Today I woke up and, lo and behold, I was a year older than yesterday. Sometimes life works that way. Sooo … it’s bad poetry time. Yes, even though this is in paragraph form I consider it a poem. (And since it’s my birthday I say that’s fine.)

69

The number rolls itself into a ball and before you can shut the door, it comes right in, making itself at home. Your home. But what options do you have anyway? You first think you will stomp on it, halt its progress, shatter it, refuse to let it have its way. But again, there is no choice so you pick it up, put it in your pocket, and walk with it for the year. 

Occasionally, you take it out, gaze at it, and wonder at the swift passing of time. You smile and say a prayer of thanks for reaching 69.

We didn’t exactly get up on Chicago time, but we were up earlier than California time. Then we hung out for a bit doing what we do (Dan on his iPad doing Dan things, and me on mine doing games and whatnot.)

Then time for breakfast … so we walked to a place we saw yesterday and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We are attempting the two meal a day plan now, both to save money and save our waistlines.

From there we walked to the Chicago Art Institute. On the way a helicopter was flying quite low, going around the tall buildings. It was crazy — at least to me. News helicopter maybe? Dunno.

Then on to our destination we went …

I’d already purchased tickets so we walked right in (well, along with going through the security thing and showing our tickets). I’ll just share a variety of photos here of things that caught my eye.

But first a video or two. Quite the surprise to see! (Dan showed me what he’d done so I will admit to stealing this idea from him.)

What I found fascinating was that even if you could see a crack into another room through a door, there was something there … SO much detail it was incredible.

Of course we had to see the impressionists, or at least a good number. And of course Seurat is a must. I didn’t take many photos: it’s better to see them on the wall! I love the detail of the Seurat so I did move in close for a shot.

From there it was coffee time. I confess I also had a small salad and two little sweet treats. But hey, it’s my birthday, I can eat if I want to! (Someone should write a song, eh?)

We also could enter what was the Chicago Stock Market building, which is connected to the institute. Quite a space!

Then a bit of Chagall.

One O’Keeffe …

Finally a huge mural that the artist says he will continue for the remainder of his life. It was rather stunning, and a nice way to end our visit. And yes, we were at the Institute for our typically very long stay.

Going outside we took photos as we headed back to our hotel. So far I’ve not had any inclination to pull out my Fuji camera: the iPhone will suffice.

We put our feet up for about an hour and then it was time for birthday dinner! After canceling a mega-expensive place (if Greg and Jan had been with us we would have gone, but we like to do those places with them so we’ll save a mega-expensive restaurant for when we all connect again) I made reservations for a place called The Gage — still not a cheap spot, but not quite as high-end as Sepia would have been.

And then it was time to go, so off we went. Turned out that the restaurant was noisier than I’d hoped (being deaf in one ear means that hearing is even more difficult), but I could deal.

Cheers!

The food was quite delicious!

That dessert … well … it was supposed to be mine and Dan ordered three scoops of gelato, but when we saw the size of mine we quickly “unordered” his. I could only manage one of these, and it is already missing from the plate. So Dan managed the other two. He’s a hero, don’t you think?

When we were finished we just headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow it’s an opera day! Stay tuned.