One of the first things we do after I get there is visit. You can always find mom reading the Chicago Tribune in the library after lunch. She asked after all the members of my family and Martha and I both showed her pictures of her great-grandchildren.
Back at Hotel Wiseman we had a nice supper on their deck : corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes from Martha's little garden, cow burgers for them, and...
... veggie burger for me and (much to Ken's displeasure) pork-free baked beans! The weather was so perfect we didn't go back inside for quite a while.
The next two pictures are of their back yard (first pic towards the back right, second pic toward the back left) which has grown in so nicely. When they first moved in all these trees were shorter than I. It looks really nice now.
Notice the flower and fresh herb planters on the railing.
This is my favorite time of day, when we've had a good time but now relax in front of the TV to watch a movie, check our emails, read, and talk. It feels like home to me.
Saturday morning we drove into Chicago for the Obama Bike Tour, one of many bike tours available. The meeting place was at the 63rd Street Beach on the south side of Chicago. Yes, the south side, but it was very nice and felt very safe. I'm always impressed with how Chicago keeps its areas nice, including its natural areas:
This is the oldest (built in 1919) and biggest beach house in Chicago and was fully restored in 2000. My sister took a great panorama shot of this building which spreads to the left and right for several hundred feet.
The view from the beach house. You can just barely see the...
... Chicago skyline in the distance. It was hazy and humid and we were hoping to get in our bike ride before the expected thunderstorms.
On the back side of the beach house was a very nice little resting area complete with...
... a fountain for the kids to cool off in. Reminds me of the fountains in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.
Finally our tour was about to begin. You will see that the bike tour was of much more than just things related to Obama, partly because his history here was limited, and partly because there is so much more to this (Hyde Park) area of Chicago. My sticker:
M & K ready to roll.
Our first stop was the basketball courts where Barack Obama used to play. Our tour guide, Vincent in blue, was a very cheerful, energetic, positive guy. He had a lot of knowledge of this part of Chicago (Hyde Park) and was very interesting. Vincent was a Black Panther back in the day, and sported dreadlocks that went all the way down to his rear end. I wonder of the tips of those dreads were around in his panther days...
This is the Statue of the Republic made in 1919. It is a replica of the statue that was in place for the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The original was destroyed by fire. Read here to learn more about the 1893 World's Fair; many of the beautiful structures in this part of Chicago are a leftover from this time.
The Osaka Japanese Garden was also built originally for the World's Fair.
This school is called the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Started by Professor John Dewey this school has an excellent reputation. Melia and Sasha Obama went here before they moved to DC. It also boasts 32 alumni who became Nobel laureates and tons of other famous people. I was going to list a few but there are so many, who would I pick?
The is the U of C Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, a non-denominational center for spiritual and ceremonial endeavors and a venue for the arts. I think I remember Vincent saying that most of the U of C presidents are buried here too.
Beautiful exterior...
... and beautiful interior.
Wish I could hear this pipe organ play.
Inlaid stone, perhaps marble.
University of Chicago campus.
Where Obama taught law classes and met Michelle.
The building where he taught classes.
Enrico Fermi and his cronies actually performed the first nuclear reaction in a basement near campus. Yikes! Can't trust those physics students.
Artwork related to the mushroom cloud: "Nuclear Energy" in bronze by Henry Moore.
We approached the Obama mansion with care. That black SUV was the first line of protection against anyone getting too close. As we cycled by, a car stopped in front of the mansion; an ear-splitting horn from the SUV blared at the car to move along. And the Obamas weren't even in residence!
This was the best pic I could get of the house. If you want to see what it really looks like click here.
Obama's back yard basket ball net.
Next door is the KAM Isaiah Israel synagogue, the oldest (1847) in Chicago.
This is Muhammad Ali's Chicago mansion. He doesn't live here any more but it's still known as Muhammad Ali's house. On the corner half a block down the is Louis Farrakhan's current residence. Our bike tour didn't stop in front of it for pictures, maybe because he had a secret service man standing at attention in the front yard and Vincent knew from past experiences not to stop.
The next stop was Barack Obama's barber shop, Hyde Park Hair Salon. Vincent brought us inside where men were getting their hair cut so I didn't feel comfortable taking a picture of the shop itself. On the walls were several pictures of Obama...
... and the chair where he received his last hair cut there the day of his election night speech in Grant Park. He even signed the chair.
This is where Obama lived as a poor college student. His apartment was on the second floor, his window the one to the left of the center window. Rent was $400 a month. Could I possibly be remembering that right?
And this is where Obama the student ate three meals a day. It was cheap and it was filling.
We agreed that although Martha had packed us a picnic lunch we had to eat here just to say we did. Both Martha and Ken ordered off the Obama's favorites and I ordered a veggie omelet; it was scrumptious.
The Obama tourists eating at Valois.
Now that our bike ride was over the predicted storm rolled in.
The skyscrapers downtown were shrouded in rain (you can hardly see them) that soon made its way to where Martha and I were standing. We ran screaming to the car as it began to pour, like two little school girls. Like sisters. :-)
The next day was my flight home but Martha and I stopped my mom's one more time because it was her actual birthday. Here she's opening Martha's card.
Posing with my 92 year old mother.
Mom's caregiver, Ann, took this. Mom is holding the flowers Martha gave her for her birthday. I love this picture.
