Night at the Museum

Deep dish pizza for lunch today! Woohooo. Headed straight for Giordano’s which is like only a short 5 minutes walk away from our hotel. Were told that the pizza would take 25 minutes. Long wait? No problem. Being super fungry will only help us to finish the pizza. Wrong! We only manage to eat half of it. As for the taste, it was good but thin crust is still our choice.

The main itinerary for the day is the Art Institute of Chicago. On our way to the museum, we stop by Millennium Park again. Took more pictures of the Bean and the park. As we were still early for the 5pm free entry, we stop by the ultra crowded and vibrant Crown Fountain. The hot and humid weather makes me wanna dive in and join the kids getting wet in the fountain.

The Art Institute of Chicago huge and really impressive. Their collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art is the most extensive ever. The museum is so huge that it was divided into 3 levels and 3 different wings. I really love the way they arrange the galleries. We did not have to walk through the same exhibit twice to get around the whole place.

So happy to be able to see the original Sunday Afternoon at the Island of La Grande Jatte and Paris Street Rainy Day. Learnt a lot more about Monet, Van Gough and impressionist stuff from my tour guide John.

My tour guide was however, not too interested in the modern art wing. After a short walk around the modern wing, we decided to take a break from our intellectual tour and went across to the Pritzker Pavilion for the free concert. Had a great time enjoying the concert before it started pouring. Armed with my little blue umbrella, we stormed back into the Arts Institute for shelter. On our way back, we saw park security shooooing people away from the Bean for they are concern about lightning incidents. Lol.

I’m glad we resumed our tour of the museum as this time I get to see the American Gothic and Nighthawks. We further explored the American Indians and the Asian Gallery before stumbling upon the very cute and nicely detailed miniature gallery of early American homes.

Our tummy was growling by the time we ended our night at the museum. After a long debate on where to eat, we finally decided to visit the Billy Goat Tavern., famous for its notorious waiter. Poor John was told to get a double cheeseburger when he was about to place our orders. Should have warned him about it. Ooopss. The Tavern is situated below the main street. Down in the basement it really felt like a whole different ghetto.

Our activity for the night is to find the Taj Mahal stone. No, we are not going to India! The Chicago Tribune building has over 200 stones from famous architecture embedded in its façade. It includes the Great Wall, Arc of Triumph, Constantinople, Notre Dame and so on. How interesting!