... in the shadow of the Great Tower...
... but this is not our destination. This is a stopover on a Great Pilgrimage.
February 12, 2010
At the Chicago Breakfast Café...
... I blog alongside the Great Lake...
... in the shadow of the Great Tower...
... but this is not our destination. This is a stopover on a Great Pilgrimage.
... in the shadow of the Great Tower...
... but this is not our destination. This is a stopover on a Great Pilgrimage.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
32 comments:
I love the Palmolive Building. But, I hear neighbors protest the lighting of the beacon, such that it's only allowed on some special occasions.
If you squint, I think you can see me along the lake shore. Hi.
The Palmolive Building Beacon only shines for something like 270 degrees of its 360 degree rotation so as not to shine into the neighbors' windows.
Nicest feeling in the world to be ensconced in warmth and comfort looking out at the frozen and inhospitable.
The Palmolive building used to house the original Playboy Club. The light or beacon is/was powered by carbon rods.
It is now a high end condo and office building.
5...4...ignition...3...2....1... and we lift off of the space shuttle Palmolive.
Where are we pilgrimating to this time?
What could be better today than the phallic symbols of capitalism along Michigan Avenue.
Althouse stay up the tall building penthouse is either a cryptic Oscar support for Up the movie..
Or a not so subtle booya for Obama's TSA.
I've been there many times. The old Microsoft Flight Simulator was based at Meigs, probably in view out the window.
Are you at the Four Seasons? Enjoy it now before your tax increases.
Of course they're on pilgrimmage to Indiana where love bloomed a year ago.
Chicago is a strange city, right there in the middle of America with all those tall buildings.
Skyscrapers make sense next to an ocean, not next to a big lake.
From that second pic I think I saw the dorm I used to live in during my first 2 years of NU Law back in the mid-90's. Thanks for posting this glimpse of my old stomping grounds!
Chicago's perfectly situated for all those tall buildings. Anyone who thinks otherwise has either never been there and/or doesn't know what he's talking about!
wv: "sunphoos" -- a brand of footwear popularized in The Art of War.
I'm sure you're prepared for the vagaries of winter travel, but be careful. It's still a lot easier to get into trouble in bad weather than we tell ourselves (I speak from embarassing experience).
Julius Ray Hoffman said...
Chicago is a strange city, right there in the middle of America with all those tall buildings.
Skyscrapers make sense next to an ocean, not next to a big lake.
The first thing the Coast Guard will tell you, if you want to go boating on the Great Lakes, is, "Don't think big lake, think small ocean". A lot of people forget that and don't live to tell the tale.
Edmund Fitzgerald, anyone?
rhhardin, not sure if you're aware, but Meigs no longer exists. It's runway was destroyed by Mayor Daley in a midnight raid, in the name of security, but really so that he could build a park and concert venue there. In any event, these photos are looking at lake front a good deal north of where Meigs was (Northerly Island). That's a water treatment plant just off Navy Pier that you see jutting into the lake.
Gordon Lightfoot, anyone?
wv: "antster" -- a dancing hamster.
US Navy anyone.
During WWII, the Navy used Lake Michigan to train pilots in carrier landings.
George H.W. Bush was among the pilots who practiced carrier landings on the Lakes-- onto a paddlewheel aircraft carrier.
They just dredged up another of the crashed WW2 planes from the deep a few months ago out there, didn't they? I recall reading about it and seeing the pics online sometime back in '09.
Nice photos! I just moved away from Chicago, so this brings back fond memories.
re: the small ocean, a particular water rescue station in Evanston/WIlmette has a very compelling history. I don't remember the stories off the top of my head, but I'm sure they're floating around the internet, and are worth a read.
My Dad trained in WWII in Tampa, and their saying was A Plane A day in Tampa Bay.
Is this just A pilgrimage, not the pilgrimage?
Oh, and the slanty black building of which you only get a glimpse on the right-hand side: John Hancock Building.
And I hear they renamed the Sears Tower (tallest building in the Western Hemisphere I do believe and possibly the Northern Hemisphere as well) something like Willys Tower. Very sad.
Sears Tower is now "Willis Tower," or "Big Willy." Everyone here still calls it Sears Tower, of course.
I dated a Coast Guard guy stationed on the Great Lakes. Yeah, sure, it was up on Superior, but still. Small ocean.
I think he was the only guy I dated that was, for real, a complete jerk. But that's another story.
Pilgrimage? Is school out ? or Is Meade taking you away from all that?
This is a stopover on a Great Pilgrimage.
So you are going to do the Haj? :D
AJ Lynch said...
Pilgrimage? Is school out ? or Is Meade taking you away from all that?
Can't be school, unless...
Maybe it's back to Austin.
The way the weather's going Laredo or Del Rio might be more agreeable.
These are beautiful, cinematic photos. They look like a contemporary film-maker's recreation of a 1920s aesthetic -- Like Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, but instead of an airplane, our heroine ascends over Chicago in a great airship.f
I love the Palmolive Building.
Uh, don't you mean the "Playboy building"?
oh did I just date myself?
I love it when Althouse and Meade take us all on a road trip. So, can anyone see the destination GPS coordinates?
Enjoy the Fourth Season Hotel if that's where you guys are. This photo looks like it's right out of the Titanic.
I was born a few blocks from where you're is sitting, and I always imagined I would live in Chicago forever, but I left and somehow never came back. So, your pictures bring back happy memories.
The Palmolive beacon did shine 360 degrees until the Hancock building came along. Then a shield was installed. By that time, though, it had become the Playboy building. Whatever its name, it was always comforting to see the light scanning the sky.
Congratulations on your anniversary.
Post a Comment