Chicago Travelogue

July 17, 2007 8:45 AM

Museum Geek in Chicago. In early May, 2007, I went to Chicago and Oak Park, IL, for a work trip, and got in quite a lot of introductory sightseeing and city highlights.

So I had a workshop to attend for my job, and used it as an excuse to take an extra couple days and tour the city. For a four-day trip, it was quite efficient! I was travelling solo, so everything I recommend here is fun to see by yourself, and I also walked almost everywhere, barring travel from my accommodations in Oak Park to the Loop area. (I do like walking insanely, so take that into account - you might not want to walk the couple of miles from the Loop to the History Museum, but there is a train.)

It was a startlingly beautiful city. All I know of Chicago had come from American Studies stuff -- Sandburg, the Jungle, the '68 convention - I always pictured it as gritty, industrial, full of strife. Instead I found a really vibrant, sophisticated, diverse city full of graces: the architecture has to be America's finest in one city center. The public parks and gardens and plantings are gems set everywhere, and people really use them.

I stayed at this B & B in Oak Park. The Josephine Room was just $75 a night, and the place was gracious but comfortable, with big relaxing verandas, nice hosts, and gorgeous Arts & Crafts detail and furnishings. The neighborhood was amazingly walkable, and was like a museum itself of American vernacular architecture including Prairie, Mission, Foursquare, and many more house styles. There's a small but very nice downtown including an old movie theatre, lots of restaurants, a good bookstore, and a nifty paper-arts store. I had dinner the first night at Khyber Pass, which seemed to get good reviews in local papers - the buffet was abundant, but I can't say it was the most amazing Indian I ever had. It was just fine, though, and there was a nice live sitar player providing accompaniment.

Right there in Oak Park there's a lot to do. It was the home of Frank Lloyd Wright for many years, and you can tour his home and studio: highly recommended. There are many other Wright houses nearby, and walking tours are offered, though I didn't take one. One of his most famous public buildings, Unity Temple, is right on the main drag. You can take an architecture tour there for $9, but I opted instead to just attend the Sunday UU service for free (or $1 in the collection plate, anyway). I figured that would give the best sense of the design in action, and indeed it did; also it was a nice way to get a feel for some of the local residents and character of the neighborhood.

Oak Park is connected by the L trains to Chicago. Trains are frequent and the comfortable ride takes only about 15 minutes - providing enough time to make plans using travel guides and local papers.

The History Museum was my first destination - I always like to get a sense of how places tell their own story. I find it really grounds the rest of my visit in an understanding of a city's background. I didn't go through the entire thing - I focused on the general highlights exhibit, including an original L car and some info about Ida Tarbell and the Colmbian Exposition, an exhibit called City in Crisis, and an excellent one all about the music history of Chicago, from blues to folk to polka. That was simple but very effective.

From there, I set out walking across town to the Lake Shore. It was absolutely beautiful, and the combination of beach and paved path is well worth strolling, swimming, biking, or blading. I carried on down the lake to the Navy Pier, your basic honky-tonk tourist area of rides and attractions. I rode the Ferris Wheel to get a nice view of the city and lake. There's a lot you can do there - waterborne tours and boat rides, including the vaunted architecture tour, leave from there. There is also a free stained glass museum on the pier; it was astoundingly good, especially for a free installation that feels like an afterthought in some ways. Examples of stained glass from medieval to contemporary, all beautifully lit.

From the pier I cut over to the Magnificent Mile - basically, upscale shopping, but some nice buildings. I especially loved the lobby of the Tribune Building, which is inscribed with quotations about freedom of speech. Look on the outside for hundreds of rocks from historic sites around the world. The bridges were amazingly beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of (don't laugh) Paris.

I stopped for a Chicago style loaded hot dog at some dog joint whose name I can't remember. It was surprisingly delicious! Thus fortified, I continued my explorations with a visit to the historic Marshall Field's Department Store building (now a Macy's, but mostly preserved). It is truly a consumer palace, with yawning airy atriums (atria?), cafes, marble and painted plaster detailing, and luxury shopping. They give history tours on Saturdays at 1 PM. The Chicago Cultural Center was not far away; this free center (formerly the public library) provides a home for exhibits and events. There seems to be something going on there just about all the time.

From there it was an easy hop into Milennium Park, which has to be the most innovative and yet user-friendly park built in the US since Frederick Law Olmstead's day. Just go -- it's enchanting, pretty, fun, funny - a happy place to be. I spent hours there over the course of the weekend; it became a downtown oasis. The Crown Fountain is a great place to cool your feet and people-watch.

One evening I had dinner at Petterino's in the theater district. Nice atmosphere with a 1900-ish tile floor, marble and brass bar - unfussy Italian food of decent quality - pastas, salads, panini, and some great onion rings.

One full day was spent divided between the Art Institute, where I concentrated on the American 20th century collection (really good, and American Gothic is there and worth seeing) and the Field Museum, which made me want to pack my bags and run away to work there. Their exhibit Evolving Planet is world-class, interesting, thorough, and fascinating - currently it's considered the best exhibit anywhere on the topic of evolution and global change over time. The displays of artifacts left from the Columbian Exposition were awesome - in the Native culture exhibits, towering totem poles were very impressive. I was most blown away by The Ancient Americas, which was far more than artifacts - the exhibit was very philsophical, spending a lot of time on how humans organized into societies, mastered agriculture, and developed hierarchies, economies, and militaries. Very interesting stuff.

Culturally, I found that people were almost a combination of Midwestern (nice, polite, helpful) and Southern (I haven't been 'Ma'am'-ed so much in years, and people were laid back and had a relaxed pace).

I'd go back at the flimsiest excuse, this time exploring more of the outlying neighborhoods. There is far more to do than I could get to in four days, and both the art museum and the Field are the kinds of places you can't even see all in one day. There's a lot of live music, which I didn't see, and apparently interesting ethnic neighborhoods, a particle accelerator, and all sorts of other pastimes which I hope one day to explore. Those of you who live there are fortunate folk!

posted by Miko to Trip Reports (4 comments total)

Great report Mike - thanks. I love Chicago - it's a museum lover's paradise. And I love the blues, so it's my kind of city.

I was also charmed by Millenium Park when I was last there, I was so impressed with such a delightful public initiative - love the fountains. Thanks for the heads up on the Stained Glass Museum, I never knew about that.

Even though I have been to the Institute and the Filed at least a half dozen times each, I feel I have only scratched the surface. By the way, the restaurant in the Institute (as opposed to the cafe) is quite excellent, it can be a nice treat to break up a visit with a light gourmet lunch, yum. I also like the Museum of Contemporary Art.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:33 PM on July 29

This is a great write-up! I went to BlogHer over the weekend and could only spend two days; I enjoyed the stained glass museum and Crown fountain as well.
posted by misha at 6:14 PM on July 30

I was very disappointed with the Field Museum, and so was my mom. She said when she was young, she went and they couldn't see it all in one day. When we went to see the King Tut exhibit, it felt like there was practically nothing there... just empty hallway after empty hallway.

We really prefer the Museum of Science & Industry. There's so much to look at there. We went to see both Titanic exhibits (the 2nd had different artifacts) and to see BodyWorlds. Of the permanent exhibits, I love the Pioneer Zephyr train (aka The Silver Streak) and the Fairy Castle. The Great Train Story is an awesome, absolutely huge model train setup with interactive features. Oh, and the U505 sub is not to be missed, but don't go in if you're claustrophobic!!
posted by IndigoRain at 2:36 PM on August 4

Wow, IndigoRain, maybe you were there between exhibits. I was overwhelmed by what I saw - spent 3 hours between 2 exhibits, had to skip the entire permanent collection and the Africa installation and only breezed through the Tibet display.
posted by Miko at 12:35 PM on August 6