fee so we could pay $25 for an okay breakfast, but he did. <g> Another chance to put faces with names, and even though there was some weird karma going on, I truly enjoyed my visit, especially with Wolf and Laume. Sorry, though, no pictures.

Off to downtown again, to meet up with our Untouchables Tour bus. Luckily, it was on the same block as the Rainforest Cafe, Hard Rock Cafe, and <drum roll please> the Rock and Roll McDonalds! Guess where we ate? Wrong - McDs. We didn't have enough time for the others. It was wretched, as was the service, but the plaster life size Beatles-crossing-Abbey-Road was worth the trip (sorry, we couldn't get a photo).

The Untouchables Tour gave us a chance to get chauffeured around the Chicago neighborhoods, hearing about where all the gangstas had done stuff in the colorful accents of our tour guides. It was nice just to ride around and see the sights without having to worry about maps and stoplights, plus we learned a good bit of the city's history. After the tour we hit the Hard Rock for a "snack" (I got the greatest root beer float with chocolate ice cream), then walked around that area of town for a while. We were near lots of shopping, including one very upscale "mall" that I was surprised let us in. It was there that I was accosted by Legoman while trying to rest my weary knees on a bench. Jeeze, nowhere's safe!

Sunday evening we went to Tommy Gun's Garage dinner theatre. Nice dinner - good food! - and a very enjoyable show with flappers singing and dancing the night away. The cops came and tried to break up the party, but we pretended we were a revival meeting, and he went on his merry way.

Monday morning was clear and warmer. We checked out of our hotel and headed to the cemetary where Al Capone is buried. Several months ago, we'd visited Hollywood Cemetary here in Richmond and Rick made fun of some tourist from New Jersey who were taking pictures of each other at Jeff Davis's grave. Well, he had to eat his words. Unfortunately, we had no clue where the grave was; Rick had seen a picture of it in a book and described it to me (it's one of those pointy kinds of monuments with bushes all around the bottom). It took us about 15 minutes - this cemetary is HUGE! - and some good luck, but we found it. The pointy monument part is the family marker, but here's Rick with Al Capone's very own personal marker:

Then we headed downtown, paid yet more $$ to park, and made our trek to the top of the Sears Tower. What an awesome view! I remembered studying Chicago architecture in art history classes, but you really don't get to see it until you're there in person. In our very narrow Richmond world, there's only one or two tall buildings downtown that show any creativity or imagination at all. In Chicago, it's all of them!

After the Sears Tower, we went to the Navy Pier, where we paid the parking gods even more money. We walked about a bit before we decided to take a SeaDog speed boat architectural tour of downtown, up the Chicago River. We quickly bought our lunch to-go at the food court and headed back to the boat. This gave us another totally different view of the city, and quite a lovely one. The weather was beautiful. We marveled at the green (almost Caribbean) color of Lake Michigan, although the river itself looked more like the normal kind of green water we're used to.

I loved the round building that had a marina in the bottom, parking garage in the middle, and apartments on the top. From below, the Sears Tower doesn't really look much taller than it's neighbor, but believe me, it is. We'd seen that building lit up the night before, and the top was all red and white glass. Our boat tour guide told us that the top of the building had been designed after an engagement ring; I'd spent some time studying it from above, too.

Back to the Navy Pier, a stop at Hag Daz for some way overpriced treats, and then back to the airport. O'hare was again an ordeal; if we EVER fly American Airlines or travel through O'hare again, it will be too soon.

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