Cloud Gate

This looks like a scene from a science fiction movie, doesn't it?  Can you guess what it is?

It is "Cloud Gate," a sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. It has also been nicknamed "The Bean" for it's bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It weighs in at over 110-tons, and is 66 feet long and 33 feet high.

The sculpture's mirror like surface reflects and distorts Chicago's skyline.

 

Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate's 12-foot high arch. On the underside is the "omphalos" (Greek for "navel"), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections, which you can see in the upper right photo in the photo mosaic above.  Cloud Gate is becoming one of the most photographed features in Chicago as it is hard to resist all the special effect opportunities it provides.

Linking with Mary at The Little Red House for her weekly "Mosaic Monday" event.  Thanks Mary!

I would also be so happy if  you please visit this link to visit my review blog to see the shopping spree I went on for my bride-to-be daughter and  for a chance to win a $100 HomeGoods gift card by leaving a comment there between June 20 and 30th, 2011! (click here for official rules)

Also, until June 30th, 2011, BlogHer is giving a chance to win one of ten $25 gift cards to HomeGoods on the BlogHer Prizes and Promotions Page that I know you'll want to enter, so you can have another chance to have your own mini HomeGoods shopping spree! Click here to enter! (Here are the official rules to enter

The Art Institute of Chicago

On a recent visit to Chicago, Illinois, I decided to spend a cool rainy day at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The web site states: "The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 as both a museum and school, first stood on the southwest corner of State and Monroe Streets. It opened on its present site at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street in 1893. Built on rubble from the 1871 Chicago fire, the museum housed a collection of plaster casts and had a visionary purpose: to acquire and exhibit art of all kinds and to conduct programs of education. The collection now encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world, and the school's graduate program is continually ranked as one of the best in the country. Within the next decade, a new complex will continue this process of growth."

( All photos in this post will enlarge if double clicked on)

I was thrilled to find a room full of works from one of my favorite painters, Vincent van Gogh. Above is his 1887 self portrait

Other van Gogh works on display were from top left to right :
Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières), 1887, Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmartre, early 1887, Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La Berceuse), 1889,The Drinkers, 1890
Middle left: The Poet's Garden, 1888
Bottom left: A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage, c. 1885
Middle and bottom right: The Bedroom, 1889

There were many wonderful paintings by the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe

Works by the American artist Edward Hopper including this painting: Nighthawks, 1942

Works by Mary Cassatt. Above are The Child's Bath, 1893, on the left and On a Balcony, 1878/79, on the right.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte -- 1884, 1884-86, by Georges Seurat

Many magnificent works by Claude Monet

Including one of my personal favorites by Monet:  The Artist's House at Argenteuil, 1873

Two Sisters (On the Terrace), 1881 by Pierre Auguste Renoir

I'll leave you with this iconic portrait by an Iowa native, Grant Wood, called American Gothic, 1930

Who is you favorite artisit?  I took many, many, more photographs of the collections at The Art Institute, but I will have to save the rest for another post in the future. 

One extra little trivia tidbit:  Across Michigan Ave and Adams Street, directly across from the Art Institute of Chicago, is a marker for the beginning of the historic and legendary Route 66, which travels a total of 2,448 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California.

I'm linking to the  weekly "Mosaic Monday" event on Mary's blog Little Red House. Please go over to Mary's blog to see Mary's beautiful photo mosaic and the links of all the blogs participating today!

Chicago Eats!

I could not let a visit to Chicago pass by without trying the traditional Chicago style deep dish pizza. Since Gino's East, which is located on 162 Superior Street, was close to our hotel, my husband and I decided to have lunch there one afternoon.  According to their web site this original pizzeria opened in 1966 when three cab drivers became frustrated dealing with rush hour traffic and decided to try their hands at making pizza.

Gino's East soon attracted a fan base of regulars from both near and far, and visitors scribble their names all over the walls and booths year after year. Double click on the photo collage above (all photos will enlarge if double clicked on) to see some examples of all this colorful graffiti. 

It reminded us of John's Pizzeria in New York's Greenwich Village neighborhood (see this post) and it made us wonder why this seems to be such a popular custom in some pizzerias?

My husband and I ordered a small deep dish pie with sausage on top.  It was the perfect size for two people. Each pizza is made by hand and takes up to 45 minutes preparation time. Perhaps that is why the customers begin to scribble on the wall? We enjoyed a nice cold beer and conversation during our wait.

The Gino's East crust is a secret recipe and taste more like a crispy biscuit other than the soft and doughy New York, Sicilian style, thick crust pizza of which I am a fan. Their sauce was thick and flavorful. The sausage patty was located under the sauce and cheese and added a pleasant savory saltiness to each bite. We could have also ordered it served crumbled on top.  All in all, it was a very filling and tasty lunch and worth the experience.

Everyone loves their hometown pizza, but I will unabashedly go out on a limb and say that New York, and the borough of Brooklyn in particular, makes the best pizza in the the USA, but if you are visiting Chicago and want to try a deep dish pizza, Gino's East is worth the visit.

Before our trip we read that Chicago had a very large and vibrant neighborhood nicknamed "Greektown," which was noted for its authentic Greek cuisine and nightlife. We visited the Parthenon Restaurant, located at 314 S. Halsted Street, one afternoon for another lunch time visit with a few of my husband's New York co-workers who were along on this business trip.

The Parthenon Restaurant is famous for their Saganaki, which is an appetizer of a slice of mild kaseri cheese that is flamed in brandy.  As the waiter lights the brandy he, along with nearby waiters, dramatically yell out "Opa!"  It is an unforgettable taste and experience!

Since there were a number of us at the table we were luckily able to order a few appetizers and entrees to share from their very extensive menu.

The upper left corner photo is a platter of spicy hummus (pureed chickpeas with tahini) served with toasted pita wedges, next to it on the right is broiled octopus, on its right is Taramosalata (fish roe whipped smooth with lemon and olive oil), and next to it is the deep dark Greek coffee we all drank at the end of the meal.

Bottom left photo in the collage is the Aegean Platter of pan fried scallops, codfish, squid, and smelts, next to it is an entree of swordfish shish kabob, and on the right is the Special Combination of dolmades (vine leaves stuffed with herbal rice), moussaka (layers of eggplant an meat sauce topped with bechamel sauce and kefalotiri cheese), pastitsio (macaroni baked with meat sauce and kefalotiri cheese), roast lamb, and vegetables.

Needless to say, we felt like we were truly in Greece, enjoying the best of authentic home style cuisine that was so filling and flavorful that it left us fully sated for the entire day. My husband and I had only a salad for dinner that evening, as we could not imagine eating anything else.  We all truly enjoyed the Parthenon experience and highly recommend it.

Fruits of the Midi  -- Pierre-Auguste Renoir -- The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago is definitely a food lover's town! In addition to the wonderful lunch I had at Quartino's and meeting Marie, one of my favorite food bloggers, we dined at wonderful steak houses and Italian restaurants during our week in the city. I can't wait to go back someday and enjoy more of all the wonderful cuisines that available there.


I'm linking to Michael Lee West's 'Foodie Friday" event of her blog Designs by Gollum. Please check her link to see all the wonderful recipes and foodie treat links in all the blogs participating today.
Michael Lee West is also an author of many wonderful novels, and I enjoyed reading her latest novel : Gone With a Handsomer Man very much! This mystery novel kept me smiling, and guessing, till the very end.

Above the Clouds in the Willis Tower

Where can you see sights like this, where you feel as if you are looking out onto a heavenly landscape?  (All photos will enlarge if double clicked on, use your back arrow to return to the post)

That is what the views looked like that day my husband and I visited the observation deck of the Willis Tower  (formally known as the Sears Tower) located in Chicago. Standing at 1,450 feet and 110 stories high, Willis Tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere. The building held the record for the world’s tallest building in the world for 25 years until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia were built in 1998. In 2000, one of the building’s antennas was extended to 1,729 feet, making it again the world’s tallest building to the tip of its antenna. The building held this title until early 2009 when Burj Dubai topped out at over 2,600 feet, which now makes it the tallest man-made structure in the world.       

The Willis Tower is located on Wacker Drive in the heart of the West Loop of Chicago.  I had to use my camera's wide angle lens just to try to capture the whole length of the building as it reached up above the clouds!

The Skydeck observation deck is 103 stories, 412 meters, or 1,353 feet high!  On a clear day you can look out onto four states and up to 50 miles.

The morning we visited a cold front was coming in and the outside air temperature was falling from the high 70's to the high 50's. Clouds were quickly forming over Lake Michigan

We could see the giant cloud formation approaching like a giant fluffy blanket being pulled up over the city.

It began to cover all but the highest surrounding buildings.

It made everything look surreal and so heavenly.

If they dare, a visitor to the Skydeck can step out on The Ledge, which are glass boxes extending out 4.3 feet on the west side of the building.  In the photo above my husband was in one of the ledges taking a video of me ......

......as I was standing in another ledge!

It does take a bit of bravery to walk out into the ledges and look around and down.

The views were well worth it and are exhilarating!

Many visitors were brave enough to do it, and a ledge was a popular place to stand......

...........to take in all the views.........

........ before the clouds covered everything.

If you'd like to see what the entire experience of visiting the Willis Tower Skydeck on a clear day is like, from the ground floor exhibit up to the Skydeck floor itself, and onto The Ledge platforms, you can watch this Youtube video:

I'd love to visit Skydeck again, when the sky is blue, but I'm also happy to have visited on a day when I felt like I was above the clouds in heaven. It's a view of Chicago I'll never forget!

I'm linking this post to the "Outdoor Wednesday" event on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer and also to Skywatch Friday -- thanks to all of their crew.

PS: I have been experiencing problems leaving comments today because of another apparent Blogger bug. I wasn't able to sign in automatically with my Blogspot profile when trying to leave a comment. I kept coming up as "anonymous."  I heard  in e-mail from a few others bloggers who were having the same problem. I discovered that I had to click on "select profile" under the comment box and sign in with my name and blog URL. That worked!  It's a longer step, but hopefully everything will be back to normal with Blogger soon. If you are having this problem try my solution and hopefully it will also work for you.

Artifacts on the Chicago Tribune Tower's Walls

On my recent trip to Chicago I passed the Chicago Tribune newspaper building called the Tribune Tower many times, as I walked from one place to another, and each time I had to stop to admire this beautiful building.  Located at 435 N. Michigan Ave, the Tribune Tower is the headquarters of Tribune Company, founded in 1847. The Tower building was erected in 1925. The Tower design was the result of an international competition for "the most beautiful office building in the world," held in 1922 by the Chicago Tribune newspaper. (All photos in this post will enlarge is double clicked on)

The winning design, out of 286 submissions from around the world, was that of a 36 story Gothic skyscraper, awarded to New York City architects John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood.

The detailed stone screen above the entrance depicts characters from Aesop's Fables..

Prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for the Chicago Tribune brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request of Colonel McCormick who was the head of the newspaper at the time. Many of these reliefs have been incorporated into the lowest levels of the building and are labeled with their location of origin.

I was fascinated to see how many artifacts and bricks and stone that there were all around the exterior walls, above door ways and windows and under exterior lighting fixtures.

I tried to find and photograph as many as I could.

I felt like I was on an archaeological treasure hunt!

The stones and artifacts are from all  around the world. It includes fragments of Abraham Lincoln's original tomb, India's Taj Mahal, China's Forbidden City, the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and the Great Wall of China. Others, like the Berlin Wall are of recent history.

.

Every state in the USA is represented at least one bit of natural or man-made wonder.

I am displaying just some of the over 150 artifacts from around the country and the world in these photos mosaics. Make sure you double click on them to enlarge them for easier viewing and use your browsers back arrow each time to come back to the post.

Try as I might, I know I must have missed photographing a few of the artifacts, but it will be fun to, hopefully, go back some day and see if I can find more.

As a New Yorker, this artifact was the most significant and touching of all -- a twisted piece of metal that came from the destruction of one of the World Trade Center Towers. I said a prayer for all lost on that terrible day.

If you visit Chicago it is definitely worthwhile visiting the Chicago Tribune Tower and seeing a bit of history!

I'm linking this post to Mary's "Mosaic Monday" event on her blog Little Red House. Please visit Mary's blog to see her beautiful mosaic and links  to all the blogs participating today!