Chi Talking

Madame:

Good chronicle, good examination, good advice. 

As promised, here is the travel chronicle!

7/23/14 (Wednesday)

My son, daughter, and their two friends drive to Chicago.  Tight fit, but my daughter, the smallest, fits into the jump seat in the very back of my Chevy Traverse.  The two boys are both studying computer science, and my son's friends teaches the girls a little about computers and programming while my son and I do the driving.

Get there to Lombard IL.  Our hotel is right next to one of the two “Greek Islands”  (authentic) restaurants in Chicago.  We eat there.  My son and I have a Hillas beer (a Greek beer).  Pretty smooth and good.  We five have a cod caviar which they all loved on the fresh bread, plus we also had spinach pie and flaming (flambe) saganaki cheese for other appetizers.  I have cod and spinach rice and chicken soup for the main meal, my son has gyro meat, and his friend has an unknown fish.  All were good.  For dessert, there’s yogurt and honey/nuts parfait, apple cinnamon ice cream, and almond torte.

7/24

The next morning, we drive (yes, we’re that far out of Chicago) to the nearest “L” (subway) station and get three day passes for everyone.  This “train” thing is a new experience for the boys.  We take the L downtown, then catch a bus south.  We walk to the University of Chicago and see some very nice architecture on the “chapel” (a cathedral, really) and other buildings.  We tour the Oriental Institute, which houses ancient Mideast displays.  We walk through the college neighborhoods, but don’t go into any of the local shops due to time.  As we have to get to…

The Museum of Science and Technology, where we see and interact with awesomely cool scientific displays of lightning, tornadoes, waves, sunlight, robots, the future, etc.  The sayings of modern inventors and scientists were often on display as well:

A miniature fairy castle is also on display, where I found the detail so fascinating. 

There’s also hanging above us in one section a Stuka and a Spitfire (made the day for this historian, especially when I got to go to the upper floor and see them at eye level). 

Rounding out things for me as a WW2 buff was the great U-boat display of an actual German submarine. 

Of course, it would like better if I had any picture taking skills, lol. 

There were a dozen or so mounted engravings, which my daughter noticed just before we were getting ready to leave the museum.  It's not often one sees something dedicated to Erechtheus, even for mythology afficionados!

My daughter is a better picture taker, and she said I looked like I needed a picture, tennis elbow or not:

From the museum, we went on to the Navy Pier, which was heavily commercialized, but pleasant nonetheless.  We had some crepes, churros, and some Italian food, all while sitting outside in the great weather we had the whole time. Poor weather, which was predicted frequently, never materialized the whole trip.

Well, Madame, this little travel diary has gotten longer than I thought.  Will save more for next week!