One of the great things about keeping a blog is recalling what you did so you can write about it. My house guests went to see Falling Water giving me the opportunity to finish telling about my Chicago trip. I’ve been going over the 200 some pictures I took in the three days and have created two new photo albums: Chicago 2007 and Nikki in Chicago.

On Tuesday, walking around Chicago, we stopped into the Cultural Center, a fabulous building they almost tore down, so Renee could see it. That’s where we found out about Nikki in the Garden, a show of the work of Nikki de Saint Phalle at the Garfield Park Conservatory. That went on the list for Wednesday.

We walked around downtown most of the afternoon, spending quite a lot of time at Millennium Park. It was a beautiful day; amazing, perfect weather for Chicago. Renee thought she wanted to take an architectural tour, but having already walked two miles or more, I knew I wouldn’t make it. So we walked another mile around the park, finally collapsing into a cab and going back to Betty’s apartment where we rested up (and had some wine) for our next challenge, dinner. Betty is terrific on restaurant recommendations; she took us too a new place in Chinatown called Mulan. It lived up to her review.

See the Chicago 2007 album for photos of sculpture in the park and some other things in Chicago.

Wednesday morning we got ready to leave. We had been staying out in Northbrook, with Carol, and I didn’t want to drive back there for the night after going all the way out to the south side to see Eli again. Enough driving!

Carol made a lovely breakfast for us and sent us on our way–to Garfield Park and Nikki in the Garden. It’s a great show; everything looks so good sitting amidst the plants and flowers. I took the opportunity to make one last photo for an old project of mine about the subway and elevated in Chicago. Back in 1975 I had a show at the Cultural Center of photos documenting the trains, stations and surrounding areas. All the photos were black and white. Here is my last ‘el’ photo, in color:Too bad I can’t add it to the show.

I’m so pleased that Chicago has found a way to make the Conservatory a vital part of the Chicago scene. It was a forgotten neighborhood for most of my life in the city. They had a wonderful Chihuly show there a few years ago and it suddenly became a destination.

After a too short visit with Eli we drove east and
finally stayed overnight just short of the Ohio border. On Thursday we
went to the Amish flea market and I already wrote all I intend to say
about it.