"It's A Good Day For Ducks!"

This is a long one since I've been busy this week at work and on vacation. This time, I went to Galena, Illinois in northwestern Illinois near the Iowa and Wisconsin border. Enjoy!

I had a work event at Navy Pier in the Crystal or Winter Garden or something. Whatever the name, it was very nice to hang out and get paid...


For those who don't know, the ferris wheel was invented in Chicago for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. It was two or three times the size of this one and the carts were about the size of a bus.


A view of Streeterville from Navy Pier


The Shakespeare Theatre at Navy Pier. A nice venue. Too bad its at Navy Pier...


Lakeshore Tower or Lakepoint Tower or something. Oprah and Sammy Sosa use to live here.


"It's a good day for ducks" as they bath in a puddle that formed in Humboldt Park


The Merchandise Mart (one of the largest buildings by square feet in the world) had the largest art show I've ever seen. We were there for several hours over two days and I think we only saw 1/8th of the art. IT WAS AMAZING! Especially when you can scam a VIP card!


How contemporary. Installation art.



I like the artwork. I wish the old man came with it...


I think I like it because it is red.


Okay. Imagine this stretching for several blocks in every direction on several floors and that was the art show. It blew my mind!


I wish I had a pet hyena(sp?)


A view of the South Branch of the Chicago River from the Merchandise Mart.


A view of the 333 Wacker Dr. Building from the Merchandise Mart. I didn't realized this when I took the picture, but that boat in the water is my boat from work. That boat is what gives me money to pay the rent and have a good time. Thanks boat!


With the VIP card, we got to ride in a new Audi to wherever we wanted for free. So, we did and went to meet Ronan (the Irishman) at Damen and Division. Annie is excited!


Now for the vacation. This is on the way to Galena. It's the first time I've left the Chicagoland metro area since X-mas. It looked like this as far as the eye can see. Middle America is beautiful.


Look at that!


Welcome to Galena, Illinois!

..
Here's Main Street and Perry Street.


Main Street and I forget. I think it's near the Galena Cafe, which has great diner food. I may have to go back for the homemade Snicker cake. I didn't get any, but I'm willing to bet I could eat the whole thing. I'm a fat kid...


Megan outside of the Galena Cafe at Main Street.


Here's the hotel we stayed at. Several notable people have stayed here like Abe Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, about every nothern Civil War general, and Ulysses S. Grant. One thing you learn about Galena is they LOVE Grant! He's from Galena and they remind you of that. They will give you change in $50 bills at every possible chance to advertise that fact...


A cross behind a nun-ery


Welcome to the City Hall/Police Department of Galena. It looks like an old west jail. I expect that they have two jail cells; one for the bank robber and the other for the friendly town drunk. The newspaper had a story about a 70-80 year old woman who had a shoplifter in her store. A teenager stole whiskey and the old woman chased her down and caught her and turned her into the police. Little did the teenager know that the old woman was a marathon runner (still) and fast as hell. Take that whipper-snapper.


Sometimes, a horse feels lonely...


Pickle or cactus? All cowboy!


Megan the lovely insect.


Main Street looking toward Diagonal Street.


MUSKEGON PEOPLE: Doesn't this remind you of Western Avenue across from the train depot/visitor center? You know, downtown can be a really cool place like Galena. There is nothing special about Galena except they have taken care of their city and Muskegon allowed it to become a shithole (one I love all the same). Just a thought...


Down at the old town square, I imagine Ulysses Grant sitting here drunk one day thinking, "I'm going to kill me some Confederates." The rest is history.


And, by "history" I mean they gave him a park...


And a statue for me to climb...


Here's me trying to hang out with Mr. Grant.


A view of downtown Galena.


Megan taking pictures of the downtown area.


"War of the Rebellion"


A farm girl on the prarie. How midwestern...


She's so happy!


This is Mrs. Grant (Ulysses S. Grant's wife). It seems most people think she looks like Mrs. Butterworth. I see it...


And, me and Mrs. Grant...


When Grant won the Civil War, they gave him this home.


A huge mansion near Grant's house!


Hilarious! What's with the momma duck having no wings? That one baby duck lost its mind!


The floodgate at the Main Street entrance. You had to pass through this gate to get into the city as if this were some ancient European village. I guess when the Mississippi River floods and the Galena River overflows, they have to close this to protect the city from drowning. I just like the idea of Galenians closing the gate and dumping hot oil on invaders...


Megan on the pedestrian bridge with Galena in the background.


The Belvadere (sp?) mansion.


This was the city's first waterworks.


Another cool old house.


The first brick building in Galena.


This was a cool building for some reason other than being pretty. Vinny's restaurant was in this building. It looked good. Too bad we couldn't figure out how to get in it to eat. VINNY!


USA!


Cool church.


The Galena Fire Department.


Turner Hall


I just like the door. What I don't like is the power lines. Dear Galena Power Company. Please put your ugly power lines underground so we don't have to look at them. Love, Mike


Old Galena High School. This is at the top of the big hill behind the city and has been turned into condos. If I lived here, my legs would be giant chicken legs from the climb up the hill everyday. That, or else I'd never leave because of the hill climb everyday.


The view from the Old Galena High School. That is the downtown way below behind the trees.


These are about half of the steps to the downtown area.


Cool old mansion.


Pretty view of downtown.


another cool house.


This is where I would live in the Gnome House. I would have to wear a red cone hat and tend my garden. A giant fox would be in the garage and I would use him as my transportation.


Ulysses S. Grant's house when he moved to Galena. He only paid $100 a year in rent! Mr Grant, you must be a great man. You are the only person I know that has found a good place with cheaper rent than me...


This was the Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor. It was pretty good and had a soda fountain and everything. Now, I don't want to disgrace this place, but something was wrong with the girl behind the counter. It is my belief she was a meth addict as she had scabby arms, no teeth, and not mentally there. I felt bad and entertained at the same time. What can I say, I am a horrible person...


This was our view from the Ramada! We went swimming in the pool and it was great! But, how many cheap hotels have you been to like this?


Well, on the way back to Chicago we detoured to Dixon, Illinois, the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan. So, I had to have my picture taken with this man. The day this was taken just happened to be the day that excerpts from his diary were released.


I'm not freak dancing President Reagan. I'm climbing the statue. But, I wish it were freak dancing...


Reagan's boyhood home.


The Berlin Wall. Did the German's write on the Berlin Wall or was it CIA agents? HEY CIA! THE GERMANS WRITE IN GERMAN, NOT ENGLISH.


You know, Ronald Reagan and his ideals make sense to me now after seeing this car. Just like Dick Cheney made sense to me after seeing the shithole he came from (Cheyenne, Wyoming).


Nice billboard coming in from the Chicago suburbs.


This about sums up the vacation. Me with Mrs. Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, and Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for spending your entire afternoon seeing what I did last week. Love ya all.

Mike!

All Dolled Up

Guten Tag,

 Hayley and Roberto at Docent Appreciation Night. This is a work party we have every year to thank our volunteers for giving thosands of hours of free labor to the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Hayley and Roberto once again Vincent is an efficient killing machine. That is if wine is the target getting killed. About 384 of our guests for Docent Appreciation Night at the Hotel Intercontinental on North Michigan Avenue. Pretty swanky... Once again, proving that you can dress me up, but you can't take me anywhere. Nick setting up the new hammock at Murder House. SUCCESS! The Muskegon Exiles headed out to the suburb of Lyons (?) for a party where this couple installed an inflatable pool in their family room. Nick is testing the water. Matt and Tyler were disappointed because they thought it was "a pool of Jack Daniel's!" My new best friend Clark. If you pet him, he will be your best friend too! WARNING: This dog will drool all over you and will require you to wash you pants because of the sheer amount of slobber. All in for the pool party! Tyler, Mike, Katie, and Andrew out for fresh air and cigerettes at the pool party. In the backyard, they are installing a gnome garden, fire pit, and a trampoline that you can bounce onto from the roof of the house. Truly, this is a home owned by children and I applaud them. Matt, Andrew, Clark the St. Bernard, and Katie at the pool party buffett. Tyler starting up the grill. The grill! Matt, Tyler, and Karli grilling. At the Lincoln Park Zoo for the Earth Day celebration. As expected, the LPZ invited hippie jam bands to play making it the worst place on Earth to be as yuppies with stollers and hippies joined forces. It was like the South Park episode when hippies decent on South Park and take over everything. I would be Cartman... Outside of LPZ, all was good on a nice, warm Chicago day.

Later! Mike

Chicago Is the Center of the Universe.

Hey Everyone, Summer arrived in March and decided to leave in early April. But, I guess it allowed spring to visit for the rest of the month. Man, is it awesome outside. Everything is green and sunny and awesome. I can't wait for all the events Chicago is going to have this summer. There's no better place to live in the summer than Chicago!

CHICAGO WINS! Well, at least we slaughtered LA is getting the right to bid for the 2016 Olympics in 2016. To me, this really is a moral victory. This was a win by a "real" city over a "fake" city. LA is fake to its core. No one is really from there. Hollywood is a industry of illusions. Celebrity is their main industry. It's not a city, but hundreds of square miles of suburban fantasy, sprawl, and automotive hell. On the other hand, we've got Chicago. There are true Chicagoans and transplants, like myself. We are an industrial, commercial, financial, and cultural powerhouse. Chicago is the greatest city in North America and one of the greatest in the world. YEAH!

Some political art in Wicker Park.

 One of the saddest events to happen in my life recently was discovering the Village Theater is closed. Where else can I see first run movies for $5. I can't do that in Muskegon. Now, I can't do that even in Chicago. Another sad event was visiting the Mike's Inn MySpace page. I remember actually wanting to go to that bar. Now, it looks like all the other douchebag bars. My heart is broken...




Symphony at the Chicago Cultural Center.  Exhibit of mentally disabled people at the Chicago Cultural Center. Ruby Bradford is my new favorite artist. I'm not kidding. This is awesome and says so much more about our society than most of the blowhards in the art community.
My favorite person in here is Judge Hatchett. Nice!  I forgot who did this, but this is really good too. Actually, this whole show was really great and I wish my batteries weren't almost dead on my camera. This work is about the terror after Hurricane Katrina outside the Superdome.


Here we are at Federal Plaza planting. There's also a group of anti-war tax protesters. About three of them. Can you find them? This was just a couple hours ago and another example of why Chicago is better than your city...

Love and miss you all. Mike

PS - Saw Grindhouse and it was pretty good. Robert Rodriguez is a far superior movie maker than Quentin Tarantino (And yes, I do know Rodriguez was the writer and director of the Spy Kids trilogy). Here's why, Rodriguez knows how to tell a story, be humorous, innovative, and allows the movie to be entertaining. Tarantino is self-absorbed, references and copies films without adding his own flare, and largely full of shit. I imagine when directing and watching his films, he probably is jerking off to how awesome he is the whole time. And that is why his half of Grindhouse was pretty boring and uninteresting.

PSS - Grindhouse may be re-released fairly soon as two separate movies because the 3+ is a bit difficult to take. Mostly because Deathproof is so disappointing with such a great premise...

"You Went To College For How Long? You Should Be a Doctor, Not a Loser..."

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. I had a pretty good one down in Chicago. I can't wait until we get back to that perfect 70 degree Chicago weather and I'm wandering the streets again...

R2-D2 Mailbox at Clark and Addison. Why? I'm not sure. There must be a nerd lobby at the Post Office or something. There are two other ones in the Chicago city limits at Navy Pier and just north of the river on Michigan Avenue. I wonder how many of these have been stolen and are up for auction on Ebay by now...


Conceptual art piece by some homeless man, I imagine. This is a block away from my old apartment on Geneva Terrace.


Easter Dinner. I've never had lamb before except in gyros. Which has a similar difference from steak and burgers.


Here's some of the side dishes. Some asparagus with orange peelings and all.


Megan, Ronan, John, Dan, and Heather during dinner.

They are really going to town on the Brown Line Expansion now. They've closed down the 4th rail and started tearing it up. I should think about a career change that involves mass transit construction.

That's it.