Page 3

Chicago

Friday - - 20 September 2013

Friday morning Joseph and I left Sheboygan, WI for Chicago.
It was drizzling rain for the first half of the trip.
We stopped at a large REI store in Northbrook, IL to get good cold weather clothes
for Joseph to have so he could survive the Chicago winter.
From there we drove into town and checked into the hotel.

curious statue
mounted on the corner of the building north across the street from our hotel.

Chicago South Loop Hotel
Convenient, comfortable, free parking, polite desk people.
We arrived at the hotel mid-afternoon and settled in.

Then had a drive to the New Graduate Residence Hall at the U. Chicago Campus
to establish our bearings for subsequent trips.

Off the SW corner of the dorm

The west side of the dorm.

After returning to the hotel we asked about nearby restaurants.
The desk staff recommended 2, a Mexican food restaurant and Ricobenes, an Italian restaurant both were a few blocks west on 26th Street.
We chose Ricobenes, as we had good Mexican at home. It was a good experience. This is a notable restaurant
and has considerable local patronage. The guy standing in line to order used to live in the neighborhood
and came back that evening for the food from West Chicago. It is also patronized by local law enforcement.
I agree with the reviewer that the breaded steak sandwich is great. Portions are generous.
The building itself is old style. For instance, the floor is covered with tiny hexagonal tiles, which were popular in the 1930s.
Mona and Jenny were to arrive about midnight, but weather and flying delays prevented that.

Saturday - - 21 September 2013

Hurricane Ingrid a minimal storm, but very wet, turned into Mexico on Monday, 16 September and rained heavily through Monday 23 September, unsettled the weather enough that Mona and Jenny's flight from McAllen to Houston was delayed until the last connecting flight to Chicago had already left. They got a flight early the next morning, and instead of arriving near midnight on Friday/saturday they arrived 10:40 Saturday morning, very tired.

Joseph and I picked them up at OHare Airport. On the drive to the airport about 9 AM the traffic coming in looked like a 4 lane parking lot.
Joseph navigated us into town by a better route.

-
From OHare Airport to downown we had a better route with less traffic.

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and a short rest at the hotel we launched out for a blitz driving tour of the Univ. of Chicago campus so they could get a first impression.

The NE corner of the dorm, where we will turn in Sunday morning to deliver Josephs stuff.

The back (south side) of the New Graduate Residence Hall - note the loading area in the middle.

The staircase at the front of the NGRH (dorm).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Off the north edge of campus we had an excellent middle eastern meal at the Nile restaurant, near a small fire station and some crab apple trees in fruit.

and passed Pierce Hall, the large dorm which is being replaced and is already partly torn down.
(note crane behind the big building)

Architectural detail as we drove back through campus.

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We asked the gps about Target stores and it directed us to one some 4 miles south of U.Chicago.

So we drove to it through an interesting neighborhood,
and did some successful shopping for medium level cold weather clothes.

then drove along Lakeshore Drive to a 3 story Target store just north of our hotel and finished some shopping.

Rested an hour at the hotel then off to find a Chicago Deep Dish pizza for supper in downtown.

We ended up at Lou Malnati's authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza on State Street,
the same place where Joseph and I had pizza when we were in Chicago in April.
We parked in an expensive lot and only had to walk a block to the restaurant.
It was crowded nearly out the door, but we perserveared and learned the procedure.
One ordered one's pizza immediately then stood or parked on a stool in a waiting area until there was a table or booth.
I noted another older couple with a college age boy... yes, they too were going to move into a dorm at U. Chicago the next morning. They were from Iowa.
It turned out that many of those crowding around the order desk were ordering take-out
so within an hour we found ourselves in a booth, and some 20 min. later we had a huge pizza to eat.

Jenny and Joseph

Gerard and Mona

Sunday - - 22 September 2013
move-in day

We got up fairly early to get in line to be in good position to be one of the first to move in to the dorm.
While move-in time was 9 AM firmly observed we thought it would be a good idea to get in line early to be among the first.
Jenny found me coffee at the hotel 7 AM. Then we headed over to the NGRH to the position we scouted out the previous day.
We arrived perhaps second to one other car and sat there munching on goodies we had in the Suburban.

The corner of Kenwood and 60th.
Photo taken at 7:22 AM, from the drivers window of the Suburban while we waited.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While waiting I took a few pictures.

Chapin Hall, the building next to NGRH to the East

detail over the door of the building pictured above

The line-up for unloading at the back - about 30 minutes before time.

a first year young lady of Midway House, Joseph's roommate, Joseph - ready to enter life at U. Chicago

Unloading proceeding

Mona and Jenny

With most of Joseph's stuff

Joseph went inside to get signed in - get his key and ID card.

The hole between the first floor and second floor from below and above

The line was long and processed slowly, or so it seemed.
Joseph is standing way in the back, in the middle of the picture.

sign-in to get ID card

- -
First look at the inside of the room

- -

- -
Looking outside the window - some still unloading cars.

setting up the bed

Joseph's roommate, Henry, arrived. The Micro-Fridge got moved to a more convenient place,
and more setup was done. A lot of stuff got put away in the room.

Then we went over to a buffet lunch at Ida Noyes Hall

To get to the main campus one needs to cross 60th Street (the 2 lane side street immediately in front of the dorm.)
Then cross both double lane parts of the very wide boulevard called

The middle of that boulevard is a wide grassy area and has various playing fields.

finally cross E. 59th Street (a narrower 2 lane street going one-way to the West)
then one was on the U. Chicago campus proper.
(You can see the top of the Rockafeller Chapel rising above the trees on the right.)

Ida Noyes Hall is one of the many older buildings. It is not air conditioned.
To cool the area they removed the panes from a few of the windows in what was the dining area
and ducted in cool air from external air conditioners which only needed to be there for a short time.
Note the window unit in the window in the upper level.
Those of us from modern Texas find this interesting. All the large universities we visited,
both on the east and west coast had added on cooling units in the older buildings.

- -
The buffet was seated by House - we sat with Midway house

After lunch Joseph had a manitory meeting, and family members had a number of possible things to do.
We walked across campus, heading north from the middle of the main quadrangle
through the Hull Gate

past the biology pond

and through the Cobb Gate

(south side Cobb Gate)

- -
(inside Cobb Gate)

then crossing 57th Street toward the Regenstein Library,

then jogged NE (right) to the area between Bartlett Commons and the Library,
to the new family reception where there were tables set up booth-like advertising various campus organizations,
profering maps, giving away pens and various useful things, selling T-Shirts etc.
- -
Mona, Jenny and I visited them all, Joseph joined after his meeting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We entered the Regenstein Library, had a look,

- -

then took the connecting corridor to
the Mansueto Library and waited for the tour of the lower levels.

Reading room area in Mansueto Library.
The glass is 3 layers thick and admits only a small fraction of the sunlight.

The desk where you get help and pick up the books you requested.
After the bin which they are in is brought up by one of the robot cranes.
The librarian manually picks the book out of the bin for use
and the bin is sent back to where it belongs by the robot crane.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Book and manuscript repair facility

Some of the tools of the trade

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mansueto Library - lower levels of special storage

cutaway diagram showing the lower level the stacks of bins and robot elevators

There is an elevator for people to get down to the bottom of the stacks area.

Lower levels - book storage in metal bins

looking up

The crane-like machine which pulls the bins out - there are several of these.

bin of books in which lies the book which was sent to be fetched by a request sent to the system
The book probably will be in a different bin when it is returned,
and the system will remember where it was put.
Books are stored by size to maximize the capacity of the system.
There is a bank of special bins for over sized books.

After the Mansueto tour we headed out through Regenstein and

leaving the Regenstein walking towards Cobb Gate

past Hutchinson Hall on the left.

Then after passing through the gate past the biology pond and turning left

past the the large tent set up in the green area south of Hutchinson

and through the passage next to Eckhart Hall to University Ave,

- -
to the Oriental Institute Museum.

(Joseph and Jennifer went on to the bookstore.)

Mona and I spent over an hour and a half in the Oriental Institute Museum.
Where I took a lot of pictures (no flash) of the various exhibits.
This museum is dedicated to the history of the area from what is now Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
It has a considerable collection of cunieform tablets, items from the Hittite empire, the Tigrus-Euphrates civilizations
and some very interesting exhibits on ancient Egypt and the Persian empire.

For much more detailed page on the museum click on the link below.
- page 3b - Oriental Institute Museum - detail - Univ. of Chicago

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above the result of the seal's use - below the actual cylindrical seal and the image it made on soft clay

a Lamassu (winged bull) from the throne room of Assyrian King Sargon II

Dead Sea Scroll fragment

from the tomb of Nefermaat and Itet - Old Kingdom - 2430 B.C.

ancient Egyptian boat model - tools - baskets

~ ~ ~ Persia

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Jenny and Joseph met us at the museum. From there we walked back to the dorm.
Joseph had a meeting and supper.
We drove back to the hotel, rested for an hour, then had supper in the restaurant at the hotel.