90 Chicago Minutes

One of my favorite places to begin a day of shopping on State Street is at Atwood Cafe.  (Yes, a restaurant,  because all great shopping trips begin with great eating!)

The Atwood Cafe

The Atwood is in the Hotel Burnham on the southwest corner of State and Washington.  It was five ’til noon when we popped in looking for a table for two.  “An hour-and-a-half wait,” we were told.  A city “hour-and-a-half” goes by much faster than any other that I know, so we signed up, and off we went to work up our appetites further.  We think about popping into Macy’s but it’s such a fine day, we decided head east, to Millenium Park.

Pritzker's Pavilion ahead in Millenium Park

The Cloud Gate Sculpture, also known as "The Bean"

Very cool little trees with only red berries left

"The Bean"

Day after Thanksgiving, Millenium Park

Not sure what my iPhone camera did to this one but I kind of like it:

The Wait to Skate

Here’s a more “normal” view:

After Millenium Park we were getting a bit chilled so we popped into the first building across Michigan Avenue: The Chicago Cultural Center. (Originally was the first central Public Library in Chicago, founded in 1897.)

I could shower you with photos from the inside of this building.  It not only has incredible architecture, art exhibits, a cafe and cozy reading nooks,  but it’s also so festively decorated!

Here are just a few from my favorite room, Preston Bradley Hall.

Entering

The room houses the largest Tiffany Dome and it’s truly staggering.  When photographing it, you feel though you’ve stepped into a life-size kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope Effect of the Dome

According to the website:

Approximately 38 feet in diameter, the Tiffany dome spans more than 1,000 square feet. It contains approximately 30,000 pieces of glass in 243 sections within an ornate cast iron frame.

 

Tiffany Dome

I overheard a fellow-Chicagoan giving a tour to his family “there’s concerts in here every Wednesday at noon.”  I didn’t know that but I know where I’ll be next Wednesday at noon.  (Also concerts on Mondays.)

The ballroom sized room is decorated elaborately from floor to ceiling in quotes, inscriptions, and mosaic plaques with great thinkers’ name, for instance, Shakespeare:

(Although I took a better-centered shot, I hadn’t used the flash & it’s dull looking without it.  I think you can see the essence of the detail better.  This is a room definitely worth a visit!)

I recommend at least half-day to a whole day to really enjoy Millenium Park & the Chicago Cultural Center, but this was a wonderful preview and we definitely did pass the hour-and-a-half quickly.

I like to be flexible when out and about: here we’d come out to eat and shop and we’ll get to that…but what a wonderful time we had building up to it!

PS: The website has a helpful “My Trip Planner” in case you a planning a trip to Chicago!

Magnificent Message

John Hancock Building & Feeling Festive

Nothing can take the chill out of the air quite like the warmth of the dazzling city lights during the holiday season. I snapped this photo yesterday, Black Friday, where shoppers were bustling about.  It was busy on the Mag Mile.

The message from Michigan Avenue was clear, though never a word was spoken…I heard it in the rustle of shopper’s bags as they brushed by me, the clip-clop of horse’s hoofs as they pulled hansom cabs, the applause of the crowd gathered at the street performance where drummers pounded their plastic containers, and the rapid “beep, beep, beep” of Best Buy’s electronic security system as a customer exited…only to be waved ahead with a smile.  It all cried out to me, “Let the Season begin!”

!!!

Keep the drama on the page.

~ From Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write

Travel, The Sanctuary, Thankful

Spa Foyer, Sanctuary Resort

So many things for which to be thankful.  Today, I’m thinking of safe travels.  I wish everyone making journeys this turkey week a swift, good and safe experience.

Travel and holidays can be stressful so I’ve put together these photos from our stay last summer from The Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa in Paradise Valley, Arizona.  If you’re a local, it’s a wonderful place to rejuvenate and if you visit from out of town, you won’t be disappointed!  The grounds and the spa truly evoked “serenity,” it was a wonderful sanctuary.  Sharing serenity~

"Praying Monk"

Camelback Mountain is to the west of The Sanctuary.  Its views include this, “The Praying Monk.”  The photo is taken from within the Spa meditation area where the water running spills your cares away.  Ahhhhh…

I had the Wild Lime-Blossom treatment and all I can tell you is that I will definitely be going back!

"Praying Monk" from closer elevation, outside the entrance to our room

We stayed in one of the Mountainside Casitas – all rooms have a contemporary feel.

This resort is one of the “Small Luxury Hotels of the World.”

Entry

Kitchenette

Master Suite

View north from the balcony

If you plan a visit, just to mention to you: the grounds are vast and hilly – you’ll be walking inclines (if you workout on an inclined treadmill or hike/climb regularly you’ll be in shape for this.  I recommend not wearing flip-flops – cramped calves!) It’s also mood-lit at night so you will have to tred lightly (they supply a small keychain flashlight which is great.)  They all have a golf cart service so you don’t even have to walk much if you choose not to.  I definitely recommend taking the golf cart back to the room after that massage!

No matter where you are, treat yourself well (be thankful for you!) and Happy Thanksgiving!

No-Bake Turkey Cookies

That’s right.  It’s that time of year again.  That time when people like me freak out because our kitchen skills are numbered and surely we have to bring at least a presentable dessert.

Not to worry for there is the adorable “turkey cookie!”  No baking involved.  Some assembly required!  (Good practice for the next big one, Christmas.)

These couldn’t be easier.  Here’s the metamorphosis from plain Keebler fudge stripe to able-bodied bird:

The “body” is a Milky Way bite-size.  (If you can’t identify the beak, even I can’t help you.)  The feet are Brach’s dark chocolate stars.

All you do is melt some chocolate (I use the leftover stars) – that serves as the “glue.” Press each piece together & wait for it to dry.  As shown, I place the chocolate star last and let them set like so:

(That way the star won’t be pushed forward – you want the star centered at the base.)

The most difficult part some years (I’ve been making them since 1988) is that I can’t find the components.  This year, Wal-Mart actually had everything.

Substitutions:

Feet- Stars work best; I used Hershey’s kisses a couple times & those aren’t bad (Personal preference: dark chocolate looks better to me both on body and feet)

Bodies – The 1988 body style was a “coconut drop.”  Coconut drops come in bags with wax lining and I last found them at Walgreen’s, circa 2006.  Trouble was: a lot of family and friends weren’t crazy about coconut.  The 2009 body, as I mentioned, are milky ways.  (These are truly tasty and work well but you can’t put much pressure affixing the head otherwise the whole thing caves in a bit.)

Other tasty bodies are Reese’s peanut butter cups (if you don’t mind the milk chocolate look) or Mound’s (getting back to the coconut origin in case you can’t find the drops.)

Whatever you use…one thing’s for sure…these are as tasty as they are easy!!  All that’s left to do is to be thankful for “no-bake turkey cookies.”  Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kokololio Crab

I saw this sand crab in September on Kokololio Beach on Oahu.

There is a vastness out there and he’s just a-focusing on his little hole.  The ocean rushes up from time to time, and seems to erase his best efforts.  That Pacific drowns out the hole and fills it back with sand, but he keeps plugging away.

Kokololio Crab

This little guy intrigued me the moment I noticed him and he still does.  He makes me wish I’d gotten a better, tighter photo. But I’m new to photography so I had no idea really what I was doing.  For instance, I’d begun taking photos like this:

All brown, no perspective

Learning something new:…it’s like digging that hole and then being swamped unexpectedly by doubt, lack of motivation, restlessness, illness…

But to remember: I think, cultivating our art – whether it be writing, photography, blogging, cooking, mentoring (you get the idea) – helps us see. Gives us perspective. Gives our mighty digging its own reward. And whatever our personal Pacific is: learning to persevere on our little spot of sand is a great day at the beach!

NaNoWriMo Motivation – Get Water

“Your brain is your biggest liquid asset.  It is composed of more than 85 percent water.  Little wonder then that if you are dehydrated, your thinking ability drops dramatically, as does the performance of your whole body.

*  The human body is 60% percent water, blood is 90% water, muscles are 75% water and bone is 25% water.  Water is one of the main structures of the body.  Drain your body of water and you’ll be left with a few pounds of chemicals worth about $5.00

*  Your brain is 1/50 of your total body weight, but it receives 20% of the blood circulation (1/5 of body’s water requirements come from your brain.

*  It is the most time efficient way of improving your mood and overall performance.  It takes a second to drink a glass of water, but the benefits last for hours.”

~ Excerpt from the book, Mind Games, by Michael Powell

Day 20, NaNoWriMo

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A Writer Is

A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden.  In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

~ Junot Diaz, O Magazine, November 2009

 

The Chase

Writing is a lot like driving a country blacktop highway on a hot summer day.  There is a wavery magical spot that shimmers on the horizon.  You aim toward it.  You speed to get there, and when you do, the “there” vanishes.  You look up to see it again, shimmering in the distance.  You write toward that.  I suppose some people might call this unrequited love or dissatisfaction.  I think it’s something better.  The act of writing, the aiming at getting it right, is pure thrill, pure process, as exciting as drawing back a bow.  Hitting a creative bull’s-eye, a sentence that precisely expresses what you see shimmering on the horizon – those sentences are worth the chase.  But the chase itself, the things you catch out of the corner of your eye – that’s worth something too.  I love it when I write well, but I love it when I write, period.

Excerpt from The Writer’s Life, Insights from The Right to Write, Julia Cameron