A Weekend in Chicago

As I wrote in my previous posting, we were in Chicago for the graduation of our nephew from the University of Chicago.  As that campus is literally across the street from the Lutheran School of Theology, we choose to use housing at that school for our stay in Chicago.

This is one seminary which we had not as yet visited, and it is a school of our church the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Actually it was the first seminary to form when our church broke from the Missouri Synod in the mid 1970s.  My brother Marcus was a student in the exiled seminary (called Christ Seminary-Seminex).  That school joined a seminary of various Lutheran churches outside of the Missouri Synod in 1983.  The building was dedicated by them in 1967. 

After meeting up with members of our family at LSTC, John and I rode with them over to Grant Park for a Blues Festival.  Driving through the park we saw strange headless and armless sculptures.  While researching this later I learned that the art work is called Agora, and the bodies made from iron were created to commemorate the holocaust of Jews during WW11.  They are on permanent loan from the Polish Ministry of Culture.  Chicago has a large Polish community.

Even though it was a warm evening, we had a great picnic in Grant Park while listening to the various musical groups of the festival.  It was so good to be back in Chicago, and to see the downtown along Lake Michigan.  Below is a part of the city skyline as seen from Grant Park.

Saturday, after the graduation, Marcus wanted his graduation celebration to be at a certain Cuban restaurant.  He had spent his last summer in Cuba and enjoyed the cuisine of that country.

We had a good meal at the 90 Miles Cuban Cafe.  Of course everyone knows that Cuba is 90 miles from the Keys of Florida, right?  To be honest, I had forgotten, and I just spent the winter in Florida!
Sunday morning we left Chicago early so that we could attend church services in Joliet (Bekki, the wife of young Marcus, is a pastor at Faith Lutheran in Joilet).
That was pretty much our weekend in Chicago.  It went too fast and the weather became cooler by the time we left.  Once we arrived within the St.Louis area we again felt the 90 degrees plus heat.  Guess that we have about another week of this weather, our air conditioning is now running 24 hours a day and just can not seem to keep up except during the night hours.