Doors For the Curious

I'm drawn to doors and doorways.  They are portals to the unknown.

St. Peter's on Madison Street, Chicago

Who knows what lies beyond?  What secrets waiting to be discovered?

Doors come in all shapes and sizes but in Chicago they are passageways meant for streams of people who have places to go and things to do.

Field Building entrance

In the city a doorway is the where the architect makes their first impression, luring you in with a hint of what treasures may exist just out of sight.

105 Madison Street, Art Deco elements above the door

Quite a few of the real "lookers" in the Loop were built in the late 1920's and are Art Deco delights.  The entrance at 333 N. Michigan Avenue sparkles like new after the millions of dollars the Wirtz family of Blackhawks fame has poured into the renovation.

Much to see at the entrance to 333 N Michigan Avenue

The sun came out for a few minutes on Michigan Avenue, maybe to light up the beautiful Wrigley Building and its beckoning bronze portals.  Can you believe this luxurious office building was built for a chewing gum magnate?  What's inside? The first building in Chicago with air conditioning houses many things including the local Walgreen's, but a no photography policy was strictly enforced unfortunately.

Wrigley Building bronze doorway

Just down the street was the Old Republic Building, a 24 story skyscraper built in 1924 which oozed Classic Revival charm.

Further down Michigan Avenue sits Willoughby Tower, with its Gothic arches and Medieval appearance.  Built in 1929 it replaced the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts where Walt Disney took evening cartooning classes.

I didn't get a chance to go poke my head inside most of these doors and satisfy my curiosity, just not enough time in the day as usual.  Some I didn't need to, like this stunning door that led to... H&R Block.  Kind of a letdown.

Or how about this one swaddled in cast iron?  What dark dreams lurk beyond its doors?

It's one of the doorways to the old Carson Pirie Scott Building (also known as the Sullivan Center) and now contains Target of all things.  Next time I'm in town I'll have to poke my head inside and see if any of the old glamour remains.

I'm sure there is a lot of glamour behind the row of doors under the entryway to the Civic Opera House, but I have a feeling I can't open those doors and satisfy my curiosity for free!

The Streets of Chicago

I know this is hard to believe, but except for going to the office 3 days a week I've barely left the house since before Christmas.  When I met Katrina in Waukesha the other day I told myself I had to get over my aversion to winter weather.  The forecast for yesterday might have only been in the low 20's, but our normal windy conditions were absent so I decided to take the train in to Chicago for the first time in almost a decade.

Twenty minutes to the Fox Lake station and then an hour and a half on the Metra which went quickly thanks to the wonders of Kindle.  Once I arrived at Union Station I opted to walk instead of catching the bus.

The Berghoff has been open since 1898 - one of the few neon signs in the Loop

Milwaukee is great, but there really isn't anything like Chicago.  Due to the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 that destroyed 18,000 buildings a lot of effort was put in to rebuilding the city in a way that not only was functional but built to last.  And built to impress.

I noticed a lot of lions downtown, jus tkeep looking up, they are everywhere!

But don't forget to look down too.

Not all the cool stuff is on the outside of buildings, lots of them had impressive lobbies filled with large scale public art.

"The Winged Victory of Samothrace" made from
a mold of the original in The Louvre, Paris

 I was tempted by the food trucks, but only ended up picking up a cupcake at one.  Not the greatest cupcake, I should have probably tried the Cajun instead.

 

But if you aren't in to food trucks maybe you can get a coupon from the guy in the cow suit.

Some of the newer architecture is interesting too.

Reflections

And the Chicago Police have a surprising way to beat downtown traffic.

I took 287 pictures, lots of them were duds, some of them held hidden surprises.

Caught 

The one thing that really moved me was the sight of one of the old Marshall Field's clocks.  I mean, 7 3/4 tons of over 100 year old ornamental bronze hanging off the corner of a building is pretty impressive, don't you agree?  It brought back memories of going to the Walnut Room and Christmas shopping at Marshall Field's decades ago...

More to come from my 5 mile walk up and down the streets of Chicago.  Plenty to keep me busy if I get snowed in!

Wintry Fun in Waukesha - Open Live Writer Test

Everyone is always putting the Blogger format down so I thought I’d give OLW a try and see what all the fuss is about.



On Saturday Katrina called me and asked me to come to Waukesha to check out their Janboree Ice Sculpting contest on Main Street.  It didn’t hurt that walking around downtown would give me an opportunity to spy some of Waukesha’s murals also.



I won’t bore you with images of all the ice sculptures, but here were my two favorites.

    

There seemed to be a musical theme going on, most of the sculptures featured instruments, but these two highlighted artists.  On the right is Elvis drinking a cup of coffee in front of the local coffee shop and on the left is good old Major Tom, “floating in a most peculiar way”.  I caught sight of David Bowie in Zoolander on TV this afternoon, such an icon who made a lasting impression on the music world and pop culture.

We also saw some tempting items to purchase at the Almont Art Gallery and the Little Swiss Clock Shop.  The cat eye sculpture could be mine for $129, or perhaps the clock for my kitchen for only $68?

         

 

Someone twisted my arm and made me buy some chocolates in Allo Chocolat instead.

My daughter Katrina loves Rosie the Riveter, between that, the ice sculptures and the chocolate braving the cold worked out pretty well after all.  Better that we went on Saturday than Sunday, the windchill was -27F!  I'm thinking not too many folks out walking around to see the ice sculptures yesterday.

My thoughts on Open Live Writer?  I couldn't figure out how to get videos inserted so I had to publish it up to Blogger as a draft and go into their program anyway.  I also didn't like that there wasn't a preview button. I know there is a white box around photos in Blogger (and that there is a way to get rid of it but I'm too lazy) but all the photos I inserted in OLW have a distracting white bar underneath them which looks worse.  I find Blogger's writer to be more user friendly personally, but I suspect it's all just a matter of what you are used to.

Linking up to Monday Mural.

2015 Year in Review- the Second Half

JULY

In July I thought I'd try to escape the heat and head north, but it turned out that the U.P. is loaded with mosquitoes and stable flies at that time of year. 

hiding from the bugs on Twelvemile Beach

But I did spy some lovely Coralroot on a section of the North Country Trail at Au Sable Light!

A quick trip to nearby Apple River Canyon State Park turned out better, though not much hiking was available the park was quiet and I got to rinse off the summer sweat in the river with the crayfish which was better than the freezing water at Lake Superior for a quick dip!

And it was located near Galena with its historical architecture and gorgeous views in Jo Daviess County along the way.  I'm definitely keeping the area in mind for return visits.

AUGUST

August started off with talk of an unexpected opportunity to get the bathroom remodeled.  I mentioned on the blog when it was finished that I wasn't happy with the price nor with the quality of the work, and further investigation has proved my instincts correct.  When I brought pictures in to the tile shop where some of our supplies were purchased they were stunned at the sloppy craftsmanship and even more so at the price charged.  We were advised to get an inspector to come out and document the mess and to make an attempt to get back the $4500.00 we had already paid, going to small claims court if necessary.  The inspector has come and gone and now I have to confront the contractor. As you might imagine I've been avoiding this...

Happier things occurred in August though, with Wayne and Cory driving the RV to Newfoundland while I journeyed up by plane.  I loved exploring Argentia, where my grandfather was born and where I was born also when it was a U.S. Naval base.  I still have a few more posts to come related to this topic, just have some research to do first.

Grandad's "Backyard"

Visiting with family and being there to see Wayne's mother bring in her 94th birthday was even better.

We also drove across the island, picking berries and seeing Puffins and lighthouses along our way.

Puffins at Elliston

Rose Blanche Lighthouse

picking blueberries on Gros Morne Trail

The bad news was the black flies that attacked me were a total nightmare.  The good news is that the hike on the little used trail where I found them was worth it anyway.

SEPTEMBER

By September we had made it as far as New Brunswick where the Bay of Fundy Tides fascinated us as much as the sights in Fundy National Park.

High tide

 Then it was on to Maine where we visited a few museums, looked up a distant relative, Wayne ate pounds of lobster and we even made it out for a few short walks for views of the ocean.  I left Maine wanting much more, and Wayne even considered a tempting job opportunity.  I know someday we'll spend weeks or months discovering its secrets, but we decided to hang in there and tough it out in Wisconsin for 5 more years first.

Owls Head Light

walking around Islesboro

The state park wasn't to our liking in Vermont, but the little town of Benington was charming, especially its moose population.

OCTOBER

October was much quieter, with local leaf peeping and jack o' lanterns spicing up those IAT hikes.

Fall color at Hartman Creek State Park

meeting Katrina in Delafied after a walk on the Waterville segment 

My favorite month of the year always speeds by too quickly, those bold colors fading fast.

NOVEMBER

When a month starts out with stealth camping and conquering kames at Holy Hill, how could it not be a good one?

Holy Hill kames

Toss in a solo trip down to Tennessee and it was almost easy to forget winter was soon going to arrive and spoil my fun.

hiking with Sharon in the sun on the Old Sugarlands Trail

tub mill at Bud Ogle Place

DECEMBER

December is my quiet month, when travel isn't on the agenda and I can distract myself from the fact that I'm trapped inside due to the weather by preparing for the holidays.

And this year it's when I finally broke down and added some kittens to our family!  More distractions from Wisconsin's inhospitable weather. I think I only hiked outside twice the whole month.

Not a happy hiker

That was my year, looking back on the second half I'm reminded how little time I spent enjoying my husband's company this year because the overtime demands were outrageous.  I hope next year we see more of each other.  We briefly discussed making that trip to Europe that I keep talking about, but decided that since we might only get Wayne on a plane once it would be better to wait those 5 years until retirement to go.  I pointed out that we could haul the RV up to Newfoundland, stay awhile, fly to Europe for 2 months and then come back and stay in Newfoundland until fall starts to arrive.  That just might be our plan...for 2021.

For 2016 plans are still in flux, but one plan is finalized and that is to finally make it to Isle Royale National Park in September!  No long hauls across the country this year, the strain of all that driving and trying to cram a lot in to a little bit of time just takes some of the fun out of it all.  And in a few weeks I'm pretty sure I'm driving down to Red River Gorge in Kentucky to hike with Sharon and meet some bloggers who are currently camp hosting there.  Stay tuned!