Day 8 - Watching movies in the park

In the morning I had to take care of some work related issues, unfortunately it was not possible to escape work entirely for 45 days even though my work is very flexible as I do mainly research and my teaching takes mainly places between September and May. Nevertheless, I got most of it done in the morning and so I could head downtown around midday. I went first for lunch right off the pink line train station at State and Lake. After that I made my way to the Millennium Park and the Music Pavilion in order to witness the Grand Park Orchestras open rehearsal for next day’s concert which I unfortunately were not able anymore to attend because I was already leaving Chicago on the 8 pm train heading down to New Orleans. Therefore I even more enjoyed Romeo and Juliette with some interruptions of course by the conductor. It reminded me about my youth when I was playing in an orchestra in middle school. I stayed almost until the end of the rehearsal which went all the way until 1.30 pm. Unfortunately light rain started which made me leave slightly before the end. I headed back to the Loop and caught the blue line train to O’Hara Airport which took almost 45 minutes. I wanted to see one of the largest airports in the world and as my 7 day CTA pass was valid all the way down to O’Hara I didn’t let this chance pass. Unfortunately there was not much to see of the air side, O’Hara doesn’t have a visitor platform which I hoped to visit. So I took a round trip with the terminal train that gave some nice views on the international terminal but that was pretty much it. I took the blue line train back towards Chicago until Belmont. From Belmont station I transferred to bus 77 that took me right to Boys Town the gay district of Chicago. There wasn’t too much to see compared to the Castro in San Francisco or West Hollywood in LA. I had a little afternoon snack at Whoolfoods and took then the red line back towards the center. Once back in the Loop I returned to the Millennium Park in order to attend the Millennium Park’s Summer Film Series and the screening of Edward Scissorhands. The screening took as well place in the large pavilion. The movie was shown also in order to commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act which was released in the same year as the movie. The movie starring Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder was really nice and even so being a movie geek I never had seen it before. After the screening ended I went over to the Cloud Gate to take some amazing shots with the art work and the illuminated skyscrapers in the background. I took the pink line train back to my accommodation.

Cloud Gate by night

Cloud Gate and skyline of Chicago