Can you spell "syzygy" ("the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies --- as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse --- in a gravitional system"; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary)? That word sets off a cascade of laughs and songs in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", a Broadway musical that has been playing at Chicago's Drury Lane Theater for the last two years. We spent a rainy (thunderstorms are booming near our hotel as I write this) Saturday afternoon chuckling and guffawing over the lines in this
imaginative play delivered by a superbly talent group of Midwestern actors. (Click here for the latest news on the 2007 national spelling bee).We began the day with a "self-guided" tour of Marshal Field's flagship department store (now a Macy's) in the "Loop" area. One of its impressive features is a domed mosaic ceiling constructed by the Tiffany Company of New York; another is the elegant "Walnut Room" restaurant where a 2 1/2 story decorated tree is erected every Christmas.
Before and after the play, we checked out the fairly weird stuff at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The best piece is actually on the sidewalk outside of the museum. Entitled "Shortcut", it is a car and house trailer jackknifing their
way vertically out of the concrete.
Despite the dreary and damp skies, we were able to catch some fine views of the city from the observation deck of the John Hancock building (known as "Big John" and
the third highest building in Chicago after the Sears Tower and The Aon Insurance building next to our hotel) and could see factories belching smoke and vapors into the skies in Gary Indiana, south across Lake Michigan, and north along the beaches front the lake (as shown in the picture to the left).
Thanks to friends who provided us with a slew of restaurant
recommendations, we enjoined some tasty Italian fare at the Cafe Spiaggia while ensconsced in a little window bay overlooking the hustle and bustle of Saturday night's vehicle and pedestrian traffic at the end of Michigan Avenue's "Magnificant Mile" of shops, hotels and restaurants.
