I don’t typically organize any part of my trip to another city with hitting up its tourist trap areas, but in some American cities it’s absolutely necessary and Chicago so happens to be one of them.
My third day in Chicago was spent exploring the many museums within the famed Museum Campus, which is located at the edge of Lake Michigan. This sprawling hub of gorgeous architecture, vastly green parks, and lakeside breezes encapsulates some of the city’s most popular attractions:
and The Field Museum of Natural History, among others.
Each place offers its own flavor, experience, and history, as well as proves Chicago’s intellectual prowess of the American Midwest, which, in my opinion, makes Museum Campus an all the more and absolute must-see/must-feel attraction of the city.
In simple terms: I loved it.
The Shedd Aquarium
The first rule of thumb when organizing your designated museum day in Chicago is to start early, damn it, start as early as you can muster. Many of the museums don’t open until 9 a.m. anyway, but it's beating the lines which form super early that counts. Furthermore, Chicago in summer is a place and time in which everyone is visiting from literally every human-inhabited locale of this big rock we call “World”; so when meandering through population-overload, timing is everything. And, yep, you guessed it! I started my day right at 9 a.m., of course! Ok, maybe that wasn’t your first guess, but that’s how I learn these special details I relay to you folks reading this blog right now and for it- from mistake after mistake. You’re welcome. So, after about an hour of standing in line at my first stop, The Shedd Aquarium, I finally made it through to a gorgeous hamlet of colorful fish, incredible world history and a mission sealed tight around sustainable practices.
The beautiful Shedd Aquarium is home to 32,000 aquatic, amphibious and jungle-dwelling species. Although all creatures who reside there come with a fascinating story, there were a couple that especially stood out to me and includes the Arapaima or “pirarucu” or “paiche”: a man-eating fish that requires air to breathe, can grow up to 9 feet in length and are so vicious that even their tongues have teeth. I read about this freighting carnivorous fish in a national bestseller regarding our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt.
The book, “The River of Doubt", explores a world of endless fear, man-hunting creatures and near death experiences that the American President and his team of ambitious men would face during the most grueling exploration of their lives - a surveying tour of the, then, uncharted territory of the Amazon Rainforest. At this time, around 1912, the people of the world did not yet consider the forest to be a "green desert”, which is how we know of it today and since the 1960’s with the coming of tree plantations that eroded, deserted and eliminated biodiversity and human displacement. What little did President Roosevelt know, aside from the experience relayed to him by his co-commander and soon-to-be great friend, Cândido Rondon (a famous explorer of Brazil), that what awaited him and his team was an unruly ecosystem of brilliant flora and fauna- all working together in a magical process of adaptation, survival of the fittest and all in harm’s way, just like they had for 55 million years. The Arapaima is the world’s largest freshwater fish and is also the largest freshwater fish at Shedd Aquarium. It’s quite a sight!
Another creature I found to be gripping, was the Australian lungfish; a perfect specimen that illustrates the evolution of our world without error. The lungfish is unique for its ability to breathe air using just one lung, which has proven especially useful during stagnant and dry periods in climate. Furthermore, the fish's ancestor was found in a 380 million year-old fossil that related it to the ancestors of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles. Oh the circle of life! The Shedd Aquarium was also home to the world's oldest lungfish in captivity - they called him Granddad and who was euthanized for complications associated with old age in early 2017. Graddad was a special sort because he came from the 1893 Chicago World Fair and lived to be about 100 years old - the fish typically has a 20-25 year lifespan, mind you. When I was visiting the museum this summer, the aquarium had a sign posted in tribute to their beloved lungfish, as well as it was an accolade for guests who 'grew up' with the fish over a period of a few generations.
And it’s Granddad who brings me to the history of the famous Shedd Aquarium: it was a product of the great building boom of the American 1920’s. Its architects, Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, led the way in commercial architecture and built the aquarium for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, which would reign a wonderfully long influence in America clear to today. At the time, it was the largest aquarium in the world and the first ever inland saltwater exhibit - it featured dolphins, groupers, and green moray eels that wowed attendees from all over the globe. Two men would die building its structure and five would become seriously injured when a crane’s boom dropped and pinned the men underneath it. But the aquarium would far exceed the original plans of its creator, John G. Shedd, who never envisioned it with its Abott
Oceanarium that is now home to Pacific white-sided dolphins, sea lions and sea otters and a particular sea lion named Cruz who was blinded by commercial fishermen who shot him in the face in Santa Cruz, California. Shedd took in Cruz after he was rescued and rehabilitated by The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. You can learn more about the history of the Shedd Aquarium in one of my favorite books “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson.
As mentioned before, the facility's efforts are structured around eco-friendly options of everything sustainable: the water used throughout the facility is rainwater captured by a system that feeds it to the facility's chilling tower. Also the entire structure is surrounded by green gardens that have been landscaped to include only native plants to promote the growth and abundance of regional wildlife. The soil used in these gardens are composted perishable products obtained from the museums trash receptacles and they even go further by using crushed cocoa purchased from local Chicago chocolate businesses- Shedd is all about supporting local. And great of all is that despite its size, the aquarium makes its own energy that's used to cool the tanks of its large water mammals- belugas and dolphins. The energy is collected by large solar panels installed on the rooftop of the aquarium itself. They seriously thought of everything!
Oh yeah, the aquarium also has a 4D theater, which at first I didn’t understand until I experienced it - not only are the objects and characters in the film jumping at you in 3D, but when a whale or dolphin breathes through its blowhole, the theater uses a water system to simultaneously spray you with water. Even when the dolphins were underwater in a respective scene, the theater produced bubbles, yes, real life bubbles, that floated all about us as if we were underwater ourselves. It was amazing!
Lastly, the Aquarium puts on an animal performance, which isn’t anything like a circus or something you’d see at SeaWorld, rather this performance is a way to exhibit the natural and technical abilities of the creatures - something you’d see them do in the wild if they were still there. Unlike SeaWorld, big ass orcas aren’t beaching themselves in nature and waving to passerby humans, that’s something SeaWorld is training (often with abuse) to make their whales do. But at Shedd, the Pacific white-sided dolphins are incredible jumpers and do it all of the time as play and performance in their natural and wild habitats, so Shedd works with that. In fact, the training program at Shedd is highly renowned and regarded and uses a philosophy of positive reinforcement. According to the trainers, when an animal makes a mistake or does something it doesn’t usually do, it’s simply ignored, rather than disciplined or rewarded. When the animal does something it should, the behavior is reinforced with food and treats- a reward. You’ve seen this philosophy practiced on Cesar’s “The Dog Whisperer”, to those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about - that’s context.
The Adler Planetarium
After Shedd, I felt bold and ignored my hunger pangs and went straight for the Adler Planetarium - I wouldn’t recommend this, honestly, because Adler requires a good two hours minimum to gather all of its information- it’s a lot. And after 2.5 hours at Shedd, I should have known Adler would have been a bit much, but oh well - you live, you learn.
Anywho, aside from the breakdown of the moon from the stars and so on and so forth, Adler had a consistent dedication to the upcoming total solar eclipse happening this August 21, 2017 that recurred in theme throughout the entire planetarium. What makes this solar eclipse especially special to the folks of Adler is that the sun is specifically traversing the middle of the United States; the last time this occurred over the USA was in 1918, so this is a pretty monumental event. The next time a total eclipse will occur over North America is in 2024, so heads up and plan for this one of 2017. According to the research presented at Adler, a total solar eclipse can be physically experienced on a cosmic scale.
"The wind picks up. Wildlife goes quiet. The temperature drops. The sunlight slowly dims in the middle of the day, bathing the surroundings in an eerie twilight. You feel alive. You feel in awe. You feel a primitive fear. Then: totality. In this moment, there is just you and the Universe.”
A key feature of the planetarium that I highly, highly recommend experiencing is the live-narrated showing of “Destination Solar System”. The show is narrated by an actual astrological researcher and PhD, and gives you an all encompassing experience of our physical spot here in the universe. The showing is depicted in state-of-the-art digital rendering and uses all of the most advanced technologies and softwares to tell “our story”. This was, in my opinion, a big treat.
A special exhibit that may or may not be there when you arrive, as I believe it’s a traveling exhibit, but was definitely my favorite of the entire place, is “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass”. The exhibit tells the story of our human interest to the stars and how we’ve been studying the mysterious skies for thousands of years. But most astonishing is that we’ve been studying the skies without telescopes up until 400 years ago. Throughout the exhibit is an unworldly collection of celestial objects, some blunt, some brutish and some absolutely beautiful. At a particular point of the exhibit I read about star reading during medieval times -
"People traveled for various reasons- to visit holy places, to buy and sell goods at fairs, and to visit friends and relatives. Sundials with a fixed shadow caster tell the correct time at only one latitude. Travelers used special adjustable sundials so that they could tell the time in cities at different latitudes. A Parisian traveling to Rome would have to adjust the angle of his sundial gnomon to match his new latitude. To make this easier, the latitudes for various cities were often given somewhere on the sundial. For instance, this medieval diptych names 18 European cities with the correct adjustment for each. It is also portable enough to be slipped into a saddle bag.”
Other exhibits include “Mission Moon” which is dedicated to America’s first steps to the moon, and “The Universe: A Walk Through Space and Time”, which explores how our universe evolved over 13.7 billion years. Coolest part about the latter exhibit in particular is that it displays the research of a female astronomer, Dr. Walkowicz, in an interactive display. I’ve just come to that chapter in my life where I understand what womanhood is in this world, and when I see there are women who excel in what is considered to be "a male-dominated discipline", it just fills me with power and further grows my born ambition. I love it!
The Dearborn Tavern
After Adler, I went for some grub at The Dearborn Tavern. People- I cannot explain it with words- this place was just … OMAGAWD! It is so, so rare to come upon a restaurant that has it all these days and furthermore, won’t burn a gaping hole in your pocket, but this place, The Dearborn Tavern, ohhh, you bet your bottom dollar, it has it all. Not only is the exterior and interior totally idyllic of 1950’s Chicago with a hint of modern flavor, but the folks serving you are dressed in men’s vintage inspired costume! From vintage vests to pinstriped button-ups, and sleeve garters to boot, The Dearborn Tavern treated me to a most delicious meal served catty-corner to the famous Chicago Theater and about which I’m still dreaming. If you find yourself there, I highly recommend the shrimp and octopus ceviche made with fennel, avocado, cilantro, and coriander-lime vinaigrette. Another dish is their ancient grains & asian greens salad made with bulgar, barley, freekeh, faro, watercress, daikon sprouts, snap peas, broccoli, feta and a most fresh shiso dressing and I don’t even know nor care what the hell that is! I also asked for a grilled chicken breast for extra protein, which was heavenly moist. Ok, enough already… VISIT THIS PLACE! P.s. I got all of this healthiness for less than 30 bucks!
Field Natural History Museum
So, with a belly full of greens and barley - ok, gross, sorry… I finally had the energy to make it to my last stop for the day in Museum Campus - my cherished Field Natural History Museum. I loved this place. It was there I met Sue, who is the largest, most-complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found! I marveled at her size and the fact that she’s 90 percent complete! Our world is too much, I’m tellin’ you!
I can’t even begin to list the copious exhibits that colored this architectural marvel throughout all of its three floors, but I can tell you it was something special and I learned so much I felt sorry that I couldn’t make it to absolutely everything and I regretted that I didn’t dedicate an entire day of my trip to exploring its innards. I guess that means I’m due for another visit, eh?
Some of the coolest facts I learned at Field include the following:
In its “Evolving Planet” exhibit, I learned that Chicago sits on an ancient reef. The earth is slowly, but constantly changing. Around 420 million years ago, shallow seas covered much of North America, and a gigantic reef thrived where Chicago is now.
In its “Ronald and Christina Gidwitz Hall of Birds”, I learned that human vanity almost erased egrets. In the late 1800’s, bird plumes were in great demand for hats and dresses. To get egret plumes, hunters invaded nesting colonies, killing up to 3 million birds a year. Efforts by early conservation groups halted the trade by the 1930’s.;
In the “Tsavo Lions” exhibit, I learned of the story of two man-eating lions who became famous for hunting and attacking railroad workers in Kenya in 1898. When the lions were eventually shot and killed, they were autopsied and found to have consumed about 35 humans, which was a steep decline from the alleged 135 people, claimed by witnesses. The Tsavo lions are considered a natural phenomenon and are studied to this day for their very unusual behavior.;
In the “Underground Adventure” exhibit, I was shrunk to the size of a bug, in other words, to 1/100th of my actual size, smaller than a penny, and explored the interactive world of bugs underground. An incredibly cool feature of this exhibit was the snapping earwig that was guarding its babies. So gross and yet so incredibly cool!;
Not to mention, much of the taxidermy presented are collections that have been circulating throughout the Field Museum since the historic Chicago Wold's Fair of 1893. To me, that was an absolute treat!
Chicago History Museum
Then I was off to the Chicago History Museum, which would become my most favorite museum in all of Chicagoland. I knew so much about the history within its confines already, but it was something entirely different when experienced with interactive displays - all which I could enjoy more intimately on account there were far fewer people attending this museum than what I had experienced throughout most of the day at Museum Campus.
Located way up on the Northside of the city, and which took a good 40 minute bus commute to get to, was this fantastic place- the Chicago History Museum. In celebration of July 4th, the museum was admitting residents for free, but on account I was a rare non-resident visiting that beautiful and low-key Monday, the museum folks decided to also admit me for free. Off to a good start, I made my way to the facility's first room dedicated to the overview of Chicago history and where I became lost in a world of 1930’s dioramas. They were painted with such detail, and the figurines were so lifelike, I thought I was experiencing the history of that era firsthand.
"The Chicago History Museum first displayed them in 1932 to show how Chicago grew from a few buildings on the shore of Lake Michigan into one of America’s more important cities. At the time, dioramas were considered a new exhibit technique, borrowed from natural history museums. The dioramas show key people, events and places from Chicago’s early years. No other Chicago History Museum artifacts have been on display in that building longer than the dioramas."
Throughout the facility's three floors were some of my favorite exhibits to date:
"Lincoln's Chicago" where I learned about what Lincoln did during his many visits to the city and how after his assassination, his tributary parade and corpse in casket traveled to Chicago for a final viewing by the people who loved and supported him. The viewing took place in 1865 at the City Hall Courthouse on May 1. Lincoln was brought to Chicago by train just two weeks after his assassination. An estimated 120,000 people viewed his body at the courthouse over the next day and a half. That same courthouse also had a bell in its bell tower that sounded the alarm of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 until the building itself was destroyed.;
"Vivian Maier's Chicago" where I learned about my favorite street photographer's urban adventures during which she captured the likes of 1920's thugs fighting at bars during midnight and the idyllic snowy parks blistered with intercity homelessness during Chicago's frightful winters;
"Facing Freedom in America" where I learned about the First March on Washington in the early 1940's. The movement protested discrimination in government hiring practices and segregation in the armed forces and was organized by Asa Philip Randolph, who was a Civil Rights Movement leader. He called off the proposed march after Franklin D. Roosevelt banned discrimination in government hiring and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Two decades later, avtivists returned to Randolph's vision marching for jobs and freedom in Washington, D.C. in 1963.;
"Chicago: Crossroads of America" where I learned that Chicago, formerly known as Checagou, was the home of Native Americans for about 10,000 years; long before any European explorers arrived. "When the European explorers eventually did make their way to what would become Illinois, they discovered that several Indian groups were moving through or living in the Chicago region, including the Miami, Illinois, Ottawa, and Potawtomi. Many of these tribes intermarried and inhabited the same territory; they called it "Checagou" - the Miami and Illinois word for the wild onion plant that grew in the marshes along the lake. The native peoples were part of a vast trading network that extended from Canada to the Gulf Coast and the West. Even after European explorers and settlers arrived, American Indians still played an important role in the development of the region, both in cooperation and conflict with newcomers. The influence of American Indians can still be seen in Chicago today." For example, Chicago has many diagonal streets. Many of these roads, such as Clark St. on which the museum resides, were originally Indian trails, well-worn by centuries of use by native travelers.
I also read about the Union Stock Yard which made Chicago the meat capital of America.
"A 160-acre complex, the Union Stock Yard, supplied nearly 50 meatpacking plants around its perimeter. A feat of engineering that opened on Christmas Day 1865, the stockyards could house over 100,000 animals in more than 2,000 pens, all adjacent to Chicago's rail lines. Rail access to livestock and far-flung markets enabled the stockyards to flourish for decades. After World War II, however, the stockyards became obsolete. The growth of interstate trucking stimulated the decentralization of the meat industry. After handling more than a billion animals, the Union Stock Yard closed its gate in August 1971." A fantastic book that tells all bout the Union Stock Yard and from the perspective of a Lithuanian immigrant with his hope in the "American Dream", is Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".
I highly recommend.
Another bit of history I learned, regarded the first Ferris wheel.
"Chicago's World Fair designers wanted to feature something new at the fair to rival the spectacular Eiffel Tower, the icon of the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. George Ferris, inspired by the bicycle wheel, invented the 264-foot tall Ferris wheel with 36 passenger cars, each holding 60 people. The Ferris wheel at the Midway offered awesome views and helped cement Chicago's reputation as an innovative and imaginative city. The twenty-minute ride of the Ferris wheel cost 50 cents; as much as admission to the entire fair."
And, in particular, there was this small bit of the exhibit dedicated to the Chicago flag. In 1917, Chicago had a two-star flag. The red stars represent the Great Fire and the 1893 World's Fair. The two blue stripes signify the north and south branches of the Chicago River, and from top to bottom, the white stripes represent Chicago's North, West, and South Sides. In 1933, the city added a third star that would continue the tradition of only representing the city's most formidable events - the third star signifies the grand Century of Progress International Exposition of 1933-1934. In 1939, the city added yet another star, this time to commemorate the massacre of Fort Dearborn (an edifice that no longer exists). But an interesting concept of the Chicago flag is that its original designer, Wallace Rice, left plenty of room for the city to add more stars, if ever there be another "formidable event". And so, Chicagoans have considered adding a fifth star for the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series in 2016 after a 108-year wait (btw, the city dyed the Chicago River blue on this winning day), or for the discovery of Chicago in 1673 by Joliet and Marquette, or for the beginning of the atomic age at Stagg Field. Nothing has been decided... yet.;
"The Secret Lives of Objects" where I learned of the precious and often obscure lives of some of the most insignificant objects I ever laid eyes on... like scraps of paper that somehow determined the fate of the nation and once belonged in the journal of King Henry IV, or a sliver of metal that once was part of a larger door hinge of Mrs. O'Leary's farm that housed the suspect cow who knocked a kerosine lantern to the ground and caused the Great Chicago Fire in which 300 Chicagoans would die and from which 100,000 became homeless.;
and "Making Mainbocher", which was probably a most special exhibit to me because I enjoyed it with a most amusing epiphany. In 2016 I made a great friend who has since become a most valued mentor to me. At a banquet for work, she was wearing a lovely black gown with a unique neckline I wasn't sure to forget. Of course, I approached her and complimented her dress, to which she replied, "Why thank you, it belonged to my mother. It's a Mainbocher." Which, I didn't know what or who the hell that was, but I faked it and said something like, "oh, how nice." Well, on this very trip to Chicago and at the museum I fell in love with, I saw this gown again, but this time in the sketchbook of one of America's most famous designers- Mainbocher! I texted my friend with a photo of the sketch asking if I had indeed made the connection and lo and behold, I did! How strange this world! During the 1930's, Mainbocher Couture had introduced many new styles, including the strapless gown, sleeveless cocktail dress and cinched waist. But even more, I learned that Mainbocher also donated his time to the United States Navy and in 1942 designed a complete line of uniforms for its new women's auxiliary. He used textiles such as navy blue worsted wool paired with a blue cotton blouse.
And then the day was complete. My feet aching, my heart inspired, and my mind spinning with questions, I finished the day with a solo ride back to my hostel. Museum day was probably one of the best days and it reminds me how much I love history. Our world has been designed by such miraculous beings, after all.
Oh yeah, the city sells a City Pass for about 100 dollars which gets you into five of the most favorite and famous museums and tours of Chicagoland (which can all price individually at a much higher fee than $100). But another reason for the City Pass is it guarantees to expedite your wait time in lines, which turned out to be a lie… trust me. I had to wait in line with everyone else. So, the bang is in the bucks you save with the City Pass, not with your time.
Chicago Skydeck 360 & John Hancock Observatory
I also paid a visit to the Chicago Skydeck 360 at the former Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower, but Chicagoans still call it the Sears Tower), and the John Hancock Observatory. These are some of my most favorite shots to and there. P.s. The John Hancock building displays the Skystone Time Capsule, which was raised to the 100th story summit of John Hancock Center on May 6, 1968 - the day the building's steelwork was complete. Sealed inside were a number of artifacts, important to the building and the city when the John Hancock Center took its place in the Chicago skyline. Among the items enclosed within were:
A congratulatory letter from (then) Chicago Mayor, Richard J. Daley, to the President (at the time) of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, owner-developer of the Skyscraper;
A triangular section of the Eiffel Tower;
An official insignia of the Chicago Bears football team;
A baseball signed by the 1968 Chicago Cubs;
And a personal space suit insignia carried by Chicago-born astronaut Eugene A. Cernan on his 1966 orbital flight and "space walk".
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