Jax Stumpes: Chicago I (5/26-27/2017)

Friday, May 26, 2017
Kent and I drove to Chicago today, and checked into the Hyatt Regency Hotel. We are here for a wedding tomorrow. Keith and Mitch are getting hitched, and Brynne has known Keith since middle school in Jacksonville, FL.

View across the Chicago River from our hotel room

Despite a light rain, we took a reconnaissance walk to the wedding venue, following the Riverwalk that extends 1.25 miles along the Chicago River from Wolf Point to Lake Michigan.

Centennial Fountain (1989) water arc (KSS)

"Every hour, on the hour, the fountain shoots a massive water arc across the river from a modernist tiered waterfall for 10 minutes."

Riverwalk Gateway (2000) by Ellen Lanyon with murals
depicting events and landmarks significant
to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan waterfront (KSS)

The Clark Street Float Bridge (1840) was the first of its kind
(not sure of the significance of the snake...) (KSS)

The Great Chicago Fire (1871) (KSS)

Columbia Yacht Club (est 1892) has a Club Ship
instead of a Clubhouse, the QSMV Abegweit,
the world's largest icebreaker when it was launched in 1947 (KSS)

We then headed to the Lincoln Park Condos for the wedding Welcome Dinner on the 44th floor. Even with rain and wind, the view was spectacular.

Looking south along the Lake Michigan shoreline with
Lincoln Park's North Pond below and clouds meandering
through skyscrapers in Chicago's downtown (KSS)

View north along the Lake Michigan shore

Night view south

Saturday, May 27, 2017
A glorious day for a wedding!

Today's view from the hotel room

Mural on the Randolph/Wabash station of the
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) elevated rail line ('L')

After picking up Brynne from Chicago O'Hare Airport, we went to meet Dan and Maggie, with 8-month old Alex. First. a visit to Bazylika Świętego Jacka/St Hyacinth Basilica (1917-1921, designed by Worthmann & Steinbach) at 3636 West Wolfram Street. It was designated a minor basilica in 2003 by Pope John Paul II/Jan Paweł II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła in Wadowice, Poland.

Half of the displayed reliquary collection

Interior (designed by John Anton Mallin)
with a domed crossing

Chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa, with an icon
that was blessed by Pope John Paul II

Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows

Memorial to Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Polish
Roman Catholic priest associated with the
Solidarity trade union in communist Poland,
who was tortured and executed by the
Polish secret police of the time

Jerzy Popiełuszko and Pope John Paul II visited St Hyacinth, among other Polish dignitaries. Jerzy Popiełuszko has been beatified (the first step towards sainthood), and Pope John Paul II has been canonized as a saint.

Memorial to the parishioners who served in
the Błękitna Armia/Blue Army during WWI,
a contingent of Polish volunteers who
fought alongside the allied forces in France

Memorial to Pope John Paul II

Staropolska/Old Poland, the Polish restaurant
at 3030 N Milwaukee Avenue, for lunch

Kent polished off the Polish Plate, with pierogi, sausage with sauerkraut,
a stuffed cabbage, topped with a potato pancake and meat pasty (KSS)

Alex doesn't look very Polish, with the red hair from both her parents

Alex, Dan, Maggie, Brynne, and Kent

Back to the hotel to ready for the wedding.

Following the Riverwalk towards the Lake Shore Drive bridge,
with a metal bouquet of flowers to the right

Navy Pier, an entertainment and exposition destination

Municipal Pier No. 2 opened in 1916, the first of its kind to combine the business of shipping with the pleasure of public entertainment, and at 3,040 feet it remains the longest public pier in the world. It was renamed Navy Pier in 1927, and used exclusively by the US Navy during World War II. After the war, the University of Illinois used the space for their first Chicago campus. When the university moved to its new home in 1966 and with the decline in shipping, the pier fell into neglect. Renovation prepared the space for exhibitions and entertainment to celebrate the bicentennial of the nation, and over the years, in time for the pier's bicentennial, it has again become a popular destination for locals and visitors.

Some concrete tetrapods (used to build breakwaters)
cum contemporary sculptures

Brynne and Kent at the Columbia Yacht Club

Brynne and Tamiko (KSS)

The hold of the MV Abegweit

The Club Ship of the Columbia Yacht Club is fantastic venue for a wedding!

Bruce L's aunt plays piano

View south from the ship

Marylee and Keith

I hope the wedding photographer took great photos! We normal folks had a back lighted view. The wedding ceremony was done with elegance and heart-felt meaning. And thus, Keith and Mitch got hitched!