37. MILLENNIUM PARK

Chicago, Illinois

4/8/2010

With my spring break coming to a close it was time to take another trip. This time, we decided to focus our attention on one city: Chicago. The six and a half hour drive was a pleasant one and I made sure to make Quantum Leap sound effects as we entered the central time zone.

Around 3 o’clock we reached Millennium Park – the newest addition to the Lake Michigan-bordering Grant Park. Since we were going to be doing a lot of walking this evening we were a little worried about the drizzly weather, but it wasn’t too bad. Millennium Park, as the name suggests, has kind of a sci-fi design. The centerpiece is a public-art piece called Cloud Gate – a huge, mirrored sculpture. Its nickname (to the chagrin of its designer) is “The Bean” – which gives you kind of an idea of what it looks like. Daniel is in his “obsessed with mirrors” phase, so this gigantic funhouse mirror was very exciting for him. Although I had seen pictures of the sculpture in advance, they don’t really do it justice. It really is expertly designed, as it reflects the entire Chicago-skyline in different ways depending on the point of view of the observer.

We explored the park for awhile, which has some other public-art pieces. There were some dinosaurs by Chinese artists (knowingly emblazed with “Made in China”) that seemed to be part of a travelling display, so I assume different sculptures are rotated from time to time. We really liked Crown Fountain, which are kind of these gargoyle spoofs. Fifty-foot towers of LED lights display moving human faces. In the “mouths” are spouts where water can spew. Unfortunately, the water wasn’t flowing when we visited, but we got the idea.