man ray skies

Continuing . . . Saturday evening after we ate it was just too cold to do much of anything so we huddled in our hotel room watching Daytona 500 qualifying races. Did I mention that B is a redneck? ;) We remained so full of pizza that we weren't interested in going out for dinner even. During the evening, I realized that my chest was beginning to feel congested and hoped it was due to the cold air or second-hand smoke or something other than a virus.

Sunday morning dawned, err, cold. We breakfasted in the hotel on cereal and yogurt and such, plenty to get us going. Ever the intrepid explorers, we decided to set out for the Art Institute using public transportation. Once again, we got on a bus going the right direction and alit at the L station. B was soooo cute about all this, being unaccustomed to it. We took the Brown Line to the Loop and got off at the right stop (notice how delighted I am with our success on public transportation? This relates to issues faced last year in NYC, going the wrong way on subways).

The Art Institute was as wonderous as I remembered it. Huge, meandering, treasures at every turn. Unfortunately, by then my throat was hurting along with my head, so I didn't feel up to staying as long as I would have liked. Didn't take the time to track down American Gothic. B and I took a break at the Institute cafe for a coke and a conference with our map. We decided the best course of action would be to walk up Michigan Ave. toward the Water Tower, hopping a bus along the way. The best laid plans . . .

Of course by this time we were very hungry, having used our meager breakfast calories to keep our bodies warm all morning, so we were sort of looking for a place to get a Chicago hot dog as we, err, strolled. We happened upon Millenium Park so stopped to watch ice sculptures being created (we had seen a story about that on the news the night before).
It was really interesting to stop and watch. There's a very cool sculpture at the park as well, Cloud Gate. We continued our northward trek, stopping to take pictures as we crossed the frozen Chicago River. Hungrier and hungrier, we plodded ever onward. Finally I realized that we weren't going to be finding a hot dog stand on Michigan Ave., so we diverted ourselves a couple of blocks to the west and fairly soon came across Portillos, across the street from Hard Rock Cafe and the rock & roll McDonalds. Warmth, seats, dogs and fries soon revived our flagging spirits.