31 January

Today started out really well. The room was warm and the bed very comfortable and the alarm woke me (because I had set it) at 7:30. After showering and dressing, I was off about 8.
I walked along Michigan Avenue north until I got to the river – there I really did notice the four buildings, one on each corner, about the same height but in very different styles. While walking along, I found walking in the bare sidewalk okay, the slush okay but occasionally difficult, the tramped snow sometimes difficult, but fresh snow very difficult. I can understand why some shoes have tread patterns deeper than the lugged tyres on four-wheel-drives – that would have made it easy (except then I would have to carry three pairs of shoes). I arrived at the Hancock Building just after 9 – not because it was so far, but because I was looking around. I went straight up ti the observatory there. Unlike the Empire State Building, it was totally glassed in. The temperature was very pleasant, but visibility was only a mile or so. Still, I could see the lake (Lake Michigan) and the general layout of the city and get my bearings. It was well worth it.
When I got down it was starting to snow. One chap was having a cigarette in shirtsleeves. I asked him if he was cold and he said he was from Minnesota. He assumed that I would understand, but I don’t know whether that meant he was from a cold place (and this felt warm) or whether it was like Tasmanians for us and, “where there’s no sense … “ so I’ll have to wait for an explanatory note from someone else.
On the way up I had seen a place called the Tribune Liberty Museum. I went in there and saw a display about the change in rights (and responsibilities) of US citizens and also the pesidential election process. I got my token to vote in their poll, so I have voted for someone who may become the next US president – I’ll find out in November! It also brought me back because there was a school group touring through, and I was trying to understand one student who wanted to ask me questions about Australia, but another had to translate – some have too thick a Chicago accent!
I took my photographs of the buildings and also the Trump Tower, which although still under construction, has tenants in the hotel section already.
I then set out to participate in Bart’s tour. I did the Cultural centre, which is a magnificent building hiding from the public. Not only does it have a lot of information, it has displays and is a sight to see in its own right. I spent a lot of time seeing the displays of art there. Then I thought I had beeter see the Sears Tower. I grabbed a quick lunch in the Richardson Centre (and spoke to some police there and had some questions answered – they do patrol on Segways, but the batteries cut out without warning in cold weather, they get a lot of questions about where the Blues Brothers movie was shot – I got a picture in there, but Jake and Elroy weren’t waiting for the elevator) and made it to the Sears Tower just as total cloud cover set in. I couldn’t resist going up anyway, saw the movie on its making (you don’t have a choice) and got an attendant up there to take a photo of me. I did take one photo, but you can’t see anything but cloud in it. At the foot, while talking to the attendants there (I think I should work freelance for the Australian Tourism Commission), I heard another Aussie and he heard me. As he was spending four days in Chicago, he decided to try later (to see something). He then asked where his hotel was (okay, he knew where it was but he needed to know how to get there) and the attendants told him to get a cab or something, but I had just walked from nearly twice as far away (it was just over a mile). I now know why there are so few pedestrians – they either hop a cab or public transport, or drive, but walking more than a few blocks is anathema to many. Given the snow and cold, I can understand why, but without luggage it isn’t a problem for most of us. I also found out that the sidewalks outside the Sears Building are heated (so there is no snow there), that many buildings and the city employ people to shovel snow off the sidewalks (and into the gutters, so cars grind it up and splash it back over people silly enough to walk!). I saw my first gritter and also a small tractor clearing snow on a plaza area.
After that I went off to the Washington Library. Bart had added this as almost an afterthought, but in fact by the time I had had a quick look through, seen the exhibits on the ninth floor, asked and answered the questions of a security guard there and then dropped in to look at the Talking Books section (where I ended up in conversation with two assistants AND the chief and gave them my email so they could see how they featured in this blog – Hi girls! – and they could see my pictures of Australia), I had run out of time for the day. I will do the Ars Centre and the lobby of the Architecture Building tomorrow, but I must put on record (in case you look) that your map was very useful but the time line was waaaaay out, so thanks, Bart.
I walked back through the snow, with forecasts of feet of snow overnight and tomorrow morning, to my hotel – the walk was shorter than I thought but still long enough. My poor camera got coated with snow because, with so much that I have to keep on me, there isn’t room under my jacket for it.
Some current observations:
public buildings being warm, many people seem to go in for shelter from the cold, but if they weren’t quite so hot, the heating bill would be less, fewer would shelter inside and outside wouldn’t seem so cold.
commercial areas have restricted access to toilets, but in some public buildings, the toilets are unrestricted access and far better maintained.
people look to the pavement rather than in front when walking along not because they are rude or ignorant of others, but to cut out the wind and snow from hitting them in the face and mouth.
most Americans love the feel and look of Australian money and see the sense of having different sizes and colours of notes (bills).
it’s a good job there is a visa waiver program because most Americans would love to visit Australia.
most Americans only know of Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin and have no idea of the size or population of Australia (it’s nearly the same as the continental US, with gaps where Washington state and Texas would be, and around 21 million).
people in Chicago go on merry-go-rounds, not carousels, and what we see on TV as “American” is as accurate as what overseas people think of Australia from Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin or the soaps (Home and Away, and Neighbours).
Hopefully I can get another early night and, after a morning look around the last of “Bart’s Tour” I shall be on the Californian Zephyr before 3 and go through Denver (and miss seeing Velma, my cousin, there, though I have spoken to her and her prospective husband) on my way to San Francisco!