I have been to Chicago hundreds of times over the last twenty years, but always just for layovers in O’Hare. The last time I remember walking the city streets was perhaps in 2004 or 2005, a very long time ago — until today.

I had a little extra time in my schedule this afternoon and I decided to check out the Art Institute of Chicago, which was just a couple of blocks away from my hotel. Here is the main entrance on South Michigan Avenue:

I was very impressed. The Institute is a very nice museum, not at all crowded or tight. And the art was amazing. Mind you, I was just at the Louvre last summer, and I am not comparing the two museums in terms of scale. But I loved the museum itself, and the variety and quality of the art. There were many famous pieces that I had only seen in books before, and there were more works from van Gogh than one usually sees in an American museum. With van Gogh, I always want to take photos of them all, but I had to hold myself back, and only show this one here:

The Poet’s Garden.

After several hours and thousands of steps, when my eyes were full and my feet hurt, I left and sat down on the stairs in front of the main entrance. When I looked up, I saw the Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower until it was sold in 2009.

With a height to the roof of 1,450 feet and 1,729 feet including the antenna, this was the highest building in the world from 1973, when it was completed, until 1998, when the Petronas Towers were built in Malaysia. It is still the tallest building in Chicago today.

Here is a better view from a different angle, a few blocks away:

A block in the other direction is the Millennium Park. One of the attractions there is the Jay Pritzker Pavillion:

It is an outdoor theater. There are seats in the front area (the red row) that looks small from where I took the picture, but it actually contains 4,000 fixed seats down there. In addition, there is a 95,000 square foot lawn that can accommodate an additional 7,000 people. 

Here is another photo of the great lawn from further back. This venue reminds me a bit of the Rady Shell in San Diego. We were just there last week for a concert of Hauser (which deserves a post of its own). The Rady Shell has 4,516 fixed seats, with the possibility of increasing to 6,000 for certain events and standing-room-only shows accommodating 8,500. So the two venues are quite similar. 

Another attraction at the Millennium Park is Cloud Gate, which is affectionally called “the Bean.”

This iconic sculpture was created by British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor and has become one of Chicago’s most photographed landmarks. The sculpture measures approximately 66 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 33 feet high, weighing around 110 tons. It is made of 168 stainless steel plates welded together.

I took the above picture and you can see me in the reflection at the red arrow. Due to the distortion, I look much farther away than I actually am. I was no more than 30 feet from the object.

The above photo shows the Bean from another angle. You can see you can go under it, and it’s just as shiny and reflective there, and it really dazzles the eyes, resulting in some disorientation walking under it. Incidentally, above in the distance (red arrow) you see another view of the top of the Willis Tower.

Finally, on my walk back to the hotel, I could not help but noticing the ubiquitous name we can’t seem to get away from nowadays:

The Trump International Hotel and Tower is a skyscraper condo-hotel. The building is a 100-story structure, which reaches a height of 1,388 feet including its spire, its roof topping out at 1,169 feet.

I can’t quite end a post about Chicago with a paragraph about a Trump property, so I will revisit one more painting from the Art Institute: American Gothic by Grant Wood, 1930.

This painting was the inspiration for my own version, titled Pitchfork, which I painted in 2014, featuring my daughter and son-in-law:

This will make for a happy ending of this post.

Outside of Na Nang, in Vietnam, visible across the bay, is the giant and magnificent statue of the Lady Buddha, tượng phật bà quan âm in Vietnamese. You can see the statue in a picture my wife took from the rooftop bar in our hotel on the right side of the image. You can click on the photo to zoom in.

The statue is 67 meters (220 feet) tall, which is about the height of a 22-story building, or something along the height of the neighboring hotels on the left of the photo. It is the tallest Buddha statue in Vietnam. For comparison, Christ the Redeemer, the famous statue in Rio, is 38 meters tall, including the pedestal, which is 8 meters by itself.  At 67 meters, the Lady Buddha is almost twice that tall.

It towers on top of a hill on the Sơn Trà Peninsula in the Monkey Mountains of Da Nang. As we were walking up to it, suddenly it came into view from behind some trees and it’s truly awe inspiring.

Then, finally, after a short walk, we were in front of it.

There is a little shrine underneath inside of it, and there are 17 floors inside of it. Access is restricted or only open during certain ceremonies or with permission. Each floor is dedicated to a different Buddha or Bodhisattva, with small altars and statues. These floors are like small shrines or prayer rooms stacked vertically within the statue. Of course, there are no windows, so it’s probably pretty claustrophobic in there. I didn’t get to go up.

I read one travel blogger claim that the statue is carved from a single block of marble. That is wrong. It would not be possible to carve something this big on site, or transport, let alone make it hollow. It is primarily constructed from reinforced concrete, combining traditional Vietnamese Buddhist architecture with modern design elements.  However, skilled artisans from the nearby Non Nuoc Marble Village were involved in its creation, contributing their craftsmanship to the intricate details of the statue.

We went to Non Nuoc. It is amazing by itself. There are many nearby quarries with excellent marble, and the artisans are very prolific. There are scores of shops, entire warehouses, full of art. Here is a snapshot from one such shop. The yellow building is their showroom.

At the Lady Buddha, here is one more shot with me in it.

The area is called the monkey mountains, and indeed, the trees surrounding the park are inhabited by monkeys.

Finally, before leaving, I looked out over the bay, and here is a parting shot back to the city of Da Nang, with its characteristic high rise hotels, one of which was ours, lining the beach. From there is where we took the first picture in  this post, pointed here.

On a trip to Washington, D.C., where there are more art museums than in any city in America I know, we visited The Phillips Collection.

This boutique museum holds a most incredible collection of astonishing quality. There are several van Gogh works, countless pieces by Monet and Cezanne, and above all, the most Picasso works in one place I have ever seen. There must have been more than 100 Picassos, featuring “the Blue Period” early in his career.

I can highly recommend The Phillips Collection.

Here is a brilliant van Gogh where I lingered for quite a while before I moved on: