Wednesday, November 12, 2008

12 of 12: Long-Haul November Edition

Welcome to 12 of 12: Long Haul/November Edition! For details on 12 of 12 and other people's entries, check out Chad Darnell's blog.

A little context for people just dropping for 12 of 12: This is day five of an eight-day road trip across the U.S., part of my moving from San Francisco to Washington, DC for a new job. The twelfth just happened to fall on day of rest in Chicago, which is way more exciting than twelve pictures of me going to regular work, don't you think?


8:47 - Up and at 'em! Not early, but I've earned a sleep-in day.




9:40 - My battle wound from last night's crab-leg incident. Those guys are spiky.




10:25 - Adorable Mount Prospect.




10:37 - The Metra train. If you know me and my unnatural love for public transit, you know how exciting this was. Double-decker commuter trains where you can buy your ticket on the train. It's like Switzerland!



11:48 - Visiting the Bean, my new favorite piece of public art. Who doesn't love this? It's such an easy crowd-pleaser. That's Christine and me down there in the lower left.




11:50 - Me, kaleidoscoped on the underside of the Bean. Would that make it the seedy underbelly?




12:30 - The fancy seventh-floor food court at Macy's, aka The Artist Formerly Known as Marshall Fields. My poor road-food-saturated self was so happy to see the greens and goat-cheese salad I ate.




2:54 - American Gothic. I once saw this sculpted life-size in butter at the Iowa State Fair, though the real thing is almost as cool. Christine tells me I need to work on my "disapproving" face. Apparently I look like I'm going to spit out something disgusting.




5:20 - Giordano's for Chicago-style pizza, with checkered tablecloths and everything. It was delicious, though it appears that Zachary's is a pretty good imitation. So that's a relief.



6:34 - The bridges in Chicago make me feel like I'm in High Fidelity, even at night.



7:02 - We missed the train back to Mount Prospect and had to console ourselves with cinnamon cream cake. Oops.



8:45 - This should be called Portrait of the Easiest Houseguests Ever. Give us our laptops, and we're low-maintenance.


Good day. Nice to meet you, Chicago. Let's do this again some day?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the Bean already! But I agree you aren't very good at "disapproving." Perhaps you should imagine they've been omitting the Oxford comma?

You look so happy and relaxed in your wake-up picture! And Christine looks happy and relaxed too.

Lauren said...

High Fidelity should always take place in London. Always, always. Even if the film does have John Cusack in it. : )

Xerxes said...

Oh there we go with the Oxford comma again!

My in-laws live in Mount Prospect, if you wander back to the area again check out down town Arlington Heights (just north of MP).

I think my favorite paintings at the Art Inst. are Hopper's.

In the summer it's sort of fun to stand by the bean and watch every one taking pictures of themselves in it.

Sorry the weather wasn't better on Wednesday but it is November in Chicago!

Hibe said...

Great 12 Liz. American Gothic made my day.

Liz said...

Heather!

You're totally right. I can feel the punctuation-induced scowl forming now. :)

You would totally love the Bean. It's so basic, but so *fantastic*! And probably mathy in a way I totally understand.

Liz said...

Lauren, I agree with you in theory--I love the book, and am vaguely offended about the Chicago move, though not as much as by Fever Pitch in Boston--but I just love the movie so much. And the part where he's on the bridge during the middle of the day! I love that part.

Liz said...

Xerxes,

Mount Prospect is so, so cute. I really liked the Chicago area in general, actually. We got off the freeway in Arlington Heights! My hostess must live near the in-laws. :)

I could have hung out and watched either the Bean or other Bean people all day. It was so much fun seeing everyone's reactions to it! Kids were especially fun, especially when they'd go underneath and see a million of themselves. So cool!

I like your city.

Liz said...

hibe,

Glad I could make you smile. It's a dorky photo, but it was fun. Especially because there were strangers around (otherwise we might have spent more time working on the expression!).

Dogeared said...

Hee, I like the bean and the Disapproving face! Good luck with the move and new job!