Visiting the Twin Cities and Chicago

I had a brief day and a half in the Twin Cities. After a week in the dorms, having a hotel room complete with private bath seemed like a palace. Karen and I got a ride earlier than we expected, so I had enough time to see the Walker on Saturday. The Picasso exhibit was quite interesting, particularly seeing the maquette of the sculpture that I got to see in Chicago. I was also enchanted by the sculpture garden, particularly Stonebridge and Cherry. I hadn’t realized when I looked at pictures before I went that the whole thing is a fountain!

I had a lovely Sunday in St. Paul. I arrived for the 11 a.m. worship, having completely forgotten that I had told Paul my original plan to go to the early worship so that I could go to the Walker between meeting and singing (sorry, Paul). It was a lovely meeting for worship, in any case. Then Paul took me home with him. I got to meet his kids and the cats, though sadly I missed meeting Lovely Wife who was out of town. He made us a simple lunch, we went for a walk by the Mississippi River, and we sat on their porch and watched a thunderstorm and talked until it was time to go to the singing at St. Sahag’s.

The singing at St. Sahag’s was marvelous—the church has a great sound, and there were at least 40 strong singers present. It was a relief to just sit in the back and sing—and not be responsible for anything! I was pleased to realize that in addition to knowing Paul and Gerry (another Twin Cities Friend), I also knew Steven Levine and Paul Wilson. I had met both of them at singings in California.
I took the train the next day for Chicago, finishing the Empire Builder route. I arrived to find that the private hostel room I had reserved smelled kind of funny and had no air conditioning. I really need to accept that I am not the sort of person that enjoys staying in hostels. Anyway, I took a long walk in the rain and found a hotel that I absolutely loved: The Inn at Lincoln Park. It wasn’t grand by hotel standards or anything, but compared to the hostel... Once settled, I headed out for blues and dinner. I was so exhausted, I can’t say I got my money’s worth from the cover charge, but I did enjoy my visit to Kingston Mines.

I took a Chicago Architecture Foundation tour on the Chicago River on Tuesday before I took the train to Princeton to meet Katie and Dan. This is the one time Amtrak let me down- several delays had me worried that I would have to turn around as soon as I got there. But it all worked out fine. We got to the restaurant where we were celebrating Dan’s birthday a bit early, so I got to talk with just them for a while before their friends arrived. Then I got to meet their friends and enjoy pretty decent Mexican food together. It turns out my train was late getting in, so we had a bit longer to talk before I headed off.

I really enjoyed the Art Institute. I felt rather dazzled by the impressionist rooms, as if I had walked into a jewel box. I was entertained by Millenium Park. I loved the fountain and the jellybean sculpture (properly known as Cloud Gate).

I had a blast in at the Notabaert Nature Museum, particularly in the butterfly house. I liked the zoo, and especially enjoyed the conservatory.
I got to go to the Hyde Park singing on Thursday. Carolyn had very kindly put me in touch with Ted Mercer so that I could get a ride there. Ted was incredibly welcoming. He kept introducing me to everyone, and prompted me to tell everyone the names of the folks I sing with in Berkeley that had come from Chicago. They even afforded me the honor of the last song before the closing song, so I led 229 Irwinton. Again, I expected to only know Ted, and so was surprised to see two people I had met this winter at the Harmonia Sacra singing, Ginny Landgraf and Jim Helke. It also turned out that many of these folks were coming to sing in Goshen, Indiana and in Michigan, so I got to see them again.