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A Week in Photos: 2023, Part 22

June 16, 2023

As will become clear almost immediately, I was traveling again and not posting here. In a bold move, I didn’t even take my laptop with me. The catching up begins now.

Monday, May 29: Last day of the conference. These wall sconces in some of the classroom spaces are more interesting than most, what with the various sizes of rings and the asymmetrical design of how they’re put together. Must be hard to clean, though.

Detail of a lamp mounted to a light brown wall. The shade is out of frame above a rectangular silver mounting plate. There are many silver rings of various sizes welded together as decoration, with the topmost ones attached to the mounting plate and the ones below hanging below it with the wallpaper showing through behind them.

Tuesday, May 30: Checked out of the conference hotel and drove into Chicago proper to check into another hotel and await Mr. Karen’s arrival from the airport (we decided him taking a rideshare in was preferable to me giving up a parking spot in the high demand area the hotel was in … we’d stayed there before). I had to go down to my car for something after it got dark and was struck by the lit apartments in the building next door.

City scene at night. Parked cars in a lot in the foreground. Seven-story apartment building in the background with some apartment windows lit and some dark. One window is lit in blue and pinks and purples.

Wednesday, May 31: Mr. Karen and I walked over to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play a day game. They lost, which meant we didn’t get to sing “Go Cubs Go” after the game. Still nice to spend the afternoon in the ballpark. After a short break back at the hotel, we went out for Korean food just a short walk away. Ah, big city life.

Red marquee with white lettering reading Wrigley Field, Home of the Chicago Cubs. An electronic signboard build into the marquee says Rays vs. Cubs, 1:20 p.m.

Thursday, June 1: Back to Wrigley Field for us, this time for a tour. Because there was no game, we got to go into the visitors’ locker room and the press box and the Cubs’ dugout, as well as step onto the warning track to get a close look at the ivy (but no touching it) in addition to seeing other parts of the ballpark. After the tour, we walked back to our car and went to try Pequod’s pizza, reportedly among the top Chicago-style pizzas in the city but one which we hadn’t tried before. The distinguishing feature is caramelized cheese on the edge of the crust, which I much appreciated. Satiated, we drove to the suburbs to check into our next hotel.

View from the lower level of the Cubs' dugout at Wrigley Field. There are metal railings painted dark green in the foreground, concrete steps leading up to field level, and the seats and lights of the stadium in the background.

Friday, June 2: In the afternoon, we finally delivered the filing cabinet and boxes of music that I’d drive across the country. That night, we went to see Cirque du Soleil’s show Corteo in its arena configuration. We’d seen it years ago in the big tent in the United Center parking lot, and I’d forgotten a lot of it.

View of a stage from seats high above it. There's a crystal chandelier lit in blue hanging high above the audience. The curtains are painted with elaborate designs: gold scrolls on a dark background to the left and right and a circus performer peeking out of blue curtains in the middle.

Saturday, June 3: Visited with our friend Eli in the afternoon and then went to our high school class reunion in the evening. Somehow I managed to not take any photos of our former classmates, but I did document the grilled cheese truck that served our dining needs. Priorities.

Food truck painted with a tie dye background.

Sunday, June 4: Started our drive home (but not before stopping for more Chicago-style pizza). The highlight of the day was seeing the Jolly Green Giant statue, which we’d never seen despite it being less than a mile from a freeway we’ve driven past on many many times. We read that one of the challenges in designing the statue was figuring out what the back should look like, as the character had never been depicted from any angle but the front.

Statue of a large green man clad in a toga made of leaves, viewed from the back. There is a set of stairs with metal railings leading up to a viewing platform between the statue's spread legs.

*****
On this date in 2009 to 2022: No entries
2008: Weekend Stuff
2006 & 2007: No entries
2005: Letters to Entities That Have Annoyed Me, and One I’ve Forgiven
2004: Champions
2003: No entry
2002: Dad

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