a hot day was on the weather forecast, and chicago sure delivered today! waking up to it already being 28 degrees, we knew it was going to be a scorcher. the locals spent the day commenting to one another on how hot it was, and doing all they could to keep cool.
we left the apartment and headed into the loop (the main city area). my trusty sidekick miscalculated the distance by a good 10 blocks, and we felt ourselves slowly beginning to melt. i decided a slurpee for breakfast was a great idea- and that i would pay for it with the coins i had accumulated over the week. approaching the counter, i quickly realized i didn't know what most of the coins meant. the indian woman behind the counter looked at me and then laughed to herself. 'tip it out onto the counter'- i did as she said, and she counted out the change. she then explained to me each of the coins and handed me back the others.
"if i have to teach you again i'll charge you double"
continuing on our long walk, we came to cafe descartes (i drink therefore i am). going inside for a frappe, we were stopped by the owner. a pakistani man- he sat us down and spoke to us, asking about australia and how good the economy might be to expand his business there. he then insisted that i add him on facebook and if i returned to the states he would get me work, and a scholarship to a good university. sounds legit.
as we finally reached the loop the heat rose, the sun beating down on the crowds of people who flocked to the area. we went to cloud gate, better known as 'the bean'. it's a public sculpture that, funnily enough, looks like a giant metal bean. having seen it in the travel blogs without people around it, i wasn't aware of the scale of it. standing with it before me, i realized the thing was freaking massive! it was a lot of fun messing with the reflections and standing inside of it.
we decided we needed a cool down- and fast! we sought out somewhere to cool off, and found that everyone was flocking to the crown fountain. it's an interactive piece of public art and video sculpture- and an incredible amount of fun! the local kids all line up in one place- and wait for the person projected onto the screen to open their mouth and spit water all over them momentarily. they all scream with glee, chase one another and make friends with whoever is around. there's a fantastic sense of community in this city.
cheap eats at the gallery.
after all these detours, we finally reached our initially planned destination- the art institute of chicago. stepping inside, we realized that it was a lot bigger than we had imagined. despite the poorly organized directions and map- it was a phenomenal gallery! we saw many famous pieces- monet's water lillies, edward hopper, van gogh's self portrait, lichtenstein's pop art and american gothic. you could spend whole days in the gallery. leaving just as it was closing, we headed to starbucks for a drink and then decided we would search out some shopping (as if we hadn't done enough!).
subway.
buying dinner at the local walgreens, we headed home to have a quiet night. the heat of the day was quite exhausting, as well as the fantastic day we had exploring the city.
-danielle
