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This is what passes for a "Station" in MegaBus land

 

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The view from the second deck was not bad. You could see over cars and right into 18 wheeler cabins (Shudder)

 

 

 

Dispatch 5b

CHICAGO
3 Dec – 6 Dec 2011

 

 

 

Paul's CS profile picture

 

 

 

How would you like to find one of these in your bed

 

 

 

3 Dec 2011      In Chicago I had the good fortune to find yet another host through couchsurfing, Paul In Chicago. He has a little place right next to the University of Illinois campus. It's a few blocks walk to the Blue line and access to the big city. Paul is an interesting guy, he works for Eurorail helping U.S. tourists planning to travel in Europe. As you might imagine he is an expert of train travel. He is also a musician. I got to hear him rehearse "Holly Jolly Christmas" on the accordion as he prepared to participate in a kids production of Polar Express that was to take place on a real train. Pretty Good, I might add.

 

 

 

There are a lot of great public spaces in Chicago. I walked a lot in Grant Park and Millennium park, both along the shore of Lake Michigan.

 

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I saw quite a few Geese. I thought they are migratory and would have gone south by now, but here they were. You can see the skyline in the back.

 

 

 

4 Dec 2011     Also in Milenuim park is a reflective sculpture. It's official name is "Cloud Gate" thought it is more often referred to as "The Bean"  (even Google Maps calls it that).

You can see me reflected here. I am third from the right holding my camera.

 

 

 

Earlier on 4 Dec 2011   Naturally there are great museums in Chicago.

The Chicago Art Museum may not have such a splendorous building as Milwaukee but they do have a great collection including some very famous works that I know you are familiar with.

 

 

 

So now it's time to take a powder and say goodbye to Chicago

 

 

 

Some people might think this type of realistic painting became obsolete with the invention of photography. Yes, the main feature of a painting like this is its realism but to me it far exceeds photography.

Also it's kind of flattering how that girl on the right is checkin' me out.

 

 

 

6 Dec 2011      Yeah I know, you are tired of hearing about my bus and train rides. But this was my first trip on MegaBus. They take a different tack from Greyhound. There are no stations, everything is done on-line. You wait on a side walk with no shelter. I guess it saves money and that is one reason they are so competitive price wise. It can be a drawback if you are waiting for a late bus in cold weather, it's a good thing it wasn't raining. And there is no info if the bus is late as ours was (about half an hour). 

The buses themselves are quite nice double deckers with a fairly quiet fairly smooth ride.

 

 

 

Me again, In the evening you can see the brightly lit skating rink more easily in the reflection. The skyline is seen above it.

 

 

 

5 Dec 2011     So much for Art, let's move on to Science.

There are several scientific type museums, more than I really could see. I skipped the Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium and decided to opt for the Field Museum. The trend these days is to aim the science museums towards kids and make them very interactive and and a bit more entertaining. The field museum is more the old school science museum which actually makes it a change of pace in today's world.

Science is very exciting but a lot of science is very meticulous and for those that don't have the passion for it can seem kind of boring.  The field museum has a whole wing devoted to taxidermy of birds for example. Another to plants (not many people in that wing). It is a repository for knowledge and actual preserved samples. You could track down a preserved specimen of some fairly obscure plant or animal here. Something you could never do at an interactive museum loaded with Animatronic Dinosaur models. There is a place for Animatronic Dinosaurs but I think it's great that we still have a few of the old school museums as well.

 

 

 

There is actual research going on here.

The woman at right was so still and concentrated as she cleaned  fossils I thought at first she was animatronic herself.

The guy above is also cleaning fossils. The TV monitor above shows the view through his microscope. 

 

 

 

5 Dec 2011      That evening at about 7 PM I went quite far our of my way to get a hot dog at "The Wiener's Circle". You may ask why I would do that and include pictures from a pretty regular hot dog stand even if the dogs are pretty good. If you want to find the answer to that question you will have to listen to a radio program. You can hear it below on the web. I should clarify that I was here early in the evening, thus saw absolutely none of the craziness they talk about in the show. I'm not sure if I even want to see it or if it even still happens, this episode is well over 10 years old.  I did want to visit the site of an Ira Glass show. BTW he also featured "The Wiener's Circle" in an episode of the "This American Life" TV show.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/33/a-night-at-the-wiener-circle

 

 

 

Click here for the INDEX

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step will be My Visit to Tiffin Ohio and Toledo

To go on to Part 5c Click Here

To Go back to 5a Click Here

 

 

 

And just adjacent to the Bean is "Crown Fountain", yes they can spray water but I think that feature is off in winter. They have these projected faces that change color blink and move on glass brick.

 

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View from underneath looking up. Reflections Upon Reflections Upon Reflections.

Click here for a video, walking under CloudGate 1:28