Chicago the Windy City

It's a quick 1-hour flight from St. Louis to Chicago's Midway International Airport. Picked up a Hertz Ford Taurus and drove to town. First stop is Chinatown to get some chow. It's a bit surreal - being in Chicago, USA yet surrounded by Chinese food, Chinese shops, and Chinese people. There's only a sprinkling of Caucasians here and there. Anyway, after lunch, we made our way up to the Loop and cruised around the area. Now this is what a city should be like - wide busy streets, a working mass transport system, tall buildings with tasteful architecture, a bustling shopping district, parks and gardens all within the heart of the city.

We parked at the North Side and headed straight for the Water Tower. Built in 1869 using limestone blocks in gothic style, it looks more like a mini-castle. Quite a contrast to the modern skyscrapers surrounding it. The Water Tower is 154 ft or 47 m tall, and houses a 40m standpipe that was used to equalize the water pumped from the pumping station across the street. They're said to be the only surviving structures after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Of course, now it's functionally obsolete. At the moment, it's hosting a photo exhibit of gay athletes. The Old Water Tower Pumping Station to the east is still pumping water for the city though.

We then took a nice slow stroll along North Michigan Avenue, more famously known as the Magnificent Mile - said to be Chicago's version of the Champs-Elysées. The avenue is not as wide, but at least most of the big names of shopping are represented here. Spent quite a bit of time at Tiffany's. It's a good thing we were able to restrain ourselves. There's another thing the Magnificent Mile is famous for - Garrett Popcorn Shops - made famous by a televised testimonial from Oprah Winfrey. (For the record, I want to state that I don't watch Oprah. This fact was shared to me by my brother. I'm sure he also doesn't watch Oprah's fine show, so he must've heard it from someone else. So there.) We had to stand in line for about 15 minutes, but it's definitely worth the wait. Cheese popcorn mixed with caramel popcorn - yum yum! It's just like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get.

At the southern end of the Magnificent Mile runs Chicago River. Here you'll find the Wrigley Building (the chewing gum company) and the Tribune Tower (home of the Chicago Daily Tribune). The Wrigley Building is the one with the white terra-cotta cladding. At night when the floodlights are turned on, it really looks white. It was supposedly fashioned after La Giralda in Sevilla. The building actually consists of two sections connected by elevated walkways on the 3rd and 14th floors.

Across the street is the neo-gothic Tribune Tower with its buttresses and gargoyles. The tower is a product of the paper's 75th-anniversary competition for the "most beautiful and eye-catching building in the world".Architectss Raymond Hood - who would later build the Rockefeller Center in New York - and John Howell based their design on the Button Tower of the Rouen Cathedral in France and won the competition, which comes with a $100,000 prize money. The 141-m Tribune Tower was completed in 1925. What's interesting about the tower is that displayed outside the building is a collection of rocks and stones, started in 1941 by the owner Colonel McCormick. He later instructed his reporterstravelingg abroad to get more (legally or otherwise), and that's how the collection started. On display are rocks from the Great Wall of China, the Roman ruins, Notre Dame Cathedral, World Trace Center, the Great Pyramid, the Roman Colosseum, a moon rock, Stabian Baths, Corregidor, Pearl Harbour, Berlin Wall, Taj Mahal, Westminster Abbey, the Parthenon, and others too many to mention.

The Michigan Avenue Bridge which connects to Pine Street across Chicago River is itself a landmark. Completed in 1920, the Beaux Arts-style bridge was designed by Edward Bennett and modeled on the Pont Alexandre III in Paris. What I liked most are the bas relief sculptures on the bridge towers and pylons. Interesting thing to note, the bridge is technically a double-deck, double-leaf trunnion bascule bridge (a.k.a. a drawbridge). Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see it in action.

Instead of crossing the river and going further south, we doubled back on the other side of the avenue, and went back to the car. We drove down Lake Shore Drive to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. Wasn't expecting it to be closed so early at 4pm. Too bad we missed this, as I heard good things about the museum. Inside that 350,000 sq ft expanse are more than 800 exhibits and over 2,000 interactive units spread across three floors. Inside are a Boeing 727, a German WWII U-505 submarine, an Apollo 8 command module, a diesel-powered stainless steel train, a model railroad, a coal mine, a WWII British Spitfire, some Navy ships, a Space Shuttle mockup, a 1914 Ford Model T, a 9 sq ft dollhouse with electricity and plumbing, etc. There's also a 20ft tall walk-through model of the human heart and two cadavers presented in 1-inch thick slices. What more can you ask for? Even the external appearance of the museum is very nice. The Beaux-Arts building was designed by Charles C. Atwood and built for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition as the Palace of Fine Arts. After the fair, the plaster-clad building started to deteriorate as it was only supposed to be a temporary structure. Fortunately, Sears, Roebuck & Company chairman Julius Rosenwald came into the picture and pledged US$3 million to establish the museum. The building's exterior was re-cast in limestone and marble, retaining its 1893 Beaux Arts look (including 24 caryatids), while the interior was completely rebuilt in Art Deco style. Had a great time just pictures from the outside of the museum.

To kill time, we walked around the museum grounds and visited the nearby marina near Lake Michigan. On our way back to downtown, we drove by the Adler Planetarium, the John G. Shedd Aquarium, and the Field Museum, but didn't find any convenient parking space. There must be some event going on as the usual street parking is cordoned off. We went to Navy Pier next. It was the world's largest pier when it first opened to the public in 1916, but today its infrastructure is a bit old. Still, it has lots of attractions for everyone. There's the 148-ft. Ferris wheel, the musical carousel beside it, the Headhouse which houses the Children's Museum, the half-domed Auditorium with its Grand Ballroom, the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, an IMAX theater, a funhouse maze, a beer garden, bikes and boats for hire, etc.

We went back to Chinatown for dinner at the Penang Malaysian Cuisine and Sushi Bar. After that we drove over to Wyndham O'Hare to attend the 40th Anniversary Star Trek Convention. Just kidding, but the convention is for real. Saw a couple of guys with pointy ears.