Civilization : Chicago

Once we returned from the wilderness of Isle Royale, we spent another week at my in-laws cabin in the northwoods (still pretty remote if you ask me), before heading on to Chicago. I relished every minute of all the things to do and see in city. Our first stop was Millennium Park, an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design.

Among Millennium Park's prominent features are the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor's hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture (aka the Bean) on the AT&T Plaza. Cloud Gate, a 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives. Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.