TULIP TIME

This is the second in a series of articles about seeing tulips and touring the state of Michigan

MORE ABOUT CHICAGO

By Charles N. Stevens

Photos by Dolores Seidman

Leaving the view of Chicago’s skyline, we travel along Lake Shore Drive. Our guide tells us that the Indian word “Chicago” means “smelly onions.” How romantic! We pass the green lawns of Hyde Park, the Museum of Science and Industry and the site of the Columbian Expo of 1893. Those who have read Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City can relate to this site. We roll by the Latin School where president Obama’s children went to school. Nearby is the campus of the University of Chicago, its gray stone buildings looking even grayer on a cloudy morning. One unusual sight there is the library, a huge glass bubble supported by a thin iron framework, the entire library enclosed within it. Enrico Fermi, working at the university laboratories, attained the first sustained nuclear reaction, eventually leading to the success of the Atom Bomb. The university will later be the home of the Obama Library and Foundation.

Back toward the center of Chicago, we pause at Millennium Park, a wonderful venue featuring a concert pavilion with its great lawn where free concerts are given during the season, flower gardens, paths and its most unusual sight, the Cloud Gate. The latter is an unusual raised mirror shaped like a great bean the curvature of which distorts those who look at it. People crowd around it, walking under it or looking at themselves at all angles, everyone enjoying it, laughing with each other. Millennium Park was created out of an industrial wasteland, transforming it into this magnificent space, the Chicago skyscrapers rising nearby. Literally right across the street from it is the green vastness of Grant Park. It is pleasing to see this much open space so close to downtown.

Our next venture is a drive to Oak Park, part of Chicago’s suburbia and famous for Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie style homes as well as the boyhood home of Earnest Hemingway. We walk the street where Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio is located among other fine homes built in his style, mostly brick with a flat roofline and very modern. Many groups walk along the street as there is great interest in the architect and his Japanese-inspired homes. We also see the elementary school that Hemingway once attended. We wonder what he was like as a kid there. Not far from here, through a growth of trees, is the house belonging to President Obama, a secret service car standing nearby.

Back toward the city center we pass the studios where Oprah produced her shows. As of now she has decided to go elsewhere, making many Chicagoans very unhappy. We pause for lunch at a food court high in the Water Tower Place Building. What astounded me as we left the building was the American Girl store, called American Girl Place, on the ground floor with its vast offering of dolls. All races and all types of clothes and costumes are dramatically displayed. Girls can learn about various hairstyles for their dolls or even have the doll’s ears pierced. The dolls and the clothes are very expensive, but the store is bustling with women and young daughters. I had no idea that such a store existed.

Next on our tour is Wrigley Field where the Chicago Cubs play. The field itself was built in 1914 for another team, but the Cubs played their first game there in 1916. It is renowned for its ivy-covered brick outfield wall and its most famous player, Ernie Banks. A statue of Ernie stands near the entrance. But what is amazing to me is that the two or three story houses across from the field had bleacher seats installed on their roofs. You could actually watch a game from somebody’s roof top. I can’t imagine what that would be like, especially in inclement weather.

Soon we are back on Lakeshore Drive viewing many of the elegant homes that have views of the lake. Despite the cold weather, many people are out walking or jogging. We breeze by the campus of Northwestern University at Evanston, beautifully situated at lakeside, but the buildings seem undistinguished. Steven Colbert and Warren Beatty are two of their most famous graduates. Nearby is the Baha’i Building looking much like a giant orange juicer.

Back at our hotel, our heads spinning with all that we had seen, we relax. Still full from lunch, we dine on yogurt and bananas. Tomorrow we are off for Michigan.

People crowd around to see their distorted images in front of the famous Cloud Gate at Millenium Park.

Dolores stands by the Cloud Gate with her distorted image seen above and to the left.

This is a part of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago.

One of the other mansions in Oak Park done in Wright's Prairie Style can be seen.

MONTEREY PARK AUTHOR PUBLISHES 4th BOOK – Seeking More of the Sky: Growing Up in the 1930’s:

Charles “Norm” Stevens, a 43 year resident of Monterey Park has recently published his 4^th book: Seeking More of the Sky: Growing Up in the 1930’s. This is the story of a young boy growing up in Inglewood, California in the l930’s. This was a time during the depression when unemployment was affecting many and the banks were closed, while the clouds of war were gathering in Europe. But he was lucky enough to be raised in a loving family, the power of that love reflected throughout his stories.

Stevens is the author of three previous books about his experiences during WWII:

An Innocent at Polebrook: A Memoir of an 8th Air Force Bombardier (Story of his 34 bombing missions from his base at Polebrook, England over Germany and France)

The Innocent Cadet: Becoming A World War II Bombardier (A prequel to the first, telling of his training in the U.S. before going overseas into combat.)

Back from Combat: A WWII Bombardier Faces His Military Future from Combat: (This book details the time from when he returned from combat in England until the end of the war.)

He is known to the readers of The Citizen’s Voice as the author of Travel Log Articles including “Cruising the Rhine and Mosel”,” Best of the West”, “In Search of Snow” ,  “From Paris to Normandy on the Seine”, and “Exploring New York”.  He is retired, having taught for 32 years, primarily in the Montebello Unified School District.

Those interested in purchasing an autographed copy of any of his books, may contact the author at 323-721-8230 or  Normstevens24@gmail.com.