Route 66 - Day One (Chicago - Farmersville, IL)

We started out by grabbing breakfast at the hostel, parking the car at a lot in downtown Chi-town, and walking down to the lakefront.

We found the 'Route 66 ends' sign, but for someone as OCD as myself, I was disappointed I couldn't get a picture of a 'Route 66 begins' sign...oh, well.











"Maybe the 'begins' part is on the other side of the sign..."

Our first aim for around 9:30 was the Art Institute of Chicago (hereafter referred to as the AIC), home to many great Impressionist works, and also a lot of American Folk Art.

First, Ivan tried to exchange money at a currency exchange. But the following transpired:

Ivan: Hi, I'd like to exchange Canadian for American.
Dude: Sorry, we don't deal in foreign currency.

Apparently, the term 'currency exchange' means something different in Chicago...

The AIC didn't open up until 10:30, so we checked out Millenium Park while we were waiting. But first, we happened to run into the Rittersport truck. Hooray!


















Thanks, Rittersport handing-out girls!

Priorities being chocolate, we stuffed our face, then checked out the park. Beautiful!
Toronto has a lot of public art, but a lot of it is mandated for condos and apartments to build. Chicago seems to support this as an extension of the architecture of the city.








Cloud Gate ( aka "the Big Bean") was especially nice. What does it symbolize? I don't know. But It's shiny, reflects you at a lot of different angles, and everyone seems to enjoy being there and taking pictures. For some reason, the Big Bean reminded me of the Disney movie 'The Flight of the Navigator'.

Walking back to the AIC, we got more views of the cityscape. The architecture is amazing. I'm obviously not the first one to observe this, but it was an eye-opener on how a city can preserve a large part of its history and heritage.

We crossed the overhead pedway to the AIC, and saw a crowd on the street yelling, wearing bandanas, and waving American flags. Our first protest! Was it a bunch of dirty hippies? No; too many flags that were not on fire. Tea Party? Too young. Texan nationalists? No cowboy hats. Worse: Amway employees! After we left the AIC, we ran into some of the girls
in the ersatz protest. They said they were doing the march to celebrate a co-worker's retirement at 26. Since we didn't ask anything about Amway, and ended up playing the tourist card, they were pretty nice.





Some of the AIC's most famous paintings are:

• American Gothic
• Night Hawks
  
• A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
• At the Moulin Rouge
  
• Van Gogh's Self-Portrait
  

Seeing the Seurat reminded me of the museum scene in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. Ivan and I did not join hands with a school tour, though.

Great museum; we spent a few hours there, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Even you.

After that, we headed to the John Hancock Observatory, for a beautiful view of the city. It was beautiful, but it was lessened by my haggling over a $2 coupon that I had that wasn't scanned in when I paid. I eventually gave up, but Ivan was likely thinking, "Why am I travelling with this guy?"

David Schwimmer narrated for us.

The John Hancock Tower is called Big John. But not by us.

We headed back to the car, and a late lunch at Lou Mitchell's, a Chicago Route 66 standby. So far, the best meal of the trip.

I had a HUGE steak sandwich and a chocolate malted
, and Ivan had a Reuben smothered in cheese and a vanilla shake. OM NOM NOM

Some driving on the I-55 south took us to dinner at the Launching Pad: toothless waitress, 1 lb burgers, & another chocolate malted for me.

The gas station across the street had a guy in a Route 66 wifebeater
, which I had no choice but to take a picture of. He was a bit nervous, though, and kept walking when I was calling to him...

Finally, we stopped off at Art's Motel: no internet AGAIN. Grr. Very basic hotel, but was clean and only $45 for the night for the two of us. Good night!

P.S. Sorry about the bad formatting; I haven't gotten the hang of blogspot yet...