“My kind of town, Chicago is.”
What better way to enjoy a week than in Chicago in golden mid-September! Chicago remains a world-class city along the sparkling waters of Lake Michigan.
White sailboats dot the horizon and multi-nationals converse as their children play in the waters of the Millennium Park sculptures. Visitors stroll along Michigan Avenue to enter the Art Institute or the Russian Tea Room or The Berghoff to be refreshed. So many enjoyments to be savored in this great city! So little time.
I had been offered a hotel special of four days, three nights at the Palmer House and it was an offer too good to refuse. The lobby of the Palmer House offers a relaxing scene to sit and enjoy, partake of refreshments and just linger a bit. The Art Deco doors of the Empire Room suggest another time when formal dress and manners were in vogue. When big-name stars such as Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, Dean Martin, or Frank Sinatra performed.
The Palmer House is a member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It was the City’s first hotel with elevators and the first with electric light bulbs and telephones in guest rooms. The first was built as a wedding present from Potter Palmer to his bride, Bertha Honore. It opened September 26, 1870, and was burned one year later, October 9, 1871 during the Great Chicago Fire. Palmer had already begun construction of a new hotel at State and Monroe prior to the Fire.
Chicago is a city worth visiting and to bring guests along for all the anticipated joy.
Chicago’s Commissioner of Health, John Dill Robertson, in 1918 asked “Help us to keep Chicago the Healthiest City in the World.” The new and deadly war at home, following the end of World War I, was the Spanish influenza of 1918. The 1918 flu killed more persons than any other illness in recorded history. It took my maternal grandmother, Josephine Litterst, at age 34.
Cultural attractions abound! There is the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, Navy Pier and the giant Ferris Wheel, the Riverwalk, sports teams, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Willis Skydeck observation, the annual air and water show, the Museum of Ice Cream, Chinatown, and many cruises on Lake Michigan.
Lincoln Park Zoo offered opportunities for me to photograph some more animals for my next children’s book, “A Zoo Menagerie” set to be released in November. The Zoo was founded in 1868 when the Lincoln Park commissioners were given the gift of two pairs of swans.
Lincoln Park Zoo is the fourth oldest zoo in North America. And it is free. Wonder what the leaders of this zoo know that the Brookfield Zoo staff do not know when Brookfield charges such high rates for tickets and parking? The Lincoln Park Zoo is home to polar bears, penguins, gorillas, monkeys, big cats, and others totaling approximately 1,100 animals from more than 200 species.
Restaurants here cater to every taste and palate. If you are hungry for pizza or spaghetti or salmon or a cheeseburger, there are dozens of locations to choose from. Bring your camera to record the visit!
Linger near Buckingham Fountain and listen to the multi-cultural voices from China, Italy, Germany, Sweden, or Japan. Savor the sounds of visiting choirs from Iowa or the street musicians playing the drums. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone from a street vendor and sit by the lions at the Art Institute to enjoy. Time will cease to exist amid all the pleasures that a visit to Chicago downtown offers in this year of Our Lord 2023.