Road Trip: Chicago Part I

Ah, the Ides of March ushered in my 50th birthday like Caesar himself, with a dash of drama and a sprinkle of humor.

Jeremy was kind enough to take me to Chicago for five days.  We didn’t really think about the fact it was also St. Patrick’s Day weekend and Spring Break so everywhere we went, there were a ton of people. 

Among those making a trip into the city was a very good friend or ours, Sarah.  I have known her since my days at Southern Illinois University.  And it was so great to see her and spend Saturday, my birthday, with her.

The following is a little bit about each of the places we visited during the trip.  They are in no order, just the order I decided to write about each stop.

Buckingham Fountain

The Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain in Grant Park, stands as one of the world’s largest. Donated by Kate S. Buckingham in homage to her brother Clarence, it’s renowned as an ornate gem of American architecture and history.

Designed by Edward H. Bennett and featuring sculptures by Marcel Loyau, the fountain’s elegance shines through its pink Georgia marble and Art Deco Sea horses (one representing each state touching Lake Michigan.) In its 1927 dedication, John Philip Sousa’s band serenaded a crowd of 50,000.

I was bummed it was closed for the season.  On the plus side, I got some cool pics of the pipes and lights, and some close ups that the water would have obscured.

It’s impressive no doubt, but I can’t look at it without hearing, “Love and marriage. Love and marriage… “during the opening shot in “Married… with Children.”

Art Institute of Chicago

Yes, this is the museum Ferris and his friends visited in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but it is so much more than the few shots in the movie.  This is a spectacular art museum. 

The five most famous pieces are probably:

Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”: The famous painting of a farmer and his daughter standing in front of a farmhouse.  That farmhouse still stands in Eldon, IA, not too far from where my husband’s side of the family hails from, Ottumwa, IA.

Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” This is the pointillism style and is the highlighted in Ferris Bueller.

Vincent van Gogh’s “The Bedroom” This is Van Gogh’s actual bedroom from his house in France.

Pablo Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist” painted during Picasso’s Blue Period; It shows a blind musician hunched over his guitar.

Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” is an iconic painting of a nighttime diner scene. Hopper wanted the viewer to get a sense of “urban isolation and existential contemplation.”  Or as I like to think about it, a lonely kinda feeling and thinking about life.

This place was huge.  It felt like we were finished in one hall or one building, and then there was another one and another.  I was excited to see the above paintings and was excited to see some works from my personal favorites including Piet Mondrian (Bottom right), Wassily Kandinsky (bottom left) and Roy Lichtenstein (top row). 

I am going to include some other famous works by famous artists.  These pics barely show a fraction of the full collection.

There was also a special exhibit that we decided to check out.  It was Picasso: Drawing from Life.  For fun, I asked ChatGPT to rewrite the exhibit’s description as a movie review in a children’s magazine.  This is what it came up with: 

Get ready for a Picasso-packed adventure in this paper-filled exhibit! Follow Picasso’s colorful life and art journey, filled with fiery romances, bold friendships, and lots of creative chaos. With each stroke, you’ll feel the passion and drama of Picasso’s world. And don’t miss the behind-the-scenes heroes who helped make his masterpieces shine! It’s a whirlwind of art, friendship, and fun for the whole family!

The Chicago River

Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day history dates to 1843, when the city kicked off its first Irish parade. Sometime in the 1950s, it became an official city event. In 1962, someone had the genius idea to dye the Chicago River green. According to the city, they dump 40 pounds of dye in about a quarter mile of the river.  The Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union dumps the dye out of one boat, while a second boat stirs it up in the river. 

We crossed the Michigan Avenue Bridge.  It was a madhouse, full of drunk students and rude adults.  It took about 20 minutes for us to push our way across the bridge.

Billy Goat Tavern on Michigan Avenue

It’s actually a pet-peeve of mine when businesses say they are “world famous” because if I am in London and I ask a local, where’s the best hot dog in the world, do you think their response will be Jim Bob’s Weiner House in Provo, Utah?  No, of course not.  This stop claims to be world famous and probably is in this case. 

The Billy Goat Tavern, with its bold claim of being “world famous,” actually lives up to its name, boasting several claims to fame. Its origins trace back to 1934 when William “Billy Goat” Sianis adopted a goat and transformed the Lincoln Tavern into the Billy Goat Tavern, marking its first claim to fame.

In 1945, during the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, Sianis and his goat, Murphy, were famously denied entry to Wrigley Field, leading Sianis to curse the Cubs, which endured until their historic 2016 World Series victory.

The tavern’s second claim to fame comes from its immortalization on Saturday Night Live in 1978, with the iconic “Cheezborger! Cheezborger!” sketch featuring John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Loraine Newman, written by Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci). This sketch, known for its repetition of the word “cheeseburger” 80 times, solidified the Billy Goat Tavern’s status as a cultural icon, further enhancing its legendary reputation.

House of Blues

House of Blues, co-founded by Isaac Tigrett, (also created Hard Rock Cafe), and comedic legend, Dan Aykroyd, opened its first location at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 26, 1992. Initially conceived as a live music venue and restaurant, the venture received financial backing from notable figures such as Aerosmith, Paul Shaffer, River Phoenix, Jim Belushi, and even Harvard University. The Chicago branch followed suit in 1996.

There are music acts all the time.  While we ate dinner, a blues singer kept the mood going.  I don’t know a lot about the blues, but I was excited to sit under a ceiling marker with Sam Cooke, who is one of my favorite singers.  The food was good.  I had a pulled pork sandwich and Jeremy had the ribs.

Over the years, I’ve visited several House of Blues locations, though many have since closed. I have fond memories of the Gospel Brunch, a beloved tradition in Los Angeles, and I’ll never forget seeing Cyndi Lauper perform at the Las Vegas House of Blues. While dining in Orlando, Jeremy had an unexpected encounter with spicy jambalaya, and I once caught a glimpse of Aykroyd casually “jamming” with friends at the Las Vegas venue.

Unabridged Bookstore

Unabridged Bookstore was founded by Ed Devereux on November 1, 1980.  It is best known for staff members’ personal handwritten suggestions posted along the shelves.

Unabridged is one of Chicago’s biggest and oldest bookstores with a focus on LGBTQ literature. In the 1980s, a LGBTQ Bookstore was considered groundbreaking, to this day it still well-known for offering obscure lesbian and gay literature.

I found two books that I decided to get.  One was, “When We Rise” by Cleve Jones.  He was a young guy when he met Harvey Milk and has been a key player in the gay rights movement including the creation of the AIDS quilt.  I also got a book on the gay history of Chicago.

Reckless Records

The chain started in Europe but opened its first U.S. location in 1989. There are three locations in Chicago and one in London.

Jeremy’s favorite artist is Tori Amos, and he is in the midst of collecting all her albums on vinyl.  Pink Floyd is my favorite band, and I have all their stuff on vinyl.  I did find a Pink Floyd CD that was part of a box set.  I have the box set, but the CD was stolen when my car was broken into back in college, so I was excited to replace that missing piece.  Jeremy found two albums, although they were not Tori Amos.

Crown Fountain

I took a bunch of info on the fountain and asked ChatGPT to write a pretentious parody of art snobs:

Ah, the Crown Fountain, a masterpiece by Jaume Plensa in Millennium Park. Two glass towers, 50 feet tall, flank a serene reflecting pool—a modern twist on ancient fountains. Plensa brilliantly replaces mythical figures with Chicagoans’ faces in LED projections, symbolizing the city’s vitality.

This tribute to Chicago features 1,000 residents’ faces immortalized in 22,000 glass blocks, showcasing urban diversity. The black granite ground provides a stark contrast, enhancing the play of light and shadow.

The “water skin,” a shallow pool, invites visitors to walk upon it, reflecting the sky and skyline—a poetic blend of nature and urban life.

The Crown Fountain is a testament to Plensa’s artistry, evoking contemplation, and awe—a creative beacon in the cityscape.

It was winter, so like the Buckingham Fountain, it was not spitting water, but the faces still showed up on the monitors and they were much bigger than I thought they would be.

Ed Debevic’s

The infamous Ed Debevic’s opened in 1984 and is famous for its snarky service & 1950s decor.  Quirky servers in costumes serve up diner food, delivered with a side order of sass.

The servers are encouraged to create characters – ranging from jocks to beauty school dropouts, to greasers, to nerds. At several points during the day, they drop their trays and break into dance numbers on top of the counters.

In 2015, Ed Debevic’s closed its doors, but reopened in a new location in 2021. I went to the original one and now I have been to the new one.  The place was packed, so we did not stay to eat.

Untouchables Tour

Still going strong since 1988, the actors turned tour guides, channeling their inner mobster with Chicago accents straight out of the 1920s and ’30s. It’s like stepping into a time machine, but with more laughs and fewer Tommy guns.

I hopped on this ride over two decades ago, and it was a lot of fun. We cruised around the city, hitting up all the spots where mob history went down. Sure, the humor was a bit cheesy, but hey, that’s all part of the charm, right?

Highlights?  Let me show you some of the coolest stuff.

This is the pocket park, which was home of the SMC Cartage Company’s garage, the scene of the infamous Valentine’s Day Massacre. Which by the way, has a Kansas Connection, if you want to check it out: Fred Burke and the Valentine’s Day Massacre. The city wanted nothing to do with the terrible crime, so the building was torn down and there’s nothing in the park mentioning the deadly event.

We also drove past the Biograph Theater where John Dillinger met his bloody demise on July 22, 1934. The theater was on the other side of the bus, and I could not got get a good shot. So here are two pics I found online.

The Holy Name Cathedral, site of the assassination of Northside boss, Dion O’Bannion.  O’Bannion ran a flower shop across the street; he was killed after getting on the bad side of Al Capone.  You can still stick your fingers in the bullet holes.

Also, one of the few breweries that remained operational during prohibition was the Schoenhofen Brewery.  Back in the early 80’s its alley was used as the exterior of the orphanage in the Blues Brothers. Long live Dan Aykroyd! RIP John Belushi

Hard Rock Café Chicago

This HRC has been rockin’ since it opened on June 17, 1986.

The company was founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton (Morton’s Steakhouse) in London.

In 1979, the tradition of covering the walls with rock and roll memorabilia began. A regular at the bar, Eric Clapton donated an unsigned Red Fender Lead II guitar and wanted management to hang it over his regular seat.

In 2007, Hard Rock Cafe International was bought by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. 

Jeremy and I had a drink and an appetizer of bruschetta and then took a little time to walk around and check out the rock and roll memorabilia. 

I was excited to see some original cells from Pink Floyd’s The Wall.  I have an original pencil drawing from the movie, so it was cool to see some pieces with color.

Join us for the second half of the Chicago Road Trip.