Wind, Heat, and Downpours!

I've had a whirl-wind of a week. I tend to take short conference trips and short family visits into Maine. In the past week I packed both such trips into my life.


I took my usual 48-hour conference trip - this time to Chicago, The Windy City. I go to 3-4 conferences a year and somehow I had never been to Chicago. As some of my readers know, I tend to dislike cities. I find them impenetrable. When I visit a city, I feel like I am routed into a special section of the city that is designated for tourists, which is usually the equivalent of a tourist shop in Kennebunkport that sells ceramic lobsters with the word "Mainah" on them. I find cities crowded with people and cars, and expensive. I am never able to come away from a city with an idea of what it would be like to live in said city. Nevertheless, I had heard wonderful things about Chicago, so I threw caution to the wind (pun intended) and took an afternoon to see some of Chicago.


In truth, my tourist activities started the night of my arrival. The conference offered an architectural dinner cruise of the city on the Chicago River. I do love city tours and architecture, so I was game for this adventure. I learned so much about the city. We saw the Jewelers' Building, which was built in the late 1800s. At some point in time, the jewelers were nervous about carrying their gems from their cars into the building, so they constructed doors and an elevator that would permit the jewelers to drive into the building, into an elevator, and go right up to their offices. We also saw the Merchandise Mart, which is one of the largest buildings in the world. It has 4 million square feet and has it's own zip code. I loved learning about the buildings in Chicago. I confess to have been completely ignorant about the architectural importance of this city.

Here I am on the Chicago River, ready to start the architectural tour!

Heading up the Chicago River

Coming back through at nightfall

The building on the left is the Merchandise Mart.

My first morning in Chicago I took a run along Lake Shore Drive, which parallels Lake Michigan. It is a wonderful place to run. There are 20 miles of paved walking/running/biking paths along the lake and it was wonderful and busy at 7AM. I immediately recognized that I was in a place filled with Chicagoians, going about their day and lives. This was not a place just for tourists. It became one of my favorite places. It also offered a wonderful breeze!

This is where I took my morning run.

The afternoon that I took away from the conference to visit the city it was 100 degrees. I tried not to let that deter me. But, for some reason, I decided that the Field Museum was too far away for me to walk (this from a woman who runs marathons!), so with some guidance, I hopped on a city tour trolley that made 14 stops at important destinations around the city. The Field Museum was stop #6. I was directed to board at stop #2. Unfortunately, stop #2 is very close to stop #9, which is where I accidentally caught the trolley. I didn't figure it out until stop #11. By that time it was definitely too far to walk anywhere and I had already paid $35 for said trolley and truth to tell --  as I mentioned, I love city tours. So, I stayed on even though it was 100 degrees and there was no air conditioning on the trolley...and at some point we discovered that the heat was turned on. Yes, the heat was blasting away. Lovely. I learned more about the city and even though I grew weary of the trip, 1.5 hours later, we reached stop #6 - the Field Museum.


It was late in the afternoon, so I only paid to see one exhibit - Genghis Khan. It was pretty interesting. I learned a lot about the technological advances to warfare made under his rule. I then decided that I could easily walk to the Art Institute. Strangely the heat was bearable and I made stops at the music shell in Millennium Park and Symphony Hall before hitting the Institute. It was 5PM by the time that I had arrived. I was hot, tired, dehydrated, and starving, but I stayed for a couple of hours and really enjoyed myself. I saw Chicagoians walking around with "Institute Member" stickers on their shirts. See? I wasn't just among tourists. I was especially taken with the display on miniatures. I also enjoyed the impressionistic art and photography displays.

Miniature of a Cape Cod home in the 1800s.

On my walk back to the hotel, I passed through Millennium Park again and saw kids playing in a water fountain. Definitely, these were not tourists - tourists would be swimming in the hotel pool. I was among people living in the city! I can't say how much I enjoyed my time in Chicago. But, before I left the city, I got to spend 5 hours at O'Hare International. The storm that ripped through Indiana and left thousands in the black in Washington DC area first blew through Chicago. Believe it or not, I managed to finish a paper in that airport chaos!

I was home for only one day before I left on another trip - this time up to Maine for visits with family and friends. I first drove to Hallowell where I visited with my maternal aunt and grandmother. We were enjoying a lovely picnic at the Hallowell park and boat ramp (where Drake did a bunch of swimming) when dark clouds starting rolling in. Just as we finished our lunch, the wind picked up and the rain started. Soon it was a downpour and we took to our respective vehicles. I was soaked. The temperature dropped 18 degrees in 15 minutes - a blessing, indeed! I headed up to my mother and step-father's house in Stockton Springs, but of course I stopped at the Belfast Reny's first! I had a nice visit in Stockton Springs and learned how to play a new/old card gamed called FOIL, which was produced by 3M in the 1970s. If you ever find an extra copy of this game, let me know. We're looking for one! 

My mother - hard at work in her home office.

After a run around Cape Jellison in the morning and some breakfast, I was on the road again by mid-morning and heading to Topsham for a visit with Colleen (Connors) Johnston and her five children. On my way south I encountered another downpour just as I was arriving in the Augusta area; again, the temperature dropped 12 degrees in 5 minutes. When I arrived, Colleen had family visiting and there were a total of 11 children swimming and playing in her backyard. Drake only knocked over one small child. Once we got him into the pool, the older kids were really taken with him. They raced against him while he retrieved the ball for an hour-and-a-half. Colleen's children could be heard yelling things such as, Mom! How long can Drake and Emily stay? or Mom! Can Emily and Drake visit again? And, to no one in particular, This is so much fun! So, Drake was the hit of the afternoon...as long as we kept him in the water. Just as we were wrapping up our swimming, there was another downpour. Our timing was excellent! I had some out-of-the-pool time with Colleen and her kids, too. I am in awe of the wonderful parenting that Colleen and her husband perform. I have never seen anyone who is so content and naturally suited to parenting and it shows in their happy and well-adjusted children!

Me with 3 of Colleen's kids - Abby, Lizzy, and Becky.

Just as I was leaving their house, I looked outside and there was another downpour of rain and I remembered that the roof to my car was open, along with all of the windows! Criminy! I got to my car, but not in time to close everything up. I was soaking wet, again. I scooted over to Bath where I visited with my father and his partner, Gayle. Actually, I sat in the car first, and waited out the rain. Drake eventually gave up on his excited whimpering during our visit and went to sleep (thank goodness!) so that we could really visit. We looked at pictures of my trip to Chicago and then headed over to J.R. Maxwell's for dinner. I arrived home at 10:30PM quite exhausted and ready to get back to work!