After a morning learning about Lincoln at the $90 million Abraham Lincoln Presidential museum (boy do they LOVE Lincoln), we headed to Chicago on Sunday afternoon. We arrived in the pouring rain, wind on Monday morning, snow Monday lunchtime and by Monday afternoon it was brilliantly sunny.
Chicago in all seasons is a cool city. We were lucky enough to be staying on North Lake Shore Drive (courtesy of my friend Anu) right on the shore of Lake Michigan not too far from Oprah's Chicago pad.
We walked the city, went up the John Hancock Tower (94 stories) for city and lake views and spent time at the Art Institute. It has a massive collection of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The number of works by Cézanne, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Seurat (A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is here), Manet and Monet that are here must enrage the French! Quite something to see.
On Monday night we were shown some of the city by new locals, Anu and Travis. We started with some very special cocktails at a 1920's-inspired speakeasy, The Violet Hour (http://www.theviolethour.com/). Then several (it was too good to stop!) rounds of sushi, sashimi and tempura.
A great city. Offers a lot of what you find in NYC but with less people, traffic and general bustle. And without the magic of NYC that's hard to put your finger on.
Can you spot us in the pic?
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