Chicago Trip May 2013

I am just back from a work trip to Israel. I lectured at a summer school at the Technion in Haifa but before it started I took a few days to be a tourist in Jerusalem. I was getting ready to post some pictures from that trip, but then I realized I had not posted pictures from the trip I made to Chicago in May. This was a trip I made on the train from East Lansing when I was working at MSU. It's an easy trip and a great city to visit.

One of the real attractions is the architecture of the city. I did a boat tour down the river with a guide to the high rise buildings downtown. They really are impressive and quite varied. Since playing minecraft I have more interest (appreciation?) of architecture. Some pictures I took on that trip are shown below.

Below is an outdoor venue (Millenium Park) where I went to a concert one of the evenings I was there. The warm-up band was called Speck Mountain and I quite enjoyed them and later bought their album, Badwater. 

Since views are my thing, I went up the Sears (now Willis) Tower. 

 

Museums are not usually my thing, but everyone had told me I had to see the Art Institute. Having seen the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the British Museum in London it is hard to be impressed. There were quite a few things here that I thought were interesting, mostly the ceramics.

The most interesting art piece for me was this piece by Lee Bontecou. 

Continuing the architectural theme, I did a walking tour through the suburb (Oak Park) that Frank Lloyd Wright began his career in. There are a number of his houses in that area.

The final stop of the tour was a Unitarian Temple he designed in the area.