Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Chicago’s Magnificent Parks and Museums
Maybe I stole ‘magnificent’ in my title from the ‘Magnificent Mile,’ the famous boulevard that runs through the heart of downtown, where we stayed on Michigan Avenue.
Sill, I think the adjective fits to describe the parks and museums we visited in Chicago.
Millenium Park
I’ll start with Millenium Park and my favorite things there – the bean – the fountain – and the garden.
‘Cloud Gate,’ more often called ‘the Bean,’ was designed by Anish Kapoor, and is one of the largest sculptures in the world. At 66 feet long, over 30 feet high, weighing 110 tons, it reflects everything nearby including the skyline and you and me!
Here, everyone can take a good selfie,
from any angle.
Just around the corner is Crown Fountain, designed by Jaume Plensa, which spews water out of the mouths of Chicago residents!
Surprising the first time you see it, but fun, don’t you think?
Lurie Garden is Millenium Park’s secret flowering oasis, full of native flowers and other wildlife, including a family of foxes raising their young, safely hidden away while we were there.
Art Institute of Chicago
Just across the street from Millenium Park is the Art Institute of Chicago, so I explored that as well.
Too many marvelous paintings and historic artifacts but I’ll only share a few of my favorite paintings.
The first is The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt, 1893, full of tenderness.
Quite the opposite, is Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, which conveys a kind of loneliness in the night of the city.
A Sunday on LaGrande Jatte, 1884, by Georges Seurat, is cheerful and uses the technique of pointillism, small distinct dots of color to form the image.
American Gothic, the 1930 painting by Grant Wood, portrays the occupants of a house in Iowa. Supposed to represent a father and daughter, most see a married couple. The actual subjects were modeled after the artist’s sister and dentist (I wouldn’t have wanted him as my dentist!)
Museum of Science and Industry
We took the bus to Hyde Park so Bob could see his favorite exhibit at the Science and Industry Museum, the only German Submarine in the United States, the U-505 captured in 1944.
It was an interesting exhibit, and while he toured the inside of the giant submarine, I toured a tiny fairy castle from the outside.
“Silent film star Colleen Moore was always fascinated by dolls and doll houses. She owned several elaborate doll houses as a child, but later in life her father, Charles Morrison, suggested that she should pursue her passion for miniatures and doll houses by creating the “doll house” of her dreams.”
Museum of Science & Industry website
Shedd Aquarium
We love a good aquarium and this one did not disappoint. On Lake Michigan, the views of the city and lakeshore were great.
Inside were amazing creatures of all shapes and sizes from around the world, including the arapaima from the Amazon, that breathes above water using its lung.
I loved seeing these tiny garden eels that swayed in the water like grass, you can see their little faces. When disturbed they disappear into the sand.
Finally, did you know there were upside-down jellyfishes? Neither did I till I saw the Cassiopea.
Hope you get a chance to visit the windy city sometime yourself. And don’t forget the fabulous architecture which you’ll find in these earlier posts: Postcards from Chicago & A River and a Lake
And that’s all for now.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Wow, you guys found the really good stuff! I’ve never been there for the record but have seen that shiny bean as it is called? I love the painting of the man and his wife/daughter. It’s like an American classic!
Thanks, John! There was so much to see and do! I love the ‘bean’ and it was fun to see that classic American Gothic painting! 🙂
A wonderful trip for you guys! 👍🏻😊
It truly was! 🙂
Wow, you really saw so much while you were in Chicago, Susanne! The bean sculpture is incredible as is the spewing Crown fountain! the Art Institute of Chicago is world-renowned. I think my favorite all-time painting is “Sunday Afternoon on the Grand Jatte” by Seurat–a piece of art I had to research and review back in my university art class days. There is something about how the stippling effect adds so much light like you are really there. You must have enjoyed seeing that–and now I know the painting resides in Chicago. I also love “American Gothic.” You really saw it all–love the aquarium scenes as well!
Thanks so much, Terri! Millenium Park and its ‘bean’ and fountain were so much fun! And I loved seeing the classic paintings! You’d love seeing ‘Sunday Afternoon,’ with your background and would probably appreciate it even more than I did. The painting itself was huge!
There was so much to see and do in Chicago, it was hard to fit everything in, but we did what we could and had a great time! 🙂 I could have gotten better pictures with my real camera but didn’t want to be saddled with it on this trip so left it at home. all these are from my phone.
Great photos and videos. Thanks for sharing. I like the jellyfish.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed them! 🙂 🙂
Great tour Susanne. I love the Bean photos, especially the last one. Nicely done with that. The nighthawks painting made me immediately think of Tom Waits’ Nighthawks at the Diner, which would be perfect music for that image!
Thanks so much, Graham. The bean is such a great place to take photos. I’m glad you enjoyed them. On the Tom Waits album (I had to look it up), that must be where he got the name. Does seem like a good fit.
You do a great job of promoting tourism to Chicago! Hopper is one of my favourite artists, and I have never seen his actual paintings, only prints.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks so much for your comment, Pete. 😊 We enjoyed our time in Chicago very much. The Institute of Art had many notable works of art and I was happy to see them, including Nighthawks.
I’m now looking forward to my September visit even more! I knew about the Bean of course but not that fun fountain. The gallery looks worth a visit (I’ve always liked Nighthawks) and the aquarium too if I can fit it in 😀
Thanks, Sarah. There’s so much to do its hard to decide what to include. The Institute of Art was well worth it, especially being next to Millennium Park. If we’d had a few more days, we would have gone up in either Willis Tower or Hancock Tower (we went to the top of Hancock on an earler trip and the views were incredible), and added Grant Park, Lincoln Park and the Field Museum and Planetarium. The list is endless!
I certainly hope to go up one of the towers!
A wonderful visual tour! I love the Museum of Science and Industry! I could spend hours at the Shedd Aquarium (the otters are my favorites)… And you even squeezed in the Art institute! Wow!
Thanks so much! We squeezed in as much as we could and still didn’t do it all!
Wow. Who knew Chicago had that much going for it!
Exactly! A real surprise!