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Jul. 9th, 2011 04:26 pmI have been walking the wild world today! I'm sad the photos I sent to LJ didn't come through this time. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, it's very random.
I went out to Garfield Park Conservatory to have a gawp at the hail damage done to the greenhouses there. The vast majority of it is still closed, but the entryway garden and the Sugar Garden (which is not sugarcane, but rather teaches you how plants turn sunlight into sugars) are both open, and most of the outdoor gardens. It seems much smaller without the Niki de Saint-Phalle statues that were there the last time I visited. (I also noticed, scrolling through my journal for the Niki de Saint-Phalle photos, that this September marks five years I've been in Chicago. Whoa.)
If you're actually looking for the storm damage it kind of creeps up on you -- first you can see pockmarks in the dust where the laminated windows stood up to the hail, and then as you circle around you start to see broken panes and some frames missing panes entirely, and then you get to the smaller greenhouses on the north side. Those look like -- if you've ever seen a windowed factory left standing empty for years, they look like that, except two weeks ago they were in full use and open to the public.
It's also brutally hot out there, so I didn't stay outside long; I hopped back on the Green Line eventually and rode down to Millennium Park, where I sat with my feet in the foot-soaking creek for a bit, then walked down to Patty Burger, a little burger place near the Art Institute I've been meaning to try. It's not that great; it took forever to get my food even though the place is always totally empty, and then while I was eating one of the guys started stacking chairs and emptying the trash. I couldn't figure out whether they just didn't care I was there, or whether they closed at three o'clock on Saturdays and were just letting me sit there while they closed up. Either way, not a pleasant experience; they won't be going on my list of places to eat or recommend to others. I can get the same quality of food faster, cheaper, and with more smiles at Byron's.
I really do despise summer. From the moment I walked out of my building to the moment I got back I basically just sweated nonstop. And I looked at my face in the mirror the other day and my head is COVERED IN FRECKLES.
I went out to Garfield Park Conservatory to have a gawp at the hail damage done to the greenhouses there. The vast majority of it is still closed, but the entryway garden and the Sugar Garden (which is not sugarcane, but rather teaches you how plants turn sunlight into sugars) are both open, and most of the outdoor gardens. It seems much smaller without the Niki de Saint-Phalle statues that were there the last time I visited. (I also noticed, scrolling through my journal for the Niki de Saint-Phalle photos, that this September marks five years I've been in Chicago. Whoa.)
If you're actually looking for the storm damage it kind of creeps up on you -- first you can see pockmarks in the dust where the laminated windows stood up to the hail, and then as you circle around you start to see broken panes and some frames missing panes entirely, and then you get to the smaller greenhouses on the north side. Those look like -- if you've ever seen a windowed factory left standing empty for years, they look like that, except two weeks ago they were in full use and open to the public.
It's also brutally hot out there, so I didn't stay outside long; I hopped back on the Green Line eventually and rode down to Millennium Park, where I sat with my feet in the foot-soaking creek for a bit, then walked down to Patty Burger, a little burger place near the Art Institute I've been meaning to try. It's not that great; it took forever to get my food even though the place is always totally empty, and then while I was eating one of the guys started stacking chairs and emptying the trash. I couldn't figure out whether they just didn't care I was there, or whether they closed at three o'clock on Saturdays and were just letting me sit there while they closed up. Either way, not a pleasant experience; they won't be going on my list of places to eat or recommend to others. I can get the same quality of food faster, cheaper, and with more smiles at Byron's.
I really do despise summer. From the moment I walked out of my building to the moment I got back I basically just sweated nonstop. And I looked at my face in the mirror the other day and my head is COVERED IN FRECKLES.
