Highlights of Chicago

The buildings in the foreground of this photograph stand along Michigan Ave, which did indeed once run beside Lake Michigan.   Despite many efforts by commercial interests to cut it up, Grant Park now stands along the lakeshore, protected by the protests of the people of Chicago under the leadership of public figures like department store magnate Montgomery Ward.   Just as Central Park in New York acts as the lungs of that city, so does Grant Park provide a welcome green carpet next to the blue lake.   Nevertheless, the skyline with its tall buildings is magnificent, quite appropriate for a place which is often considered the birthplace of the skyscraper, epitomized by the large black Sears Tower, tallest building in the United States.

No-one has ever figured out whether this is meant to be an angel, a horse or a woman, and the artist didn't give a title to his work, so Chicagoans just know this statue outside the Daley Center as "The Picasso".  Regardless of what it is, children love to slide down its sloping metal base.

Artwork like this one inspired a whole wave of statuary which gives the city a great deal of character, an effect which was strengthened by a local ordinance passed in 1978 which required developers to spend a certain percentage of their budget on such public displays.

A few of the other famous works include the 39 foot high Miro statue, which is almost directly opposite the Picasso, a very large glass and stone mosaic by Marc Chagall called "The Four Seasons", and a huge red steel girder creation called "Flamingo", visible below and right of the center of the previous aerial photo of Chicago.

Chicago is a real feast for those who love architecture.   As well as being home to many of the world's first skyscrapers, there are also smaller but still significant structures designed by world-famous architects like Frank Lloyd-Wright whose houses, including his own home and studio, can be visited.   In addition to the huge and awesome structures like the John Hancock center and the Sears Tower, still high up the list of the world's tallest buildings, there are many other interesting and attractive buildings like the James R. Thompson Center, shown here.

On State Street, that great street, this old gentleman ensures that the large clock outside Marshall Fields department store keeps good time, regardless of what sun, rain or snow can throw at him.   Like many of America's great department stores like Sears and Montgomery Ward, old Marshall Fields' glory days are gone, but it's still interesting to walk through and see the costly and elaborate displays during holiday seasons like Christmas - just watch out for icicles falling from the skyscrapers, which kill or seriously injure people every year!

Sue the Tyrannosaurus has plenty of room to wander around inside the cavernous spaces of the Field Museum, the third member of the Museum campus.   Sue is the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered, and the cause of a considerable amount of controversy - found in 1990 in South Dakota, the legal battle for ownership took five years to resolve and it wasn't until 1997 that the Field Museum made the winning auction bid of $8.4 million and brought Sue to Chicago.   Now she gets to stare all day at the delicious but unsuspecting morsels who turn their back on her, while she enjoys the company of Egyptian mummies, Maya artifacts, stuffed animals and meteorites.

Heading north from downtown Chicago we come to the Baha'i temple at Wilmette, which is easily reached by car or the El ("elevated railway", an extremely ugly but functional system, and as much part of Chicago as Navy Pier or the Sears Tower).

Of the seven Baha'i temples around the world, this one and the one in New Delhi, India, are two of the most attractive.   In 2003 the Wilmette temple had its fiftieth anniversary, and at the time I photographed it there was restoration work being done outside, to fix up the damage caused by Chicago's tropical summers and arctic winters.

Lake Michigan is a major feature of Chicago, and something which adds significantly to its appeal, not just by its appearance, but also by the cooling effect it has on the city during summer.   The often mushy "lake effect" snow it causes in winter is somewhat less appealing.

Even after four years of living in Chicagoland, I still have trouble imagining such a large body of water being fresh, and it took me a long time to come to terms with the idea of long sandy beaches in the heart of the continent.

Fortunately I had the help of the Evanston department of recreation to preserve me from any actual enjoyment of these prodigies of nature while I lived under their control.   It's no wonder that I came to think of them as the Evanston department for the prevention of recreation; nor is it surprising that the first edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Chicago has a photograph of seven separate warning signs at the entrance to one Evanston beach.

It's quite beyond me why they would imagine that anyone would even want to sunbathe on a snow-frosted beach, let alone wade or swim in a lake filled with icebergs.