More Pictures of Art Institute of Chicago

Here are some more amazing pictures of some of the paintings we saw today.This museum was amazing.I loved how they had art classes you could take plus the College class.Hopefully one day I could be a student at this school.Dont worry mom we arent here to house hunt.








Here is a picture of the coolest fountian I have ever seen.It is a holographic video of a person face that sometimes sprays water from the mouth.

Chicago Day 2

Waking up this morning was tough. They don't call this bed the "Sweet Dream Experience" for no reason. But up it had to be. After much anxiety and questions to the hotel staff, we decided to take the train into the city instead of spending the rest of our money on parking at all the things we wanted to see. It actually turned out to not be that bad. It was quick and efficient and both of us made it to and from the city for less than $10.00. So far, that's the best deal we've gotten all trip. The rooftop train turns into a subway the closer you get to downtown so both of us got a new experience out of it.

After making it downtown we trekked over to the Art Institute to fulfill a couple of life time goals for Devin. It was incredible to see some of the most famous paintings in the country right in front of you instead of in a text book. Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Seurat, and on and on and on. It was amazing. Of course, being a school, there were several people sketching the famous works and lectures being given by people pretending to know more about the art than the artist. But, when you waited long enough, you could get a little alone time in front of famous pieces like American Gothic, Van Gogh's The Bedroom, Water Lilly's by Monet and my favorite; Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. Spent from getting lost in the half metropolis, have museum we found a door and realized we should have packed an umbrella.

Luckily Millenium Park was just across the street so we braved the cold blowing rain and went for it. The fountain sculpture and the bean were just too cool to pass up because of a little rain. We got some great pictures and had a blast with everybody else dodging rain drops. We stopped by the cultural center for an art-o-mat and then it was back to the train for the trip back to Skokie.

After some discussion we decided that pizza should be our last meal here in town so we hit up the local Lou Malnati's for some good stuff. Of course, we ordered to much and fearing it wouldn't make the trip back to the Ville we gave the rest to the appreciative hotel staff. All in all, it's been a great, relaxing weekend. We've decided to do this sort of thing much more often. With everything that's been going on, it was just nice to get away. Tomorrow, it's back to home with refreshed minds, bodies, and souls.

More pictures

Here's a few self indulgent pictures of the hotel.

Chi-Town

This morning we set out on a weekend retreat to Chicago. The second city. After a late night at work, getting up at 4 this morning was a bit rough but when we pulled up to Hot Doug's Sausage Superstore & Encased Meats Emporium it was definitely worth the drive. It's amazing how long locals will wait, lined around the block, for some truly amazing food. Premium sausages, duck fat fries, award winning Chicago Dogs, and a great atmosphere make Hot Dougs a fantastic local eatery. I try not to be too much of a tourist but it's hard not to get excited about great food.

After getting our belly's full we drove over to Navy Pier, a place that Devin had actually not been to in her childhood trips to the windy city. It was a unique opportunity to see the city from the vantage point of a small boat out on Lake Michigan. The rest of the pier is a combination fair midway and shopping mall just a couple minutes walk from the hustle and bustle of incredibly bad traffic and throngs of rude and uninterested people. I suppose a town with this much road rage would have to have the cure in the form of some really good food.

Sleepy and ready to relax we headed up to our hotel and it's safe to say our expectations were exceded. The room is beautiful, quiet, and clean. Just like the rest of the hotel. Many thanks to William Shatner for helping us negotiate this one. Tomorrow it's a train ride into the city and a trip to The Art Institute. And of course, some more great food. Looking forward to it all and so far, I'm not limping... so we're one step ahead of the last trip.

The Bag O' Salsa

With all of the recent publicity surrounding the death of Michael Jackson several others have been overshadowed. It seems like a bad time to be famous as of late. David Carradine apparently died from some kind of s&m gone wrong. Ed McMahon died of old age, Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer, and perhaps most poignant to me, Billy Mays died suddenly from a heart attack. I have spent a lot of time over the years making fun of the bearded pitchman. Only recently have I grown to truly respect him and what he has done for so many. When the show Pitchmen came on a couple of months ago on Discovery channel I tuned in for a good laugh. What I found was an insight into Billy's incredible talent.
Love him or hate him, Billy forced you to pay attention. I never really considered that when Billy Mays promotes a product it's because he truly believed in it and the designer. So many have come forth recently to share their stories of how Billy changed their life. Struggling inventors and businessmen who never would have made it if not for Billy Mays. Many reading this will think I'm silly. I agree that I am. However, for whatever reason Billy's death has affected me. I will not mourn the death of the King Of Pop though I will listen to my old albums. I will not be searching for Charlies Angels, Star Search, or Kung Fu episodes on YouTube. I will, however, give a little more respect to the commercials during my favorite shows. Although, the ShamWow guy deserves to be made fun of. He's a douche.

Aaah.... Now that's refreshing.

As some of you may know, I am an old school Mountain Dew addict. I can thank Mr. Sartin for that. Like any other Dew lover I noticed when the recipe and subsequent flavor changed. It was no longer the drink I could have a case of during a Rambo marathon but more a drink that I enjoyed occasionally. I was delighted when I discovered that PepsiCo has launched Mountain Dew "Throwback" an original recipe all natural sugar drink. I took my first drink and I immediately remembered why I had a caffeine headache for years and my teeth are slowly rotting out. It was like reuniting with a long lost friend. I know that sounds silly but just go with it. As I was doing a bit of research prior to writing this blog I am devastated to find out the drink will only be available for 8 weeks. I've only got about 3 or 4 weeks left until it leaves again sadly. Enjoy it while you can! However, if you live in Mt. Washington you will not be able to find it as I am expecting to stockpile as much as possible before the deadline.

Day 6 - Starting For Home

Today began with a hearty breakfast in the hotel and a prayer that today would go by quickly. At least we had a good breakfast. Joseph drove about 400 miles today and did his best to get us to Des Moines quickly but losing an hour going into the Central time zone we didn't get to the hotel until about eight. Another early early day tomorrow will be hard to do but knowing that a familiar bed, a familiar toilet, and a familiar friend will be waiting for us at home gives us energy for the trip. We stopped on the freeway today to get a picture of an awesome sculpture. If you can't tell from the picture it's a plaster cast of a real T-Rex dug up on that property being led on a leash by a human skeleton. We thought it was worth a picture anyway since we didn't have anything else to show you from today. Off to bed now. We're going to need all the energy we can get.

P.S. The free grilled chicken meal was the worst idea anyone has ever had. Just thought I'd put that in there.

From Des Moines Iowa (AKA : The fun capitol of the world)

Joseph And Devin