Monday, July 19, 2004

two weddings, two weekends



Part I

One of my cousins met a woman from Wheeling IL in college and married her two weeks ago. This was an opportunity for most of my mom's family, from the Rochester area, to converge on the Chicago suburbs. Mom and Donna stayed with us, as did Katie and Todd; the first trip to Chicago for them, and first in a long while without the boys. Friday we did the touristy stuff, taking an architectural cruise and hitting the Art Institute to see if my sister would cry at the site of her favorite painting, which calls for a digression:



One of the boardgames we had as kids was Parker Brothers' Masterpiece. In it you bid at auction for various works of art, all of which were, in this edition, from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Katie's favorite painting was this, and if we ever outbid her on it in this stupid game, she'd cry and pout. I was always a fan of this, and Hopper's probably my favorite artist, but I always found this strangely alluring.



No crying, I don't think. But we all converged on the painting ahead of her and watched her discover it, which was a nice moment. We also saw what little of Millennium Park was open at the time. Since it will be a point of contention for tourists and residents for years to come, I want to go on record as being pro-"The Bean."



Wedding was Saturday. Pretty big affair. We all crashed at the hotel near the reception and I lured 10 people to the nigh-legendary Walker Brothers for breakfast. There was some grousing about driving so far, but the food put a stop to that right quick.

No comments:

Post a Comment