(Photographs and writing by: Erickson // 10-minute read time)
Chicago has left a mark on me. A bustling and clean city boasts beautiful architecture around a dazzling river and up against a beautiful great lake. An enormous history of loss and triumph flows through Chicago like the beautiful river walk that locals and tourists can enjoy alike. The city has plenty to do and see, with great locals that are open and friendly. My trip there was 6 days, in the middle of July. The original plan was to spend much my trip with a friend, a local of Chicago. We planned to enjoy some museums, find new eats, and have fun, but plans can change, and sometimes they change drastically.
Day 1: A Backflip into Danger
I had gotten less sleep the night before my plane, only 3 hours. Arrived at LAX around 4am to catch my flight. My Uber there was a driver from Germany, sporting a Tesla. Our conversation veered into the party life of Europe, to the expensive cost of Southern California, and into Elon Musk and his wild adventures as of late. The screen in his model Tesla was probably larger than most windows in the car itself. Bright and bouncing lights sped through the mini spaceship as we raced across half empty and darkened freeways. It was the first time I had ever been in a Tesla.
On the flight, I took naps before turbulence became commonplace, after that I steadied my eyes on a history book in the pass time. Before long, I had landed in Chicago for the very first time.
On arrival, me and my friend got a bite to eat before going to try “trapeze” for the first time. The class was being hosted right on the beach; a large acrobatic setup, poles and ropes and chalked hands, near people relaxing and taking in Lake Michigan. With skyscrapers watching over us like friendly bodyguards, dark red hibiscus tea and tacos in our bellies, we went through an introductory acrobatics course.
Instructions were quick, and before any of us knew what we were doing, we were hooked into a safety harness and climbing a rickety ladder to a high platform. At the top, we looked out over the lake and a beautiful sunny day. We jumped off one by one and were taught how to get our legs over the bar as we flowed with the momentum. It was an interesting feeling, the push and pull of inertia flooding over our bodies as we sought to achieve something that day.
Once we mastered our legs on the silver strand, we practiced a small backflip, and then the final mission was revealed. We were to swing, bend back, and clutch our instructor’s wrists at the other side. Except he was going to be swinging from a different bar as well!
I was up to bat. I jumped off, swung on the bar, and hurried my long legs over. As I swung, my fingertips reached back… but were clutched away. It was…an ounce of timidness, not believing fully in the art or the magic.
Life has a way of humbling us. Sometimes you put in all this effort, and when the time to show what you are made of? It gets difficult to show up. In my personal life, I had just lost a friend and ended a relationship, and here I was with a girl and perhaps… a new beginning…I wanted this win.
So, I listened with intent to those around me. One repeating trapeze student said, “just try and full send it”, another stated “you almost had it, just look a little more back, keep the momentum and you’re there.”
Final round, go big or go home. I hop off the ledge with my knees bent perfectly. I race my legs over the bar. I lean my body back and back with my arms out and…
I heaved a large sigh of relief and my limbs loosened. My hands had clasped the instructor’s and I had landed the trick. I had accomplished everything I needed that day.
I survived a turbulence filled plane ride on little sleep. I did a backflip and accomplished a large trick in 90 minutes of doing trapeze for the first time. Not a bad first half-day in Chicago.
However, not everything turned out perfect. I arrived at my Airbnb that night, and the place turned out to be close to a crime filled area. My “friend” had told me multiple times while we were driving over there, finally hitting the nail in the coffin as she dropped me off, “Yeah, you’re in the hood” she said. “Even my dad doesn’t come out here, because of how dangerous it is.” But the insides of the Airbnb were clean and welcoming, so I had to hope the area wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be.
Day 2: Magnifying Glass into Art and Culture
Surprise, surprise, I didn’t sleep the best this night either. Being in a new place is one thing, a new city can give some strange vibes before trying to doze off. However, some of the words from the girl I hung out with had rattled in my mind. “Because of how dangerous it is” she had said, and I realized I could have done a better job doing my research to stay in a safer neighborhood. I had tossed and turned that night knowing there may be some dangerous events that I would have to respond to.
Regardless, a bag or two under the eyes didn’t stop me from setting out. I leave the house around 9-10am and take the train to a coffee shop only a few blocks away from a museum I wanted to see. On the ride there, I realized how fast the train cars were going, and it turns out public transit in this city is quite superb! During my stay, I used buses and trains frequently, and didn’t wait more than 10 minutes for anything to arrive. It was fantastic. Southern California could learn a thing or two about Chicago’s public transit.
With my iced coffee in hand, I saw that Millenium Park was quite close and decided to check it out. I walked under a few streets of towering skyscrapers and I arrived. Right in the middle of the park, I actually stumble upon a notable attraction of Chicago. This was the site of “the bean” (Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor), the famous little art installation that is a beacon for tourists from all over.
The artwork is a trippy artifact in person, more than one may expect! Going under it, one can experience a kind of kaleidoscope, that feeling that one may get in a mirror maze at an amusement park. As well, at certain angles of “Cloud Gate”, the artwork distorts the skyline, making some fascinating images of “Real vs. Distorted” that I feel the artist wanted to convey.
The same park is also home to the “Jay Pritzker Pavillion” built by the legendary architect Frank Gehry. The venue (shown below) is used for musical performances of all kinds. The outdoor area can seat 11,000 people, and in-part due to the cutting-edge architecture, the sound performance out here mimics a completely indoor venue!
Frank Gehry also built the Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (such an interesting story to that one!), and more. His work is very beautifully modern, although criticisms of him may include his over designing. The forms he creates are not very functional and may be more geared towards an elite class rather than for the good of the public. A lot to look into for the fascinating artist.
The park also has a garden, and some large-scale fountains. I spent time walking around the entire park taking pictures, and now it was close to noon. I consider walking to the American Writer’s Museum when, on the far southside of the park, I see a fantastic old building. On my phone’s map I see this is the “Art Institute of Chicago”, it has raving reviews, and thousands of them. Well, I was right there, so, “lets run it!”. I purchased access to all exhibits on my phone and headed in.
The first exhibit I went to was all about Frida Kahlo and her trip to Paris. Kahlo was a Mexican painter who had become famous in the 20th century. Frida had traveled to Paris to showcase some of her art, but the city did not agree with her very well. She quickly found her creative ambitions diminishing, not being able to produce her normal work. Then, Mary Reynolds, an artist herself, and her partner Marcel Duchamp had helped Frida creatively and financially. This led to the three of them becoming quite close friends and inspirations to one another’s art. Each of them played interesting historical roles in their art scenes. Mary constructed “book bindings” one of which is shown below, which were quite novel for their time and some of Frida’s famous works and replicas of Duchamp’s art was also on display. For more info on the exhibit in Chicago.
I had not personally heard of Ms. Reynolds before this exhibit, although I had heard of Frida and Duchamp alike. Frida’s work still lives in infamy, as her art showcases a strong Mexican heritage and her self-portraits have received broad and grand reception since their creation. However, Marcel Duchamp’s story is quite different. He was finally gaining some momentum becoming an artist, when he actually began engrossing himself in the game of chess! He eventually became a national master of the game, and it was fascinating to learn about him spending a lot of his later life engulfed with chess. (Click any picture for a full-size image)
The rest of the Art Institute was also fantastic. I didn’t know this place showcased the works of Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Rothko, Warhol, Monet, and many others.
Artists I had only heard whispers of. Pieces that I had only relished behind a screen… and here, I could see their very brush strokes. It was a surreal feeling, having the opportunity to see them face to face.
I had entered the Institute at noon and left when they closed at five, not even seeing all the exhibits! Minutes before closing, I hustled into the gift shop. I purchased a t-shirt, grabbed my bag from coat check, and raced out the door. I had just experienced the greatest museum of my life.
It was a gorgeous time exploring Chicago that day. However, I was supposed to have spent majority of it with my friend that I traveled out there for. Communication between us that day was spotty, and there was an air of awkwardness, of misunderstanding one another. We hadn’t gotten to know each other in depth yet.
So to learn more about one another, I took her to dinner. Our venue was a high rated Thai restaurant, which is my favorite cuisine and one she wanted to try. The place had great reviews on Yelp and Google in one of the most bustling cities here in the states. It had to be good experience, right?
Sadly, as our time stretched on in the restaurant, and food was late, we realized the place didn’t have the best service. Under the conditions, the air of miscommunication between me and my friend only got worse. Through small prevailing attempts, it was clear we weren’t exactly a match. It was a bizarre date, and the night did not turn out the way I had hoped.
I had escaped to Chicago with the thought of building a new friendship, although I had not expected the city itself to harbor a lot of the beauty that I was seeking. I still had four more days to live it up in Chicago, and a bad date was not about to come between me and this adventure. I had just tried trapeze for the first time and saw one of the most fascinating museums of my life, and yet there was still so much more to explore.
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