"You know what they say about Chicago. If you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes."
--Ralph Kiner
That was quite true. The weather was very unpredictable. We've had days where there were sudden down pours in-between sunshine, or storms in the morning so I'd put on my wellies for work but the rest of the day was sunny...I didn't feel very smart wearing rain boots in the sun..
Chicago had a record breaking hail storm when we were there. Hail as big as a baseball!
Anyway, besides the weather that was ever so busy changing scenes, so was the city of Chicago! Chicago is one of those cities that come to life when summer hits! Tourists, festivals, fairs, concerts, everything!
An outdoor food festival, held at the Grant Park was more than 2 streets long of delicious food from 50+ restaurants, showcasing the diversity of Chicago's dining community. Undoubtedly there were lots of pizzeria luring with their deep dish pizza, but I was drawn to Eli's Cheesecake! I'm not sure know why, I'm not normally a cheesecake person, but when I saw it.... I had to get one! In the end I had 2 slices of cheese cake that day, and another one another time I went back, then another when I saw it in Chicago's airport before leaving. Don't miss it if you like cheesecake! It had a very rich flavor and creamy texture.
Lots of concerts were held at the Grant Park
And also Gold Coast Art Fair
Last photo before escaping the rain!
Dancing and singing Hindus promoting Yoga
Ahh... big city, more crazies
Art Institute of Chicago has the 2nd world's biggest collection of Impressionism, just behind Louvre Museum of France. Impressionism is my favorite art movement, I had to paid a visit to the museum, along with Gersh and Tanya.
Van Gogh. I had a print of this painting as the cover of my binder for a year in high school!
Monet
Tanya and Gersh. Discovered that Gersh isn't a fan of pointillism...with a legitimate reason:
colorblind people have a hard time making those colors out, thus the painting.
Mummy duck calling to her ducklings. Check out the video above!
Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world, in which there is one style that is referred to as the Chicago School (Commercial Style). A lot of the buildings along the Chicago River are historically significant, and so is the river itself, notable for being the reason why Chicago became and important location. River guided tours were very popular, especially the Architecture Tour among our friends.
Corn cob looking building
Just so you know, the weather was absolutely beautiful earlier in the day when we did the boat tour. It's true about the weather... next time you visit, make sure you have all seasons clothes!
The most famous landmark was of course the Cloud Gate, nicknamed "the Bean", located at the AT&T Plaza in Millennium park, which was downtown within the Loop community area (historic commercial area). Designed by a British artist Anish Kapoor (cue in Gary's "Of couuursee, it's British, it's the best!"), was a very popular attraction.
Adjacent to the plaza, was the Great Lawn and the bandshell, known as the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, was designed by Frank Gehry (Canadian-American architect). The Pritzker Pavilion hosted the Grant Park Music Festival, US' only remaining free outdoor classical music series, during the summer. It performed in the afternoon and evening, where friends, couples and families filled the lawn and enjoyed an evening of music and outdoor with food and wine. Besides the orchestra, the pavilion also hosts a wide range of performing arts.
The BP Bridge, also designed by Frank Gehry, a pedestrian overpass that connects the both parts of the larger Grant Park. The structure behind is the Great Lawn and the bandshell
An attraction that was especially popular with children was the Crown Fountain, which was also located next to the Bean. The pair of glass brick towers that stood opposite of each other was an interactive work of public art and video sculpture, that intermittently display faces on the two towers and water sprouts through a nozzle where the mouth would be. The fountain was also a public play area and offers people an escape from the summer heat, and allowing children to frolic in the fountain's water.
Sometime I forget that beaches existed even when there were no seas or oceans, but a lake. Located by Lake Michigan, Chicago has plenty of beaches including some in downtown!
Restaurant on Oak Street Beach. Review? Stay. Away.
Beach by the big shopping street/area, Magnificent Mile as they called it
Food wise, Chicago is famous for their deep dish pizza...which to be honest looks more like a quiche. We had it for dinner on our second day upon arriving. TV and pizza, mom and dad immersed straight into the American culture. However, ordering delivery is not the same as going to a restaurant, so we set out to Little Italy.
Except unfortunately there wasn't much there. I guess it would be more busy at night, as there were many fine dining restaurants that were only opened in the evening.
My parents did a lot of exploring on their own. While Gary and I were still asleep in the morning, they would go out for a walk, shopping or take a random bus and stayed on until they see some interesting neighborhoods!
Walking by the shore and yacht club. The 3rd building from the right is our apartment.
Found Little Mexico, just pass Little Italy
Snacks from Mexican shop
One of the many channels that flow through the city
The most looked forward city run for this year was definitely Chicago. It felt so good to be back in a big walkable city again! After Minneapolis, Gary and I went straight to Chicago to spend the week off, as my parents arrived the day after to spend 10 days with us! Haven't seen them for 2 years.
Taken at Navy Pier with part of the Chicago skyline in the background
In this city, I am officially an employee, as a Guardian on Tour. Who am I guarding?? The ginger ninja.
This is where Katie spends her free time: in the kid's tent on site
This is Katie Smith.
What does "Guardian" mean? What do I do exactly? Well, when an artist is a minor (under 18), he or she can either have a parent touring with him/her or Cirque will assign a Guardian for the artist.
So I am her legal guardian, and I basically take care of her, take her to work, make sure she has biscuit and milk before bed, sign paper work, make sure she doesn't wet the bed, and at one point Bank of America offered to let me oversee her finances! I however declined them kindly, as I thought this would be a good opportunity for Katie to be on the right path of independence.
She is the flyer(top) of the acrobatic sport group as a Flea. 17 Years old and she traveled all this way on her own!
King of the castle
Fanciest bedroom ever - a boost for the height challenged!
As a Guardian, I am required to live with Katie, so now that all three of us are employees, Gilles had found us a massive apartment, with absolutely breathtaking view of the city and the lake, locating right next to the harbor. Bonus of staying by the harbor was that we could see clearly from our living room of the fireworks that were displayed every Wednesday and Saturday night during the summer. We knew we'd enjoy being in Chicago for the city run! And by the way, Chicagoans are surprisingly quite friendly considering it's a big city... compare to New Yorkers haha!
One of the views from the apartment!
Watching fireworks from the living room
One thing, and the most important thing, my family loves to do: EAT!!
食 "si-gc". Gary learned the sound of this Chinese character during my parents' visit, because that's all he heard when he listened to our conversations in Cantonese.
Here we were in Chinatown. I found on Yelp a restaurant serving dim sum, a meal I have missed for so long. Since then we have been back to this restaurant 4-5 times. The food was very tasty! Much more than ones Toronto and Hong Kong surprisingly, and we cannot believe the price! $35 easily fed 4 of us, and we're talking about a meal of 15 items/dishes, belly bursting full!
We made good use of the kitchen and the dining table during my parents' visit. Below are some photos of our dinners at home (you may see mostly Japanese food as my parents had a stop over in Tokyo on the way to Chicago):
Sashimi
Japanese home cooked food
Lobster night
Japanese beef don (rice)
YOU HAVE JUST WITNESSED GARY'S
2KG WEIGHT GAIN!!
Chicago was definitely a popular city for visitors, thus Michel's parents were also there for the week off. So we did a roast dinner at our apartment and invited some of our closer friends on tour.
