Back to that same old place, Sweet Home Chicago!

This year was our first Independence Day as American citizens. And the celebrations were as diverse as America itself: 

First the neighborhood party and backyard fireworks in rural Kentucky, then a patriotic symphony concert in Indiana and finally, on the actual 4th of July, 96 floors above the city of Chicago! Looking down at the city lights and the fireworks 1,000 feet below reminded us why Chicago was the place that made Sandra and me fall in love with America 30 years ago. Happy Birthday, America!

Celebrating America's Birthday in Chicago

But let’s pick up where we were at the end of the last blog post: Leaving Kentucky with the toilet brush head stuck in Joy’s septic tank….or so we thought. We had spent the better part of our last day in Kentucky trying to get it out. Well, technically, we spent the worse part of the day doing that. At some point we gave up, not realizing that on the very last flush, the brush head must have finally made its way through the drain pipe. Had we checked just one more time, we would have never met the nice people at the RV repair shop and we would have had to think of something else to do with those $300.

Digital Ceiling at the
Indianapolis Museum of Art

One of our favorite attractions on this trip was Conner Prairie in Indiana (Thank you, Ute for the suggestion!). This historical park and living history museum was right up our alley! Way up actually: The very first thing we did at Conner Prairie was to take a tethered helium balloon up to 370 feet above the park. This ride commemorates the historic 1859 balloon ride from Indiana to New York, which was the very first airmail delivery, predating even the Pony Express!

View from the balloon ride 
down at Conner Prairie

Next, we went to the Indian camp at Conner Prairie, where we had an interesting talk with a member of the Delaware Indian tribe. We really need to come up with better names. Calling them Indians simply because Columbus didn’t know where he was 531 years ago does not make sense. And Delaware might be the official name given to this tribe, but it’s not their real name, it was just the name of a close by river, which is named after Lord de la Warr from England. The real name of the tribe is 'Lenape', but apparently, they are ok being called Delaware Indians, just as long as we don’t make them move again.

Delaware Indian, not from India,
and not even from Delaware

They had to relocate 17 times, which obviously was a tragic injustice at the time, but comes in handy now because they were given the right to do business and being exempt from paying taxes in any of the locations they were chased away from. And in the last half century, America has gotten a little better at honoring the treaties made with native tribes, so they take advantage of that mostly by opening up casinos. And in an ironic reversal of history, now they are getting white people drunk to take their money.

William Conner is the namesake of this park and you can still visit his 1823 home. The Conners have an interesting family tree since it includes Europeans, Native Americans, Europeans raised as Native Americans and Natives raised by Europeans. The home of the Conners was the hub of activity in the area, their dining room also doubled as a post office and bank at times.

The “Prairie Town” at Conner Prairie is set in 1836. Which means we got there just a few weeks after the fateful events at the Alamo down in Texas. But most of the town seemed unaware of this or they didn’t remember. We enjoyed talking to the townsfolk, including the physician, the blacksmith and the storekeeper. 

General Store of the fictional Prairie Town,
where it's always 1836

Time flies by when you are having fun. Just when we thought it was time to leave, we realized it was 1863 and the Confederate troops attacked. They ransacked the store we were in and burned down a house. But don’t worry, we heard that the Union troops came to the rescue soon after we left.

This part of the park is set in 1863,
which means this poor building gets
attacked by Confederates every day

We stayed at the Conner Prairie until the evening, when they held their annual “Star Spangled Symphony”. This is a patriotic symphony concert featuring American classics and classical American music. And Scott, the Emcee of the evening, just happens to be our friend Ute’s college buddy. 

"The Star Spangled Symphony"
at Conner Prairie

We met Scott during intermission and to our surprise, he thought that our story of coming to America, living in Hawaii, roadtripping through the country and now celebrating our first 4th of July as American citizens fit right in with the patriotic theme of the evening. So after intermission, he told the story on stage and we got a round of applause from a few thousand people just for doing what we love doing.

With Ute's college buddy Scott

The concert was cut short by one song because of an approaching thunderstorm. Weirdly enough, they continued the whole fireworks show, even while demanding that everybody leaves the amphitheater. For the grand finale of the fireworks, there were only a handful of people left. Maybe the organizers were afraid of being sued. That is such an American thing, it would fit very well with the patriotic theme.

Happy 247th Birthday, America!

We had time for one more round of disc golf, one more BBQ and then it was time to get Joy ready for storage while we are heading to Europe. We found a nice, secure summer home for her outside of Chicago. We promised her to be back in time to bring her somewhere warmer before the winter.

Joy's home, sweet home for three months

We spent 4 days in Chicago with our friends Terry & Jeanne. This was serendipitous timing since our friend Achim from Germany was visiting them at the same time. Luckily, they have a large enough place to accommodate this German invasion. 

Seems like a few new buildings popped up
 just since we were in Chicago last year

As mentioned before, Chicago is the city that made Sandra and me fall in love with America. So it’s only appropriate that we spent our first 4th of July as Americans here. Just walking through the city is an experience, whether it’s through the free Lincoln Park Zoo, along Lake Shore Drive, on the Magnificent Mile, along the Riverwalk or through the deep canyons between the skyscrapers in the Loop. We already picked out a few condos that we will probably never buy.

We love the new and improved
Chicago River Walk

We will also never get tired of taking the architectural cruises on the Chicago River. There is always a new building added or we simply forgot the stories behind the old buildings. 

View from the 96th floor at the Hancock
during the day

...and at night!

Our favorite Chicago traditions is to go up to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building. It is a happy coincidence that the place with our favorite view also serves our favorite cocktail. We actually went there twice, the second time was on the actual 4th of July when we could see the fireworks going off all over the city. We love the Signature Lounge as much as 30 years ago, the only difference is that now we can afford to order a second round of ’Signature Coladas’.

The Signature Colada,
just as good as 30 years ago!

Not to be outdone by the Conner Prairie and to extend the festive season, Chicago also organized a patriotic symphony concert. This one was on the 5th of July at Grant Park and was even free. Unfortunately, the thunderstorm came even earlier this time. Only about 20 minutes into the concert the skies opened up and the musicians and audience ran for cover. 

At Grant Park Music Festival,
Terry caught one of the flashes! 

Our new Chicago tradition is to visit the Driehaus Museum just around the corner from Terry and Jeanne. It’s a Gilded Age Mansion with an interesting history and changing exhibits, the current one being about Hector Guimard and the Art Nouveau movement.

At the Driehaus Museum, a Gilded Age
mansion between the skyscrapers 

One place that will definitely not become a tradition is the ‘Harry Potter Magic at Play’ experience. It sounded interesting, but I thought it was almost comically bad. The only good thing about it was the lighting. By that I mean that the lighting was so good that, even if you tried, you could not avoid seeing the string on the feather, which you were supposedly lifting with a magic wand. At least I found out that I am a Hufflepuff, but later I learned that this was just a random recoding in the background, not even a random announcement from the sorting hat. And what's the point of building platform 9 1/2 if you can't walk through the wall? So many missed opportunities.

Don't judge by the smiles and save your money,
instead of going to the Harry Potter experience,
have another Signature Colada!

Now we are on the plane to Europe. Even though the baby in front of us has stopped crying, we did not change our mind about having one. But we are sure glad our parents did, so we are on our way to spend some time with them and thank them for that.

And that’s the news from Lake Michigan, where all Germans come to celebrate America, where all the Catan games are exciting and all the buildings are taller than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra