day 6, Chicago part 2

I'll be even more brief, now that I have actually arrived in Syracuse.

Very little linear progress was made Thursday as we spent all of it in Chicago.  Some of the things we saw were: Buddy Guy's Legends and Lurrie Bell, Jazz Record Mart, the Chicago History Museum, several Chicago neighborhoods, House of Blues Chicago and Deana Bogart.

We walked about 5 miles (or so it seemed) and all the while the Blue Angels were practicing for the air show on Friday.  It was jaw dropping to see the blue jets roaring around over head, seemingly darting between the tall building of the Chicago skyline.  That went on for about four or five hours, all afternoon, while we walked from our parking near the Trump International Tower, to Buddy Guy's Legends club.  The club wasn't crowded at all, which made for very intimate setting with Lurrie Bell, and a very enjoyable set of Blues standards.

Then we walked to where I written down that the House of Blues was (hob), but I'd gotten a North written as a South (or maybe it was the magazine I had transcribed it from that got it wrong).  It didn't actually make that much of a difference for our route anyway.  We walked up State Street with all the business people, made dinner reservations, then headed over to Jazz Record Mart.  I bought two cd's, Out of the Cool by Gil Evans because it was playing in the store and sounded so great, and The Clown by Charles Mingus, because I wanted to expand my Mingus collection (to two cd's).  They're both really great.

Now the great treck up to the Chicago History Museum, which was open until 8 pm on Thursday nights.  It took about 45 minutes of wandering the hard Chicago pavement to get there.  A long walk, but it was really nice to see more than just the office buildings of downtown.  We passed many brownstones (I guess), and a neighborhood that seemed to be entirely restaurants.  Finally, our destination was in sight.  While not as impressive as the Field museum, it was still really cool to see all the Chicago history.  I had forgotten what an important city it is!

The food at HOB wasn't particularly inspired, but the atmosphere was fantastic, as was the entertainment.  We couldn't stay for the whole show, but I really enjoyed Deanna's performance.  I'll be looking for some of her cd's in the future.

Our trip out of Chicago was mostly uneventful.  We ran into some traffic, so out speedy escape wasn't so speedy, but still we did get to a hotel out of town.  It also started out 5 state day, but that is the next story.

Here are some pictures:

road trippin' 2008 August 14