Today I began my adventures by tying up some loose ends in the loop. I walked a route that took me past a number of the public art installations, then over to the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. The line to get up the tower was a little under an hour long, and while the views were rewarding, overall I felt the John Hancock tower was a better value (and far less crowded).
From there I wandered past the library, which I had wanted to get some pictures of since I first saw it on Sunday. That accomplished, I grabbed a quick lunch, then headed out to Oak Park via the L.
In Oak park I more or less just walked around taking pictures of houses, most notably some of the ones designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a great day for a walk, and Oak Park was an interesting neighbourhood to explore.
On the way back to downtown, I intended to hit a store whose address was just a few blocks from the Ashland / Lake L station. It turns out this store only sells online, and the address was that of their warehouse. It was an interesting neighborhood full of run down older factories, car repair shops, and I presume a higher than average crime rate after the sun sets.
That brief misadventure concluded, I returned to the hotel via the L and am taking a brief break before supper.
I spent nearly an entire day at the Art Institute of Chicago today, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was a little overwhelming.
I found the arrangement of art by rough date and style to be quite useful in navigating the collection, and saw the things I expected to see (Picasso, Monet, Manet, O’Keefe, …) as well as some unexpected things (a colleciton of WWII-era posters from the Soviet Union, an exhibit about Japanese Kimonos).
And as a sort of lead-in to what I plan to do tomorrow, there was also a collection of Frank Lloyd Wright windows in the museum…
Monday and Tuesday in Chicago were mostly spent doing Architecture-ish things. Monday after sleeping in I went down to take in one of the river tours offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It was really enjoyable, and a great introduction to the city. The docent definitely knew her stuff. There were such a huge variety of buildings on the tour, and along with the history and some of the background it was really quite fascinating.
The downside of the river tour is that you don’t get to go into any of the buildings (some of them have really interesting interiors) but it does give you a good vantage point and you cover a lot of ground in 90 minutes.
After the tour, I went to Millenium Park for a short while. I didn’t explore the entire park but did check out the Jay Pritzker Pavillion and the Cloud Gate before deciding I had enough sun, and came home.
Today I spent exploring the Magnificent Mile on foot, including a trip to the observation floor in the John Hancock tour. It was interesting to see, although that part of the city had a different feel for me than downtown did. I did pop into the Drake and the Intercontinental Hotels, but parts of both were closed off for private functions so I guess I picked the wrong day.
I also glanced at some of the shops in the area, with pretty much all of the big names represented at some point, and some ultra-high-end brands like Hermes have stores on Oak Street. The only store I really spent any time in was the 5-story Crate and Barrel store on Michigan Avenue.
From there, I walked along the river to the lake, then along the lake, and back over to Millenium Park. I spent a few minutes there literally cooling my heels in the water beside the one walkway (it’s constructed for this purpose, interestingly enough). After being there twice in 2 days, and exploring more of the park, it definitely seems to me that Millenium Park is a great example of what an urban park can / should be. It’s got something for everyone and it’s a fantastic outdoor space.
Just before getting back to the hotel, I popped into a used music/movie/game shop that had a small amount of vinyl, and picked up Treats by Sleigh Bells. That’s probably enough records for this trip, but it’s been fun hunting.
After a mostly uneventful flight to Chicago on Saturday, I’ve been fairly busy sightseeing and catching up with friends.
Saturday was mostly just spent getting settled and getting my bearings. I had a good seared tuna sandwich for supper in Andersonville before heading down to Lakeview. I decided to skip Market Days and do a bit of wandering down Clark and Broadway instead.
Sunday morning I met a friend at the Metra station downtown and we ended up having lunch at a pub whose name I can’t recall. I do remember the veal was really tasty and that I tried a local craft beer of some sort that was also tasty. From there we headed to Lakeview to take in Market Days. My general impression was that it was a larger and somewhat more fun version of the Lilac Festival in Calgary. Lots of people but because the street is reasonably broad, it never felt crowded the way Calgary street festivals always seem to.
It was fun, but only for so long, and afterwards we did a bit of shopping on Broadway and Clark streets. Specifically, I wanted to hit a couple of record stores. I managed to pick up the following:
Brian Eno / David Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (original 1981 release)
LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening
And a couple of misc 7″ singles.
We also went out for supper at a Persian restaurant that was every bit as good as Atlas in Calgary, although no saffron ice cream for dessert.
The third and final moment of the trip that sticks out in my head comes from a day of hiking at Deception Pass.
My usual hiking season in the Calgary area is July-September, with maybe one hike in June depending on the spring conditions in the mountains. I also rarely hike at sea level, and so I decided I would do a hike in the Seattle area that was relatively easy, at sea level, and within a couple hour’s drive. I chatted with a few friends and Deception Pass seemed like a good fit.
The day was gray, but it wasn’t raining, and the temperature was perfect for a day of hiking. There are 3 short loop trails that all share a common trail head and which were described as offering good views of the pass, so I chose those as my plan for the day. I set off first to to a loop around Rosario Head, and was somewhat underwhelmed. I remember thinking, “OK that was kind of neat, but did I really drive 90 minutes for this?”
The next hike around Lottie Point was frustrating at first, with very little to see besides trees. As I came around the back side of the point and saw a side trail heading down towards the shoreline, I decided to follow it, and was rewarded with a fantastic view of deception pass. It was really something to see, and the scale was difficult to judge until I saw a truck pulling a 53′ trailer cross the bridge moments later. Wow.
The views from Lighthouse Point were better than those from Lottie Point, but I’ll never forget the first good look at the pass that day.
Given our late spring in Calgary, when I left for Seattle I hadn’t been out to play disc golf even once, and I was hoping to play a game and go shopping at a store with a decent selection of discs (which Calgary lacks).
I succeeded on both counts in Seattle. First, I went to play the Lakewood course which I really enjoyed. Being my first game of the season, it took me about the first 9 holes to get warmed up and start feeling comfortable, and while I did better on the last 9, I still didn’t do very well. Notably, I missed a lot of putts I should have made.
So when I went to Chainbangerz after playing the game to purchase discs, and the owner told me about their deal where you can do a 20ft putt and if you make it, you get a discount. After the miserable game I had, I honestly figured I wouldn’t make the putt. He asked what kind of putter I used, and he handed me a very well-loved putter of the same type I usually play with, and lo and behold, I made the 20ft putt like I had been paring the course all day.
Between the great weather, my excitement at getting out and playing and also buying some new discs, and the incredibly cool store and awesome owner, this was quite memorable for me. Maybe I was inspired to make the putt. Secretly I think I was just lucky. Still, I know I won’t forget, and I know I’ll be back.
Now that I’ve had a week to reflect on the experiences I had in the Seattle area and at Sasquatch, there are definitely moments that I know I will never forget from the trip.
If you asked a bunch of random Sasquatch-goers what the most memorable events were for them, you’d find quite a few who had Bassnectar‘s set on their list. I was pretty excited before the set, and I had an inkling of what was coming, but even so I was completely unprepared.
Bassnectar opened with Teleport Massive, and something truly magical happened at the first bass drop.
This is the best video I’ve found so far (no, I didn’t take the video) of the start of his set. If you look you’ll see me off to the right from time to time (I’m wearing the glowing yellow cowboy hat).
Literally thousands of glow sticks were thrown during the hour-long set, with I’d guess about 50% of them during the span of that video. It was indescribable.
And I know there were thousands of glow sticks because I brought 1,000 on my own, and in the area around me I saw another 6,000 or so between a number of different people. Of course, we were all handing them out prior to the start of the set to anyone who wanted them. Sheer madness. And I can’t possibly forget being there.
All good things must come to an end. When I woke up at 6:00am on Tuesday, this was very much apparent. I had the foresight to take down part of my campsite Monday afternoon, and so by the time I woke up, had a very quick breakfast, and packed up the rest of my camping gear it was a little before 7:00am and I began the journey home
The drive home was long, the wait at the border was long, but luckily traffic really wasn’t all that bad. I stopped at Mr. Mike’s in Cranbrook for some lunch, and decided on a salad. Given my festival food diet over the previous days, I remember thinking, “so this is what vegetables taste like.”
When I arrived home safely, it took another hour and a bit to get everything unpacked, but since I left so early I still managed to do that before I went to sleep.
I took home many great memories of Sasquatch, and although I’m not sure whether I’ll do it again next year or not, I’m excited for my next music festival which so far looks like it will be Coachella 2012.
By the final day of the festival, my body was already showing signs that I was pushing limits and needed to slow down a bit, so Monday was a little more relaxed than the previous days. There was a lot of water, a lot of sunblock, and several hours of just relaxing and lying in the shade. Oh, and music, of course. For me, the day started out with
Old 97′s
Which I had problems getting into, but really they weren’t that bad. Despite being quite tired physically, I downed some more water and headed into the fray for
Chromeo
Which was far and away the sexiest dance party of the entire weekend. Such a blast, and a good way to get energized for the rest of the day. The inflatables were fun too. For the next while there wasn’t a lot that interested me so I caught my first and only comedy act of the weekend,
The Scott Aukerman & Paul F. Tompkins Show
which was the Worst. Comedy. Act. Ever. Guided by Voices would have been infinitely more fun. But It was a good excuse to lie in the shade for an hour and rest before
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Which were the most surprising act of the weekend for me, and my favorite “never heard them before” artist. Sharon is a total diva, and she knows exactly what she’s doing on stage. At one point, a guy managed to slip over the barrier and start to climb the stage. Security pulled him down, but Sharon told them to let him go, and he got up on stage. She totally rocked out with the guy who was clearly having the time of his life. Such an awesome performer. I’ve never really given soul / funk much of a thought until now. Stand up and take notice, ladies and gentlemen. This is how it’s done.
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Were another act I hadn’t really heard much about, but I knew I had to see them. It was just 2 people and 2 acoustic guitars, but they managed such a display of musical prowess that I was once again blown away. They reminded me somewhat of Jesse Cook, and that’s not a bad thing at all. I think I danced for about 1/2 of their set up on the hill which probably made me look pretty silly, but I was definitely enjoying myself. Which is maybe part of why
Skrillex
was such a huge disappoinment (second only to the Flaming Lips). I enjoy his recorded music, but he just isn’t very good live. Lots of people in the dance tent were having a good time, but I quite honestly wasn’t. Maybe it’s because I was surrounded by sweaty, smelly kids who were obviously extremely high and dancing like they were being attacked by a pack of rabid wolves. Skrillex’ poor performance live coupled with the crowd completely ruined it. I gave it 20 minutes before heading back to the hill for
The Decemberists
Who I enjoyed immensely. I did not however stick around to see
Wilco
as a storm was rolling in and I was completely exhausted. I simply left, and slept hard.
After such a fantastic day Saturday, I wasn’t sure how Sunday would measure up. As it turns out, Sunday was no slouch either. While I can’t point to as many single things as I could on Saturday, Sunday turned out to probably be the day I enjoyed the most overall.
I arrived in time to catch most of
The Drums
Which was better than I expected, but the real reason I was down in the pit was for
Fitz and the Tantrums
who I was really looking forward to seeing. They definitely didn’t disappoint, and it was a pretty good dance party right up front. At this point in my day, things started to go a bit astray though: I got an ear plug stuck in my right ear such that I wasn’t able to remove it. So instead of sticking around to see
Tokyo Police Club
I went to the medical tent to get the earplug removed. Astonishingly, the medical tent didn’t have any tweezers (!), so they ended up digging the earplug out with a needle. With that taken care of, I went to see the last half of
Sam Roberts Band They played the only song of theirs I know during the part I caught, which was nice. The rest of their stuff was so-so.
City and Color
Was interesting. I wasn’t super impressed by the music, but the lead singer has an incredible voice. Additionally, I had an ice cream bar special delivered (long story) which totally made my afternoon. After that I got situated up on the hill to watch
Flogging Molly
and the insane dance party I knew that would result. I didn’t want to be in the dance party in this case, just wanted to watch from afar. It was quite a lot of fun, even as a spectator. I then moved to a different spot on the hill to watch the sunset and
The Flaming Lips
Which turned out to be my biggest disappointment of the weekend. They started out strong, but Wayne kept blabbing on and on at random in between songs, and even in between verses of songs, which completely ruined the flow of the show. I wish he would have just shut up and played some music. I think they managed only 8 songs in a 90 minute set. Yuck. The sunset was pretty though.
Modest Mouse
Prompted a trip down to the floor to get somewhere warmer as well as some flat space to dance. They completely made up for the Flaming Lips and I had a fantastic time at the show. Another highlight of the weekend for sure. I was tired, so didn’t stick around for any of the late night stuff.
Jeremiah Wittevrongel lives in Calgary, Canada. Though he works as a software developer and loves what he does,
this blog isn't about that. It's about the rest of his life, which tends to revolve around music, board gaming, hiking, travelling, and cooking.
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