Snipe Point

July 25, 2011



Kathy & Michael

Betsy, Holly, Nancy, Eric, Michael, Kathy, Rosie & Mark

Snipe Point

We returned to Key West and began to get settled in to our routine after being away for 10 days in Michigan and Chicago. The house and our menagerie of pets were in fantastic shape due to the wonderful efforts of our friend and house sitter Alison. It is great to know that we can go away and not have to worry about the house.

Craig & Jack



It was nice to be home, I think it may have been the first time that we have ever flown to Key West to cool off. The temperature when we departed Chicago was hovering in the low triple digits and it has been relatively pleasant in the upper 80s with a nice ocean breeze here since our return.

Kathy

Rosie

The first few days after returning home involved settling back in to home and work, and of course posting a series of blog entries about our time away. Our humble blog reached a milestone this week when we passed 50,000 individual hits. I often wonder who the heck is reading this thing, but seemingly there is an audience. I know that we regularly get people commenting on things that they have read or seen here, but 50,000 is a huge number. I joked on facebook that either a lot of people are checking it out, or else my mother has entirely too much time on her hands. Anyway thanks to those who find it of interest, I know I mostly enjoy creating it and most definitely enjoy doing all the things that I write about.

Betsy & Eric



That is certainly the case with this post as we were invited to join a group of friends for an outing on their recently acquired boat to the beautiful Snipe Point, a popular sand bar for local boaters to hang out on the Gulf side just northeast of Key West. A number of our friends recently formed something of a syndicate and got together and purchased a boat together, sharing in the use and responsibility of boat ownership.

Nancy & Mark



Jack

The boat is known as “The Honey Badger”, after the animal and the viral internet video that has given it so much attention of late. The boat is kept at the Key West Harbor Yacht Club on Stock Island and we met with our friends Nancy, Mark, Betsy, Eric, Rosie, Holly, Craig & Jack there for the short trip out to Snipe Point.

Eric

Michael

Typically the Snipe Key area is besieged with boat traffic and there can be literally hundreds of boats anchored up on weekend afternoons to the beautiful soft sand bar, so we were somewhat astounded to be the only boat there upon our arrival.

Holly & Jack



The early bird does indeed gain the advantage. It was a perfect day, beautiful weather, great company and good food and drinks. With the tide receding the sad bar grew more and more exposed as we watched, creating a perfect beach environment that is one of the most special places in all of the Keys.

Kathy on the Honey Badger

The Night Life

July 24, 2011

Old 97s



West Side Story * photo from WSS website



Night Life

Back in the 80s and early 90s, it was fairly common for me to make the drive up I-65 from Indianapolis to Chicago to catch concerts that at that time routinely bypassed Indianapolis. I caught all sorts of shows at clubs like the Vic Theatre, the Aragon Ballroom, the Metro, the Double Door, Park West, Schubas, and the Riviera. I caught bands the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Concrete Blonde, Lone Justice, Shriekback, Jane’s Addiction, the Alarm, the Toll, Aztec Camera and the Origin. It was an exciting time and one that I hoped to revisit if only briefly during our stay in Chicago.

The Vic

The Metro



I had ordered tickets to see one of my current favorite bands, the Old 97s at a place called Lincoln Hall- which didn’t exist back in the day, but is owned by the same folks who own Schubas – so I figured it would be ok. Kathy & I caught the red line to Fullerton and arrived at the club in time to get a beer and a bite to eat before the opening act Robert Ellis started. The club is located right across the street from the famous Biograph Theatre where John Dillinger was gunned down in 1934 after being betrayed by the lady in red.





Robert Ellis

The club was great, small and intimate with great sound and excellent wait staff. Robert Ellis and his band opened, we were not familiar with him, but he was really good. Only 22, Ellis is fresh off releasing his country/folk CD “Photographs” and he really hit all the right notes and had the crowd in great spirits during his short set.

Robert Ellis

Old 97s



The Old 97s show was being recorded for the iconic Chicago radio station WXRT’s Sunday night concert series, meaning you may be able to hear it at some point. The fact that it was being recorded for a future broadcast seemed to inspire both the crowd and the band and the show was really excellent.

Old 97’s

Playing plenty of songs from their new CD, “The Grand Theatre, Volume 2” as well as many of their older tunes as well as some well received cover tunes, the band was awesome and for one night at least it was like going back in time to those halcyon days of my youth.







Our final night in Chicago we were out again, seeing a totally different type of show. This time we were in the Theatre District to catch the traveling Broadway production of the revival of the classic play, “West Side Story” at the beautiful Cadillac Palace Theatre.







West Side Story has always been one of my favorite plays, most likely because I was subjected to it repeatedly when my sister Marika starred as Anita in her high school production and I was inundated with the music at an early age. This show was somewhat unique in that the Latin cast members, aka the Sharks, performed much of the time in Spanish. It was different and did not distract much at all- most likely because we pretty much knew all the lines anyway.

Anita * Photo from WSS website

Maria & Tony *Photo from WSS website



It was a great production and we really enjoyed it, the traveling show is still fairly early in its run, so depending on where you live, you might still be able to check it out in a city near you. Check the link below for the schedule- it is worth checking out. It was a wonderful way to conclude our visit to Chicago and our vacation.



The Old 97s

West Side Story

Cultural Trio

July 23, 2011



Sue



Shedd Aquarium

Cultural Trio

There are a number of amazing places to see and things to do and Kathy & I decided to do the trifecta by visiting the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History and the Art Institute of Chicago. Each of these venerable and unique institutions are among the best in the world in their particular field and all are situated with-in a few blocks of each other in what is known as the Museum Campus.







We started at the Shedd Aquarium, a place that I have visited fairly often since I was a kid, but one that is ever growing and changing and today scarcely resembles the place that I first visited. First opened in 1930, the aquarium has grown with the times and continues to be among the elite aquarium facilities in the world.







Containing over 25,000 fish, the aquarium remains one of the largest aquariums in the world and hosts amazing exhibits such as the current “Jellies” exhibit that features a huge collection of different types of jellyfish. They also are home to a group of Beluga Whales and a number of sleek and fast Pacific Whitesided Dolphin, which are very different from the Bottlenosed variety found in most zoos and aquariums.





The Shedd maintains the classic feel of the institution opened in 1930, but has a number of modern state of the art exhibits including the incredible wild reef exhibit that is home to a large collection of sharks. They also have the world’s largest collection of live coral reef, which is incredibly difficult to grow and is as impressive as anything I have ever seen in a captive setting.





The aquarium is located in a beautiful location along the shore of Lake Michigan and is home to many fascinating creatures including the oldest fish in captivity, Granddad, an Australian Lungfish that has been living at the facility since 1933 and seems to be going strong. We had an awesome visit to the aquarium.



Located just next door to the aquarium is another of the iconic museums of Chicago, The Field Museum of Natural History. The Field Museum is even more historic than the aquarium. Built in 1893 as part of the World Columbian Exhibition and known then as The Palace of Fine Arts, the building is the only surviving building of the famous “White City” that was built for the exhibition.



Field Museum

Renamed the Field Museum in 1905 in honor of Marshall Field, the museum has been host to millions of visitors since opening. The museum collection is home to more than 21 million artifacts, only a fraction of which are on display at any one time. Today there are some amazing Natural History exhibits on display including “Sue” the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever discovered, a huge collection of dinosaurs and one of the largest collections of taxidermy anywhere.



The third member of our Chicago Trifecta is the equally incredible Art Institute of Chicago. This amazing museum is home to many of the great masterpieces that anyone with even a casual interest in art would recognize. Located in Grant Park, just northeast of the other two, the Art Institute is one of the leading art museums in the world.

Art Institute of Chicago





It is home to what is recognized as the best collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works in the world. Just as an example, they are home to six of the series of eighteen haystack paintings done by Monet- no other institution in the world has more than two. Also in the collection are important works by Renoir such as “Two Sisters (On the Terrace)” and Henri Matisse's “The Bathers”, Paul Cézanne's “The Basket of Apples”, and “Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair”. Non-French paintings of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection include VanGogh’s ” Self-portrait, 1887”. Among the most important works of the American collection are Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”, and Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks”.





The museum is huge and we could not possibly cover all of it, but we caught the highlights and had an amazing time checking out works both familiar and unknown. Considering that the heat wave had temperatures outside in the high 90s and a heat index of 115, being inside fantastic iconic and air conditioned museums seemed like a perfect day in Chicago.



Kathy



Shedd Aquarium

Field Museum

Art Institute of Chicago