Architecture Boat Tour

A cool front came through just in time for us to meet our friends from Buffalo, Jack and Greg, for the Chicago Architecture Center boat tour of Chicago. Jack and Greg were in town for a conference. Terry and I left the house at 10:00 to get the 10:35 train to the city. Metra has increased the price of the unlimited weekend ride pass from $5 to $10, but it is still just about half off for us. An elderly couple (who am I to talk??) got on at Woodstock and sat in front of us. The woman flashed her Medicare card to get the senior discount, and the conductor charged her $9.50 for the two fares. He reminded her to buy her return tickets at the station before boarding to come home. Money saved: $1.00. To me, this was not work the aggravation of standing in line for tickets. I hope I never have to return to such frugal times.

The train got in at 12:23 as scheduled. We stopped at Jimmy Johns for sandwiches on our way to the boat dock.

We met Jack and Greg at 1:30 as planned. We hung out on the Riverwalk until it was time to board at 2:00. There were far too many people were wearing flip-flops for serious city walking. Ah, to be young again. It was great to be in the city. I counted at least 5 languages—Spanish, Polish, French, something Asian, and of course, English

The boat tour started right on time, as you can see in the clock on the Wrigley building. The flag was for the 4^th of July weekend. If you aren’t from around here, that is Wrigley as in the gum. Fortunes were made on chicle from the rainforests.

The Wrigley building decked out for the Fourth of July

A member of the crew gave us the safety talk, including the extremely-difficult-to-access locations of the life jackets. She also cautioned us against standing up to touch the bridges. “It’s just rusted steel,” she explained. I thought she was kidding until we went under the first bridge, which was low enough to hit the antenna of the wheelhouse.

Going under the first bridge--a tight fit

The volunteer tour guide then took the microphone and started talking fast and furious, and kept up the pace for the duration of the 90-minute tour. I cannot begin to convey all the information. He began by explaining, for the benefit of foreign tourists, the difference between an apartment and a condo. Elsewhere in the world, both are called apartments. Here we use the two terms to indicate rental and owned property, respectively.

It was interesting to see the buildings from the perspective of the river. We got better views of the whole structures than we could see from the street. This is an example of historic architecture.

Historic architecture

The shiny building on the left is Mid-20^th Century Modern. I just learned this term last week when Terry and I watched two TV shows back-to-back that featured the style in both houses and furniture. We recognized the vinyl and chrome we’d grown up with. We are mid-century modern.

Mid-Century Modern, left; Art Deco, right

The building on the left is Art Deco. The top floors are set back because of a Chicago city ordinance designed to keep the street from becoming like canyons. After a certain number of floors, the building had to be set back to allow light to come through. The style caught on, and setbacks became a feature of many buildings in towns that did not require them.

A new building is going up right across from condos that previously had a nice view of the river and Lake Michigan. A lawsuit to prevent it failed. If you don’t own the land, you can’t dictate how it will be used.

New construction

This building had to be built on a small footprint between the river and the railroad tracks. It looks precarious, but is apparently structurally sound.

How to put a big building on a small lot

This is an old cold-storage facility from the time before refrigeration was common. People would rent space to keep their food cold. Think of it. It was built without windows. When it fell into disuse, it was made into condos, which included cutting out all those windows. I bet they have good insulation.

Condos in a converted cold storage building

This view is from the south branch of the river.

The south branch of the river

The guide mentioned that Chicagoans sometimes have unique ways of pronouncing words. The black tower in this picture is spelled W-I-L-L-I-S and is pronounced “Sears.” Ha ha. He then discussed it using the same term I prefer, “The tower formerly known as Sears.”

The tower (black, in back) formerly known as Sears

This is the NBC building. Note the peacock logo at the top.

The NBC building

We went to the juncture of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. All along our tour we passed party boats blaring music and populated with people drinking and dancing. At this point, there was a larger party boat parked smack in the middle of the river. I wasn’t sure how we would be able to turn around, but the captain managed. Jobs I would rather not have.

The skyline looking to the north while the captain maneuvers around a party boat parked in the middle of the river

The south view

I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture of all of us. Here’s the one Jack took on his phone and texted to me. That’s Greg in the middle.

Me, Greg and Terry (Jack is taking the picture)

After the cruise we walked down Michigan Avenue looking for somewhere to eat. We came to a place called Nando, which Jack said served chicken. He was totally right. All chicken all the time. Chicken marinated in peri-peri peppers from Africa. There were varying degrees of heat from Mild-ish to Hot. I ordered level 2, Lemon-herb. It was lemony and barely hot at all. Greg order Hot and reported that it produced a mild tingling in the throat that “helped the beer go down.” All in all, a pleasant dining experience.

It was getting on to 6:00. Jack and Greg had to collect their luggage from their hotel and get to the airport for a 9:30 flight. They were far less concerned about being there two hours in advance than I was. On our side, our two train options were 6:30 and 8:30, the earlier train preferred. I was all for taking a cab, but I had not seen many cabs on the street. Greg suggested finding a hotel, which was sure to have a cab stand in front. I didn’t think of that because I don’t get out much. One block into our walk, we found a cab station outside a theater. Saved! We got to the station in plenty of time.

Our conductor on the train was a large black man with dreadlocks nearly to his waist. It made me feel safe—no one was going to try any nonsense with that guy in charge. Actually, there have only been a couple of times that I’ve felt uncomfortable on the train, and it always involved some guy who had too much to drink. This was not one of those times.

At one point in the trip, the conductor unlocked a little storage cabinet next to the lavatory. It had a lot of boxes with wires going in and out. The door had storage for various cautionary stickers. The conductor took out one that said DOOR INOPERATIVE USE OTHER DOOR. He used the sticker to tape the doors open. Whatever works.

How to fix a door with a DOOR INOPERATIVE sticker.

We were home by 9:00, and glad to be there.