Chicago Art Institute

photos

Today was devoted to the Art Institute. It opened at 10:30am so we got a late start. Clay had already bought our tickets online so we avoided a substantial line and walked right in. We walked through Millenium Park past the bean again and over a different pedestrian bridge to get there today. It was a walking day today! Even though we set out late, we were walking almost all day. We spent from 10:30am to about 3pm inside the Art Institute. We walked through all the contemporary art, modern art, American art from 1900 on and all the Impressionists. We saw some random other stuff in between. The Visitor Guide we picked up had a selected list of 12 museum highlight pieces. We tried to make sure we saw them, but didn't find all 12 and weren't sure they'd have been our choices. For example, American Gothic was excluded. Then in a room with several Jackson Pollock's they had City Landscape as one of the museum's top 12 pieces. We saw a lot in any event chasing down their list of 12. We had lunch at one of the museum cafes. We shared an Italian wrap and a root beer. After all the rest of the Impressionists, we went to the special Gauguin Exhibition that Clay had also already purchased tickets for online. I was more impressed with Gauguin's productivity than I had been previously but I still don't really love his work like some of the other Impressionists. Clay didn't have an answer when I asked him how or why he'd chosen this as I didn't know he held Gauguin as a particular favorite.

We decided to take the afternoon off with our feet up and returned to the Camria with a couple of bags of Garrett Popcorn. Around 5pm we set  out again. It was just too hot and sunny out earlier for Clay's requested Riverwalk. We had a simple and quick Asian meal at Wow Bao on our way over to the River. It was excessively crowded and noisy out by the river. We had some gelato for dessert and walked the inland half from State St. to Franklin St. before walking back to the Cambria as it was getting dark.

Clay worked and failed several times to get his map for tomorrow. Honestly, a paper map is not this much work and they never fail unless you lose the paper. Anyway, he wanted to take the Interstate option that was 2 hours faster but it was an Indiana Toll Road clear across the state and he couldn't figure out what that cost. I pointed out that immediately parallel was an interesting non-toll road and he says he's saved that map to his phone after about 15 tries. So we'll say. He says both will be boring with nothing to see. He may be right. In any event we plan to drive on US Route 20 and Ohio Route 6. We'll see what happens tomorrow when the phone starts telling him where to go. In any event, we are turning back towards home starting tomorrow morning and we'll have done the whole trip without an actual physical map. It may have put us both off the road trip option permanently.

photos