Chicago!

Chicago is where I was born.  I stayed with my cousin Ann in Evanston, just north of the city.  She showed me around the area for a couple days, and we covered a lot!

The first evening we picked up dinner and enjoyed a visit at the home of Michael Thompson, his wife Laurie, and daughters Josephine and Hazel.  Michael is Ann's nephew and is my cousin once removed.

In this photo: me, Ann, Josephine, Michael, and Hazel.

Laurie, Michael, and me discussing family relationships...  what is a cousin once removed?  Michael is the son of Ann's brother Paul Thompson: her nephew and my cousin once removed.

My first full day in Chicago Ann and I walked around the city checking out some of the buildings and Millennium Park, home of The Bean, before taking a river cruise to learn more about the architecture of the city.

The Art Institute of Chicago (closed that day).

In and around Millennium Park

Amphitheater at Millennium Park

Carbide and Carbon Building

Wrigley Building

Chicago Cultural Center — Preston Bradley Hall Tiffany Dome

The Chicago River Boat Architecture Tour

If you visit Chicago you should take this tour!  Our guide explained building various building styles dating from the reconstruction of the city after it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 up until the present.

After the architectural tour Ann and I did some more walking.  We stopped at the 4-story Starbucks Reserve Roastery for a coffee break but it was very busy so we continued to a more conventional Starbucks location after seeing the Roastery  https://www.starbucksreserve.com/en-us/locations/chicago

These tubes reach from the ground floor to the 4th floor and contain roasting and distributing equipment that pipes prepared coffee beans to serving areas around the building.

The second day of my visit with Ann in Chicago featured Frank Lloyd Wright history and examples of his work.

We started with a tour of his first home and studio in Oak Park which was on the outskirts of Chicago when he moved there as a young man.

Next we did a walking / driving tour of some of the homes and buildings around Chicago that Frank Lloyd Wright designed.

Ann took me to see the hospital where I was born and the first homes where I and some of my cousins lived.

We drove south and we found Holy Cross Hospital where I was born.  This is how it looks after a major expansion in 1960.

My mother and her sisters Cathy and Isabel were very close.  After they attended the University of Illinois where they met their husbands, the three young families all bought new homes in the same neighborhood. The trees have grown since the homes were new!

This is home my parents owned when I was born.  They purchased it for $10,500 in 1948.

The home of Cathy and Joe Konvicka

Ann in front of the home of her parents Isabel and Tom Thompson