our journeys: The Windy City

In June, Mom and I met up in the Salt Lake City airport and flew to Chicago together for an extended weekend. The windy city! While the city definitely has a breeze, it was originally dubbed "windy city" due to the excessive wind produced by its citizens in the 1890s as they bragged about and defended their beloved town. The large cities in the country were competing for the opportunity to host the 1893 World's Fair, and Chicago was out to prove that it was as modern and worthy as the others of its time. Until this point, it was known primarily for being the location of some of the largest hog slaughter facilities and people associated the smell of death with the place. I read Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen and enjoyed learning about Chicago's architecture, the creation of the World's Fair (which Chicago hosted) and the man responsible for the deaths of an unknown, probably large number, of young adult women during the time the fair was being built. Fascinating on all accounts.

Why Chicago? Several reasons brought us to the edge of Lake Michigan. Keven was the biggest reason we made the trip. The son of my Nana's sister, he and his siblings were raised in Spain and he travels the world for his job and was going to be in Chicago for a conference. I haven't seen him since my study abroad in 2001 and I'm not sure the last time and and my mom have visited face-to-face. We arranged to meet in front of a museum one morning and when he saw us on the steps, Keven took off his baseball hat and ran over, just like a kid seeing an old friend for the first time in many years.

Two of my Bop-bop's three cousins also live in the Chicago area. On our first afternoon in town, we met all three cousins (one flew in from Phoenix for the weekend) as well as my Bop-bop's best friend from childhood, Aldo.

Both my mom's parents grew up in the suburbs of this huge city, and Aldo was the best man in their wedding. I think Mom has met him before, but it was so fun to look at old pictures from their childhood and youth, wedding photos, and listen to the childhood history of school, friends, and such. He reminded me so much of my grandpa....same twinkle in his eyes when he found something amusing, great smile, and a quiet chuckle.

It was interesting to spend 3/4 of a day with both sides of the family. Keven knew my Bop's parents and aunt, Hilda (mother to the three cousins) and they share a lot of the same memories from when they were children. Since he didn't spend much time in the States as a youth, he had lots of questions on the timing of things like elementary school, high school, marriage and such for his mother, my great-aunt Shirley. Keven reminded of a sponge, soaking up as much information about his mother and her family as possible. I should have been taking notes.

Despite a goof in the planning which left Mom and I in different rows on the plane from SLC to Chicago and a two hour wait in multiple lines to pick up the rental car (which wound up not being in the parking lot, requiring more line-standing to figure out where the darn thing was located!), we had a great vacation. Side note: NASCAR was also in town that weekend and the rental car agencies had double booked vehicles or didn't plan ahead well enough to make sure the inventory was available when needed. There were a lot of cranky customers and frazzled employees that afternoon. Oh, and the zipper of my suitcase was half undone. Luckily, my underwear didn't fall out, though I was missing the zip lock of deoderant, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. I thought it was weird that only that item fell out, but I was grateful to have everything else intact! I remember asking Chadwick if it was at home and he looked with a negative report. Walgreen's supplied the missing items and we moved on with life.

I found my bag when I got home. In the kids' bathroom. Right where I left it.

My favorite activity was the Architecture Tour - we loaded up on a double decked boat and motored down the Chicago River, taking in the skyline and learning about the buildings. It was fascinating to learn when each building was created, what was happening at the time in the city itself, and see how they all kind of fit together despite the massive differences in style.

The river itself has an interesting history - at one point, engineers re-directed the flow of the water to allow for better drainage of the sewage and debris people had been dumping into the waters for years. Part of the reason Chicago's entire downtown went down in ashes in the fire of 1871 is the fact that debris and trash on the surface of the river caught fire and spread the flames throughout the entire area. I can only imagine what the locals thought....fire spreading on the water? Must be demons involved.

We walked and ate and visited. Dinner with the cousins one evening, taking in the sights of the Green Mile like the Bean, and wandering through a couple of the museums. My mom is a huge Chicago Bears fan and I had to take her picture outside Soldier Field. The weather cooperated most of the time, though the last day was rain and more rain. We had a running tour of The Pier in the wind.

The library....it was ginormous!

One of the highlights was taking in Hamilton at the historic CIBC Theater Saturday evening. At the time, I wasn't sure if the musical was amazing because of the creator's talent or due to the charm of a theater built in 1906....now I'm realizing that it was the perfect combination of both.