Chicago

 Whenever we go to Chicago, we know that we are going to get the royal treatment from Chuck and Florence Burton.  It was beastly hot in Illinois too and Chuck had arranged two water-based excursions.  On Saturday morning we drove in to Chicago to take the architectural tour by river.  We did this once before during Andrew and Julia's wedding.  The weather was perfect and our docent extremely knowledgeable.  This is the Trump Tower (which wasn't completed the last time).











333 Wacker Drive is an iconic building.  It's located at the widest point of the river and curves and reflects the other buildings.  The green glass echoes the color of the river.










This building is the headquarters for Boeing.  Boeing decided to locate its headquarters in Chicago (although its manufacturing and engineering remained in Washington) because all of the senior executives had season tickets to the Lyric Opera and were constantly flying to Chicago.  So, they bought this building and relocated.  The smaller building in front is interesting because the narrow space between it and the red building has a railway line.  The building has sunken posts on the right side and the cantelevered roof is supporting the left side of the building.









The iconic Chicago skyline from out near Lake Michigan and the lock on the Chicago River.  In the past (1890's) many people in Chicago got water-borne illnesses because they were drinking the polluted water from the Chicago River which dumped into Lake Michigan.  To reverse the flow of the river, a deep canal was dug to draw the water towards the Calumet so that Chicago's water source in Lake Michigan would remain clean.







 On Sunday we drove up to Lake Geneva for another boat tour.  Lake Geneva was the source for Chicago's ice and in 1870 a railroad spur was built out to the lake.  After the great fire of 1871, many of the Chicago millionaires sent their families out to live there.  They quickly decided they liked the place and twenty of them bought up the entire lake.  They built huge mansions, a few of which still remain.  This is one of them.




The original boats on the lake were steam ships like this, which, among other things, delivered the mail.   The original mansions and their property has been subdivided and newer mansions put up.  What often happens is someone buys a huge house, demolishes it, builds their dream house which lasts until it is sold and demolished.  It's definitely how the 1% lives.






 This house, Stone House, was built at the turn of the last century as a wedding gift for a daughter.  It has five floors (each 11,000 square feet).  She didn't like it much.  It has gone through numerous owners and has sat vacant for decades, but has now been converted into 5 condos.  There is a pool on the right roof.








 For dinner Florence took us to this octagonal house, built at the turn of the last century, which serves fish boil (a Dore County, Wisconsin specialty).  The fish (cod) is cooked in huge kettles of boiling water over a wood fire.  First potatoes and onions are cooked in the water and then the fish is added.  The meals are simple - fish, potatoes, onions, coleslaw, rye bread and apple square for desert.  You can add BBQ chicken or ribs.  The fish and potatoes are covered with melted butter.  It is really delicious.



We left Monday morning for Saugatuck, Paris Cottage, and Carolyn and Paul Jarvis.  Here's Sopie their dog.