Meet the coolest kids on fourth floor
Yeah, the Field Museum’s pretty awesome. But even more so where you’re with these guys—my physics ohmies.
After a sleep-inducing ride on the CTA (see above), some momentary lostness in the heart of the city, followed by some surprisingly effective smartphone navigation, we were making our way up the gorgeous lawns of Chicago’s celebrated Field Museum. Nestled on the coast of Lake Michigan, the museum campus offers a spectacular view of the Chicago skyline and Navy Pier. Lake Shore Drive is inexplicably beautiful.
The museum itself was nothing short of my high expectations. I’d been to the Field once before, but there’s always something new to explore there. One of the things we got to browse through this time around was an impeccably well put-together exhibit on Native North American culture and development. As always, the artifacts and models they had on display were numerous, relevant, and astonishingly easy to get engrossed by. If it weren’t for our time constraints, I could’ve spend a good couple hours on one exhibit alone. Unfortunately, we had just about that amount of time to get through the entire museum.
It was nice seeing Sue again.
After lunch, a couple more exhibits—including one that documented the history of slavery, one on the world’s most outrageous plants, and one on the applications of DNA—and a couple minutes of gift shop-browsing, we were back out in front of the colonnade.
From there, we headed to the Buckingham Fountain. It was a nice, quick walk through museum campus, somewhere within the pleasant, park-filled limbo that is between skyscraping city and freshwater lake. The blue canvas overhead was cloudless and the sun shone off emerald lawns and clean, white sidewalks. The heat was dry and comfortable. Simply put, it was just a really, really nice day.
The fountain was dazzling, to say the least. I won’t even bother trying to describe it. Surrounded by Versailles-like gardens and a vast plaza, Buckingham Fountain is magnificent in every sense of the word. With the facades of Chicago as its backdrop, the fountain is a calling for locals and tourists alike. Naturally, I had to snap this:
Reliably, there was a concession stand close by where each of us got some ice cream. And let me tell you, everything tastes better in Chicago. But, as you can imagine, the combination of outdoor temperature and soft frozen sweetness equated to a sticky mess within minutes. On the walk to the nearest Red Line hub, we stopped at Dairy Queen not for more ice cream, but to wash our hands. It was there that Michelle, from Shanghai, said something that piqued my interest.
Michelle: “Is the tap water safe?”
Shannon: “Yes?”
Michelle: “I love America.”
Pretty soon, we were boarding the CTA again, heading back to Evanston. While we were waiting for the tram, we got to enjoy some drummers’ local street performer charm. ‘Twas a good day.
See also: CTA inventory
Shortly after dinner today, while roaming downtown Evanston with my dorm mate-from down the hall, Alex,—a fellow physicist and native Illinoisan—we walked into one of the most charming places I have ever been to in my entire life: a little coffee shop on the corner of Chicago and Davis St. called Kafein. The dimmed interior, artsy awning, and Alex’s insistence all conspired to pull me in.
The atmosphere within was dark, mild, and homey— the decor, renaissance. Through a doorway propped open by a gumball-machine-turned-doorstop, the threshold splayed out into an array of seating, capable of accommodating groups of buddies, more than a couple couples, or sole laptop-tappers. The dark wooden paneling, muted lighting, and amber colored walls complimented full-sized murals of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, and Boticelli’s The Birth of Venus. All were expertly painted and satisfactorily accurate.
