2018 - Back-to-Back CHICAGO Trips (River Cruise)

In September the Kalamazoo Institute of Art's Art League group took a bus trip to the Art Institute of Chicago to visit the John Singer Sargent and Chicago's Gilder Age exhibit. (That was a mouthful.) I love Sargent's work because I am a "people" photographer and his works mostly feature "people" paintings.

Unfortunately, I somehow lost all but a scant few photos taken at the museum. Probably just mis-filed somewhere in my huge photo collection. These two were taken in the museum courtyard and, yes, the pumpkin is NOT real, but a realistic work of art.

If I find others shots, I'll add them to the blog. In the meantime ...
Sargent's bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singer_Sargent
Sargent's works:
Google "John Singer Sergeant" and then click images

Traveling with me was my good friend Ina,  President of the Midwest Miniatures Museum. So our next stop was to view the Thorne Rooms collection also at the museum. Here's one of the rooms. More on this later.

Then the group bussed over to Quartino Ristorante for an Italian dinner. While we waited, I ordered a Negroni, a popular Italian cocktail served in Venice. I hadn't ordered one while we were there, but made up for that miss by ordering one today. It tasted kind of like a medicinal orange. Doesn't sound good, but it was.

We had a private room on the mezzanine for dinner. This shot looking down to the main floor.

One wall was decorated with this competitive bicycling jersey. Brought back memories of our visit to Turin.

Our meal was served family style at one long table and was quite tasty.

As we continued our excursion, the sun set in the west.

Our last stop was the best for me. I had been to the art museum a number of times and on a Chicago Architecture Foundation river cruise (during the day), so nothing new there. This, however, was a twilight cruise starting about 7:30pm. The Chicago River takes on a whole new life in the evening light. It was hot with a light breeze. Thank goodness!

This river has its own interesting history including reversing its flow, dyeing it green for Saint Patrick's Day, boat locks into Lake Michigan, lighthouse (Mike's uncle was a lighthouse keeper there), and more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River

We embarked on Chicago's Riverwalk at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. The cruise explored the main river and the north and south branches that form a Y-shape. There are 18 downtown movable bridges. They are mostly drawbridges, but there is at least one "elevator" bridge.

There was a lot of description of buildings and history broadcast on the cruise, including where certain hit movies were filmed, but it was not the kind of night to take notes. For a change I just wanted to relax and enjoy the scenery. So few buildings are named here. This is the Wrigley Building, once the headquarters of Wrigley chewing gum.

Obviously, the NBC Tower.

I should probably know the names of these two, but I don't. Tried to research, but no definite ID. Their classic beauty speaks for itself.

 The twin Marina City apartments. Their nickname is the "corncobs."

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Merchandise Mart on left with its changing color display.

Somewhere out over Lake Michigan was a fireworks display.

This is the Willis Tower built during 1970-1973 as the Sears Tower. It held that title until 2009 when it was renamed the Willis Tower, after Willis Group Holdings, an insurance brokerage. It is 110 stories, making it the tallest building in Chicago.

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Near the end of our journey, we saw the giant ferris wheel on Navy Pier.

The Reid, Murdoch & Company Building clock tower. Also the headquarters of Encyclopedia Britannica.

We really did not want this fairy land of lights and colors to end, but time was a ticking and we had a long bus ride back to Kalamazoo. We arrived home about 11pm.