We had seen that the David Bowie exhibit was opening in Chicago and since we had just missed it by one day when we were in London in 2013 we decided we had to make this. We used miles from our British airways account for the plane tickets and only paid $22 in taxes. That made any other extravagances seem minor, like our room upgrade. Our upgraded room was actually 2 rooms with the dividing wall removed, the other 2 beds removed and chairs and a desk added, it was quite nice.
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| View from our room |
Arrived to Chicago in the afternoon via the Blue line(a subway), about a 45 minute trip from the airport. There is only one train to the city so you can't pick the wrong one. The fare was $5 from the airport to the city, but we had our fare waived on the way back to the airport because the ticket machines were not operating properly. If you have a lot of luggage this may not be the best choice, but if you take a shuttle you will probably run into traffic.
We had drinks with friends at the Palmer House that night before dinner. They had also come to Chicago, one for work and one just for the Bowie exhibit like us.
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| One of the conference rooms in the Palmer house |
Thursday
Museum of Science and Industry Met our friend at her hotel and we taxied to the Museum. All the exhibits we saw were very well done. Most exhibits were hands-on and not just geared towards children. There was a 727 that was hung from the balcony which you could walk in and see how the different parts of the plane worked. You could also see the internals at different spots.
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| Museum of Science and Industry |
After a very good lunch of sandwiches, we had the Robie House Tour, a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style home. Very open and airy, lots of built in storage. No attic or basement, room for servants.
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| Robie House south face |
Friday
We again met our friends at their hotel and taxied to the museum for the Bowie Exhibit. The suggested viewing time was 90 minutes, but it took us almost 3 hours. There were headsets provided and there was music beamed to the headsets depending on your location. There were costumes and hand written song ideas and set designs, videos. It was an excellent exhibit and I watched all the videos at least once and sometimes more than once, except for the mime video. Learned a few things and was reminded of a few things. One or 2 spots were missing music and I am not sure if that was by design. One thing I did not know was that Bowie was outspoken on Tibetan rights back in 1968. I had worn my fit bit and it only clocked 430 steps for the exhibit. Felt like more.
Daily total: For Today Fitbit measured 11,560 steps 15 floors, 5.45 miles
David Bowie Is exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Arts.
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| Old Water Tower, once used to pump water from Lake Michigan, it survived the Great Fire |
Our friends had a flight home that afternoon and we walked back to out hotel. They suggested we take the Architecture boat tour on the Chicago river and we did and it was very interesting.
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| Tribune Building, I like Gothic |
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| 333 Wacker Drive by Kohn and Allen Architects |
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| River City, Bertrand Goldberg Associates, completed 1986 |
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| Willis Tower and 311 S. Wacker (shorter pink tower)which it has a crown of lights on the roof |
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| 505 N. Michigan Avenue, designed Walter W. Alschlager, completed 1929, a hotel |
Just strolled through the park across Michigan avenue and enjoyed the great weather.
Saw big art like the Cloud Gate aka "The Bean"
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| just an interesting glass building facade on the way back to the hotel |
Daily total: For Today Fitbit measured 8255 steps, 14 floors and 3.89 miles
All in all a great trip.
