Keeping Busy...It's Fall, Y'all!

Sparky loves fall....It's her favorite season. Not Eldo's,  because he knows winter is coming and he hates it that we have to now spend it in northern Indiana. Spoiler alert! Sparky loves winter, too..She's probably going to see if she can cross country ski this winter. Maybe on the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail! Speaking of the Pumpkinvine, the trail is still pretty green, even for mid October, but it's changing.

We are still waiting to hear about our rig, it should be done any day now. They are waiting on one more part and then they will paint it...So we've kept busy doing a few cool things..Sparky took the architectural boat tour in Chicago. Eldo has a pinched nerve in his back, so he stayed in Elkhart.

Sparky went with her best friend of 40+ years, Jeannie Garrett. We started out from the South Shore Railroad Station at the South Bend Airport. Fare is 7.00 one way for seniors. When we met up, we discovered that we were both wearing black hoodie sweaters! We might as well ave been twins, lol.

The trip is not without hassles, even though it is inexpensive to get to downtown Chicago. Because new and old tracks are being renovated, or rebuilt, or relocated (not sure which) you get off the train in Michigan City, IN, ride a chartered bus to the railroad station in Gary, then hop back on the train the rest of the way to Chicago. The chartered buses (provided by the South Shore) are nice but cramped seating. Seats are plusher than airplane seating, but jammed really close together sideways and front to back. Good thing it's less than an hour ride to get to the train station! Lots of stairs up and down at the railroad stations, just in case anybody with questionable knees wants to know.

We got to Chicago and boarded the boat for a 90 minute tour of the Chicago River architecture. (Fare was 57.00 each. There are several boat tours available on the river and some for a little less. They are all pretty similar but the one sponsored by the Chicago Architectural Society seems to be the most popular.) 

This tour is so amazing, that many locals do it more than one time. You see all the cool architecture from 20 feet down below the street level on a boat by traveling all three branches of the Chicago River. Chicago is home to four different architectural schools and has one of the most diverse and largest collections of skyscrapers in the world. There are many architectural styles and architects reflected in the city's skyline, from Gothic Revival, Brutalism (a 1950's-1960's style that is massive, blocky, has rough surfaces, and uses a lot of concrete) to Post Modern.

Jeannie (the other Jeannie), has been on the tour twice already. That's how great it is, each guide always has a few other stories to tell and she always learns something new on the tour. It was really great! A beautiful day, in the low eighties, the tall skyscrapers give you a little bit of shade now and then, and the wonderful stories of the styles, the buildings and the stories of the architects visions keep you captivated. The Great Chicago Fire was the catalyst for new fire codes and new ideas which brought architects from all over the world to the Windy City. Architects' work from Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Mies van Der Rohe, Jeanne Gang, and many more grace the city's skyline.

You learn a LOT of cool things! Sparky didn't know that because of raw sewage and pollution dumping into the Chicago River, polluting the city's source of drinking water from Lake Michigan, city residents became very ill with typhoid, cholera and other waterborne illnesses. As a result, engineers came up with a plan to reverse the water flow from Lake Michigan BACKWARDS towards the Mississippi River in the early 1900's. On to the buildings!

333 Wacker Drive--Curves on the river side with alternating stripes of blue and green glass--blue for the sky, green for the grass....then the traditional rectangular shape on the street side. This building was featured in the movie, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", where Ferris's dad worked, and the exterior was featured in the movie, "Batwoman".

150 North Riverside--2017--a really interesting building, nicknamed "the pencil".

This skyscraper was built on a site that was only 39 feet wide because of railroad tracks, city easements and Riverwalk requirements. They squeezed a 1.5 million square foot building onto the compact site by starting narrow at the bottom and widening at the top with a massive concrete "spine" that holds the elevator core. Caissons were drilled more than 110 feet below the surface. Vertical metal fins help cool the building. Because of the strong winds that buffet high skyscrapers, there has to be a way to mitigate the wind. Hidden in the upper floors are giant water tanks containing 160,000 gallons of water. The water sloshes around in the opposite direction of the wind which reduces sway.

Marina City Towers-1962--the "Corncob" Towers...There is a second one right beside the first. It's a city within a city...The scalloped balconies give a very distinct look to these residential palaces. When it was built, it was designed to have everything you could possibly want to have within your reach--a theater, swimming pool, bowling alley, ice rink, stores, restaurants, and a private marina that never freezes if you live there and have a boat.

Sears/now the Willis Tower-1973, formerly the tallest tower in the world for about 20 years. The design for the tower came from a package of cigarettes and how they are bundled inside the package. So the building's inner core is based on a bundled tube design.

Sears/Willis Tower on the left

It contains 43,000 miles of telephone cable. (!) Six roof mounted robotic window washing machines clean 16,100 windows. The building is designed to sway up to 3 feet and has the world famous Sky Deck Observation Center, the highest public viewing center in the United States. On a clear day you can see four states.

300 S Wacker Drive--1970's--"You are right here"...at the red rectangle. As you ride along the river, you pass this building that has a 400 foot tall map showing your exact location marked by a red rectangle as you pass by. The red rectangle lights up at night.

The NBC Tower--1989 The Art Deco style with flying buttresses...

NBC Tower

Going under several of Chicago's famous bridges, was almost as cool as seeing the buildings above!

The Aqua Tower--2010 designed by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang. It has the look of terrestrial (land) topography (the natural and physical features of an area). It resembles hills and valleys. Each balcony is designed to maximize the sunlight and views of the surrounding area and mimics limestone formations in the Great Lakes region. It has one of the city's largest "green" roofs with a water efficient irrigation system. Sparky missed taking a photo, so this one is courtesy of the internet.

St. Regis

One of the most beautiful skyscrapers (in Sparky's opinion) was the St Regis Chicago--2020, formerly the Vista. It is 1,198 feet tall, the tallest structure in the world designed by a woman,  Jeanne Gang. It is three towers connected in a step like structure and has 6 different shades of glass. This building set is unique in shape (called a truncated pyramid) and that it has three "blow through" floors of uninhabited space that allow winds to pass through to reduce sway in addition to six water tanks containing 400,000 gallons of water to counteract the movement of the wind.

One of Sparky's favorites was the Tribune Tower. This is a beautiful building that was the result of a contest back in 1922 with a 100,000 dollar prize, to be built in the Gothic Revival style. It has an octagonal tower rising to a crown with a three story arched entryway. The entryway has depictions of Aesop's fables and 150 small remnants of stones and/or materials from buildings around the world that are encased into the concrete walls on the outside of the building. Examples are the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramid, petrified wood from the Redwoods National Park and many more. Home to The Chicago Tribune for many years, it has now been turned into residential condos. The view from the river is the view of the entire building. The closeup is from walking to the Tribune Tower just a short distance away from the boat dock where we disembarked.

Tribune Tower entryway

Once we got off the boat, we decided to walk just a few blocks to the American Girl Doll Store. Jeannie's granddaughters had several dolls as they were growing up, and Jeannie has sewn lots of clothes for them. The store was pretty amazing, if you are an American Girl doll aficionado. They even have a HAIR SALON to style your American Girl doll's hair. They had FIVE stylists ready, willing, and able to help you with your doll's hair.

American Girl dolls, 18", run close to one hundred dollars and more. They represent periods in history for certain models and are well researched and relatable, and so they are VERY popular with little girls. This American Girl doll at left, is a special holiday addition and was selling for over 300.00!

If you have to go to the ladies' room while you are at the doll store, they even provide a special doll hook IN THE STALL for you to hang your doll on while you take care of business. Geesh!

After walking a few city blocks back and forth and having been in the sun all day long, we were tired, so off we headed back to the South Shore train station for our train/bus/train trek home to South Bend and for Sparky, on to Elkhart.

It was a fabulous day, not a cloud in the sky. 

Sparky has seen Chicago many times during her time growing up in the 50's and 60's, traveling by train to downtown from the suburbs, but never had she seen Chicago from the river perspective. With that, she will leave you with this take on Chicago architecture....Looking up at the Tribune Tower.  Bye for now.......