February 13, 2010

Leaving Chicago.

I stop to memorialize the botanical arrangements in the hotel's 2 lobbies:

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Pic #1: 7th floor. Pic #2: ground floor.

Looking up from street level at the building we still call the Sears Tower, which was visible — from the 39th floor — along the right edge of the second picture in The Chicago Breakfast CafĂ©:

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Meade took the wheel of the TT, and I tried taking pictures from the passenger seat. Unlike that time we drove home at night in the rain after the Dylan concert, the blur of movement didn't work too well. I had to wait for red lights, and I liked this one, with that onion dome:

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ADDED: I'm not going to "still" call that the Sears Tower, since that was never the Sears Tower. That's the John Hancock Center — as several commenters, including, here, Jessica, have let me know.

32 comments:

traditionalguy said...

Chicago is a beautiful place. I mean that. A well ordered town is a wonder of man's ability to live together successfully. Not that there is any thing wrong with the countryside and the real people enjoying their life there. Have you seen A History of Violence? It is a well made film contrasting the Philadelphia scene with an Indiana town's neighborliness.

Jessica said...

I think that's the Hancock tower you have pictures of here.

Issob Morocco said...

Jessica, you are correct.

kimsch said...

Yes, that's the Hancock with the white Water Tower Place next to it.

The "X"s really give it away.

wv: inglo

former law student said...

The onion dome belongs to the former Medinah Temple, now occupied by Nordstrom's.

After a trip to Chicago, a foreigner friend of mine became convinced that this former AAOMS temple was actually a remnant of a century-old Muslim movement.

And, in a sense, it is.

kimsch said...

The building with the onion dome is the old Medina Temple (the guys with the fez's riding the little "flying carpets" in the parades). It houses Bloomingdale's and other stores now.

Your car was on Ontario.

Wince said...

Wir sind alle Chicagoans, for now.

Ann Althouse said...

@traditionalguy I have seen — and blogged "A History of Violence."

AG said...

Hold on. You live in Madison and you think that's the Sears Tower? Come on, Althouse! That's the Hancock! The Sears is at the South end of the Loop. That's cool. You should go up to the top of the Hancock and have a drink. There's a bar up there.

kimsch said...

FLS, I looked it up, it's Bloomies, their home store.

wv: aniumphe a different kind of triumphe?

former law student said...

it's Bloomies, their home store.

My memory failed. I was too cocky to verify it.

"Alex, I'll take stores I'll never buy furniture in for $400, please."

Ann Althouse said...

Sorry for not responding to the correction earlier, but I think of "the Hancock Tower" as meaning that place that is actually called that in Boston. I do acknowledge now that this is the John Hancock Center and not the Sears Tower.

kimsch said...

FLS, that's okay, we drive by every time we go downtown (it's the way out of town - to 90/94) so I see it's Bloomies. I had to go look it up because you actually had me doubting my own memory.... :)

wv: sabig - what one says to a baby while holding their arms out after doing pattycakes.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"the Hancock Tower" as meaning that place that is actually called that in Boston.

Calm down Lem.. Boston does exist in a realm other than baseball.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Until I looked it up I was getting A History of Violence and The End of Violence mixed up.

Luckily I have seen them both..

former law student said...

Boston does exist in a realm other than baseball.


Boston is a place where they drink tawnic and travel to Noo Yuk. The locals go to Chinese restaurants to eat Peking Ravioli, and they take their infants to the art museums. Riding the T I thought this must be what the Tokyo subways are like: we were packed as tightly as asparagus spears in a jar; all that was missing was uniformed, gloved pushers outside the car.

traditionalguy said...

Professor...Thanks for the review cite. That review was long before I found your blog and started to raise my game of intelligent interaction with help from a mind like yours. I really liked the raw human interactions of lower violent protective instincts shown in the film...man to wife... father to teenage son...teenage good student to a school bully...Powerful big brother to hated little brother that had once loved him ... an Indiana community to its local residents...The big city politically corrupt guys to the forbidden drop outs...and small children to the half crazy adults that surround them.

Penny said...

OK, well I read Althouse's comment here:

"Sorry for not responding to the correction earlier, but I think of "the Hancock Tower" as meaning that place that is actually called that in Boston. I do acknowledge now that this is the John Hancock Center and not the Sears Tower."

And it had me scurrying back to a comment that Bruce Hayden left yesterday in the post about dating lawyers.

"Why not date a lawyer? They are weird, almost as weird as doctors. They don't think like other people. You want a commitment for something? They are trained not to commit, by seeing all the ramifications. Being professionally paranoid is not always useful in relationships. Anal compulsive? Goes with the job. That means that sometimes that lawyer needlessly delves into the smallest details. Perfectionists? Many lawyers have to have everything just right. And you have no idea what it means to be literal, until you deal with lawyers on a personal basis."

Love you, Althouse, but this made me laugh.

Irene said...

I sleep in on Saturdays. I *really* sleep in: I don't get up until 10:30 or later. I'm still in my robe when I check to see the posts I've missed since morning. Seeing this wrap up of your visit to my old home town made this sunny day even brighter!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Boston is a place where they drink tawnic and travel to Noo Yuk.

As long as you don't trash Quincy Market and Fenway Park .. i don't care.

Quincy Market was my first school trip ever.. i have fun memories of that.

A Tropper comment in 4, 3, 2, 1

Unknown said...

Nice still lifes (lives?). That you could get pictures like that without Meade herding everybody out of the shot (or did he?) speaks well for your persistence (having tried to do the same thing once or twice myself).

ricpic said...

Wow, judging from the flower arrangements and the wainscoting and the marble floors that's one pricey hotel. One of these days I'm gonna graduate from Days Inn...one of these days.

Meade said...

All I can say is The Lady enjoys her comfort and appreciates every last count of thread count.

Oh, and petals... pistils... and stamina.

jag said...

Years ago, I was in Chicagoland for a conference and coaxed a fellow attendee downtown to see the John Hancock building (my favorite skyscraper).

When he found out we had to pay to go up to the observation floor, he balked. "No view is worth $5," he said. "I'll treat," I said. "No, it's not worth it."

True story.

MamaM said...

"Oh, and petals... pistils... and stamina."

I'd add sap and sunshine to the list: two essential ingredients which quietly work to enhance inner and outer growth and life.

In the simple definition below, I like the last line the best.

"Sap serves as the blood of a tree because it circulates inside a tree, carrying nutrients and water throughout the tree. The sap is basically a nutrient transport system inside the tree; a tree would die if sap didn't circulate inside it. Sap is also a nutritious food eaten by many forest creatures such as squirrels. Tree sap not only benefits the tree, but it also people. Tree sap is extracted and used to make maple syrup, latex, resins, hair removal and other products. Tree sap is sometimes added to natural soaps and bath care products due to its nutrient contents.. The sap also helps to hold things together."

from www.gardeningknowhow.com

May your relationship together continue to grow and bless.

vnjagvet said...

The Four Seasons Chicago is a truly beautiful establishment. I don't know how much its condominiums go for, but I can attest that the hotel is worth every buck I spent there. My wife and daughter loved the place so much we stayed one more night. Fortunately, I was saved another night when the weather turned bad. Otherwise, I might have gone broke.

Penny said...

"All I can say is The Lady enjoys her comfort and appreciates every last count of thread count.

Oh, and petals... pistils... and stamina."

This made me smile, Meade. Ladies are like that, you know. Especially the ones that come with a capital "L".

Ralph L said...

I *really* sleep in: I don't get up until 10:30 or later
Hopeless amateur.

JAL said...

I love amaryllis. (What would the plural be?)

Every year at Christmas I give one to all the other ladies in our family. They are absolutely stunning when they get growing, and sometimes we stick a ruler next to the stem so we can watch it grow.

The flowers are magnificent.

Irene said...

An Amaryllis always makes me think of Ron Howard in The Music Man.

Amawilisth.

Penny said...

Ralph? Too true! ha ha

Now roll over, honey. And "hush".

Irene said...

Ralph's observation made me *blush.*