Tales of the Traveling Tote: My Motherships

 

Hello, My Lovelies!  Welcome to the 44th Tales of the Traveling Tote.  I have not been traveling much or even going to the lake recently.  I have had family obligations keeping me busy, but my family held an intervention a couple of weeks ago and insisted that I get away for a quick weekend to my favorite city, Chicago.  We planned to visit my two motherships:  Wrigley Field and The Art Institute of Chicago.

We enjoy staying at the historic Palmer House because it's within walking distance to the Art Institute.  Below is the pretty ceiling in the lobby.

On Friday night we ate at a fantastic Mediterranean restaurant called Avec.  Everyone loved it, and we particularly enjoyed the family-style presentation.

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at our favorite bakery and coffee shop, The Goddess and the Baker.  They have the best breakfast pastries in Chicago!  Then we headed to Wrigleyville.  Shanley Belle and I visited a romance-only bookshop called The Last Chapter and had a ball.  We like visiting Indie Bookshops while traveling.

After the bookshop, we met up with Christopher and Trip at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.

Unfortunately, La Countess de Monet is too large to get into the stadium.  Miss Square Peggy and Miss Candy Max are also too large.  The dimensions must be no larger than 16" X 16" X 8".  So I carried Miss Check You're Out! because she is petite at 16" X 11.5" X 4".  She loved the game!

Clark the Cubbies' mascot before the game.  We had great seats behind the dugout on the third base side.

The Cubbies beat the Pirates 3-1, so the W flag was flown!

Saturday night after the game we ate dinner at our favorite pizza place in the city, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders.  They have the best pizza pie in the world!  I always order the individual mushroom one.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at The Goddess and the Baker again because we love it so much.  Then we walked to the Art Institute for the Gustave Caillebotte:  Painting His World exhibit.   Since we're members, we were able to visit an hour earlier than the general public, so we saw the exhibit almost by ourselves.  For the Sunday before school started on Monday, there were few people at the museum.  I think it might have had something to do with the flooding rains on Saturday night.  

Gustave Caillebotte was an independently wealthy Impressionist.  He was good friends with Renoir, and he painted pretty much what he wanted to paint.  During this time, painters usually painted lovely young women, but Caillebotte preferred painting men.  

One of the lions in front of the museum.

I wanted to share with you two paintings, one by Renoir and one by Caillebotte.

I chose the mums by Renoir for autumn.

Chrysanthemums

Pierre August Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

1881-1882

Oil on canvas

21 5/8" × 25 7/8 "

I chose the Caillebotte painting (below) because I thought the perspective was neat.

The Boulevard Seen From Above

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848-1894)

1880

Oil on canvas

25 3/5" × 21 3/10"

We enjoyed the member's lounge and a late lunch of Giordano's Pizza.  Before heading to the airport, we went to the world's largest Starbucks, the Starbucks Reserve.  The four-story shop is truly something.  We had the Chicago blend, and I brought some home with me.

I also purchased a beautiful book of the Van Gogh bedrooms because we saw the exhibit in 2016 at the Art Institute.  I was so happy to have a lovely reminder of that trip, too.  The Caillebotte brochures were really large, so I didn't buy one of them.

I love how the page folds out to show all three bedroom paintings.

This book is so nice, and it also features other paintings shown at the exhibit.

I hope you enjoyed my post on my whirlwind trip to Chicago.  I literally have nothing else to share!  

I'm sure the other Traveling Tote Ladies have much more interesting posts than mine, so give them a visit using the links below!

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch   

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box  

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Bookish Dilettante  

This TTT giveaway is hosted by Sarah.  Please make sure to leave a comment on her post in order to be entered.

Join us for our next adventures in December!

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill