Visions of Chicago

Last month, dayo flew me out to Chicago for about five days. I didn’t take as many pictures as I’d planned to, because we were to busy having fun, but I did get a few, which I resent (edit: Present! Present!) for your viewing pleasure.

Chicago from the top of the ferris wheel at the pier on a particularly gorgeous day. The first day we’d planned to run around exploring the city turned out to be rainy and yucky, but subsequent days more than made up for it.


Chicago’s ancient elevated train system is very steampunk. These immense iron tracks dominate many of the downtown neighborhoods in the city, and look like something right out of a Victorian steampunk graphic novel. Seeing the El recalled shades of Neal Stephenson, big time.

dayo in a time-lapse shot downtown at night. She’s so cuute!

An eye-twisting sculpture at the pier. Looks like a coffee bean. A big, silver metal coffee bean that doesn’t make coffee.

We had a hot dog from a hot dog vendor right next to the coffee bean. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right hot dog vendor.

The right hot dog vendor is a guy in his late 40s with long braided hair and a beard, wearing a faded Harley T-shirt. This is the right hot dog vendor because this is a man who cares about hot dogs. A young woman with large breasts in a skimpy bikini, by way of contrast, is the wrong hot dog vendor, because “Look! Tits! Buy a hot dog” is not the marketing strategy of a person who’s passionate about hot dogs.

The person from whom we bought the hot dogs wasn’t the wrong hot dog vendor, but wasn’t the right hot dog vendor either. The hot dog? Meh.

The Train to Nowhere. The Chicago train system is ancient, and crumbling in places. Rather than repair it properly, for many years Chicago has patched around the problems and built new tracks adjacent to existing tracks. So occasionally you’ll be flying down the track at fifty miles an hour or so, and the track next to you will simply end. At a tree. Twenty feet above the ground.

Encourages attention in the drivers, I suppose.

dayo took me out on a four-masted sailing ship. We arrived at the dock two minutes after the ship was scheduled to depart, and they held the ship for us.

The captain showed us how to make wat he called a “rascal knot,” which is a simple handcuff tie made from the center of a loop of rope whose ends can be fixed. It looks like just the thing for bondage play, but I didn’t quite follow his demonstration, and Googling for the term “rascal knot” has been less than helpful.

The lighthouse at the pier. It’s reachable only by boat; the breakwater is about half a mile or so from shore. Of course, it’s completely automated and computer-controlled, and requires no human maintenance.

For a time, until quite recently, there was a caretaker living there anyway. He lived rent-free at the lighthouse in exchange for cleaning and painting it, so the story goes. Evidently, the city terminated the agreement when he started hosting clothing-optional parties at the lighthouse in the middle of the afternoon on weekends.

Chicago as seen on the return trip. There were funnel cakes waiting for us when we docked.

Mmm, funnel cakes.

48 thoughts on “Visions of Chicago

    • I had no idea you liked sailing vessels.

      To me, they’re a lot of fun only if I don’t have to do the work, maintenance, and upkeep. Being out on the water is fun, but the rest? Not so much. Back when we were growing up, my sister had a tiny, one-person sailboat which I had a lot of fun in–we ad a canal in the back yard in Cape Coral that opened up onto the river–but anything more than that is a whole lotta work.

      • I’m much the same. I love sailing, and I’m pretty good in a sailboat (or at least I was, ages ago), but keeping a boat of my own? No, thanks.

        Like you, I grew up with small vessels. I lived by the sea, and a couple of friends had Flying Dutchman’s, 505’s, and such. I had a lot of fun with that. But a larger boat is just too much work for me.

      • Ohhh that would be way cool. I have it on good authority that July is very busy (and also we really have no clue when the moving truck is going to show up with my stuff), but we’d love to work out something. When you gonna be there?

  1. Describe the “rascal knot” in more detail. I might be able to help. Mariner, and all that.

    Did one tension the loops before fixing the knot, or were the loops fixed? How easily adjustable were the loops? These are clues.

    • The knot is made from the center of a length of rope. The ends of the rope can be fixed before the knot is made; it doesn’t seem to matter.

      The knot itself is relatively simple and begins by looping the center of the rope, twisting it (I think), and then drawing the sides of the rope through the loop in such a way that you end up with two loops with what looks like a relative of a half-hitch between them. They work like handcuffs; applying tension to the rope causes the loops to shrink, closing them around a person’s wrists.

        • Looked up “bowline on a bight” (and variants), and it’s way, way more complex than what he’s calling a “rascal knot.” He made the rascal knot just by taking the center of a piece of rope, folding it over, and then as near as I can tell flicking his wrist in a secret way gifted to humans by the Great Old Ones or something, to make a square knot with two loops of rope jutting out of it, one on each side. What’s maddening is that the knot looks so simple.

          • BOAB still sounds right. Try following the instructions, making one, and seeing if it has the utility the guy demonstrated.

            One thing to remember is that there are sometimes about five different ways to tie the exact same knot. I know three ways to hitch a bowline, for example, all that look different but achieve the same result. There’s the rabbit from the hole we all learned, and then there is this twist and wrap that puts the loop around a fixed object, handy when mooring to a piling or a dolphin.

            Hang around old salts long enough and they will teach you wrist flicks and subtle finger tricks that turn an anchor hawser into a macrame planter holder in about a nanosecond. It only looks simple because, once you get the trick, it is.

  2. Describe the “rascal knot” in more detail. I might be able to help. Mariner, and all that.

    Did one tension the loops before fixing the knot, or were the loops fixed? How easily adjustable were the loops? These are clues.

  3. Oh, man. As if I wasn’t longing to be back in Chicago already. So many memories in these pictures. Looks like you had a grand time.

    I’ve never done the ferris wheel – look like I should. And the whole sailing thing – I’d love to do that.

  4. Oh, man. As if I wasn’t longing to be back in Chicago already. So many memories in these pictures. Looks like you had a grand time.

    I’ve never done the ferris wheel – look like I should. And the whole sailing thing – I’d love to do that.

  5. I had no idea you liked sailing vessels.

    To me, they’re a lot of fun only if I don’t have to do the work, maintenance, and upkeep. Being out on the water is fun, but the rest? Not so much. Back when we were growing up, my sister had a tiny, one-person sailboat which I had a lot of fun in–we ad a canal in the back yard in Cape Coral that opened up onto the river–but anything more than that is a whole lotta work.

  6. The knot is made from the center of a length of rope. The ends of the rope can be fixed before the knot is made; it doesn’t seem to matter.

    The knot itself is relatively simple and begins by looping the center of the rope, twisting it (I think), and then drawing the sides of the rope through the loop in such a way that you end up with two loops with what looks like a relative of a half-hitch between them. They work like handcuffs; applying tension to the rope causes the loops to shrink, closing them around a person’s wrists.

  7. I’ll see if I can manage the Ferris wheel sometime. I’m not much into that kind of thing, to be honest, but I’m a sucker for open views of cities from above.

  8. I’ll see if I can manage the Ferris wheel sometime. I’m not much into that kind of thing, to be honest, but I’m a sucker for open views of cities from above.

  9. I’m much the same. I love sailing, and I’m pretty good in a sailboat (or at least I was, ages ago), but keeping a boat of my own? No, thanks.

    Like you, I grew up with small vessels. I lived by the sea, and a couple of friends had Flying Dutchman’s, 505’s, and such. I had a lot of fun with that. But a larger boat is just too much work for me.

  10. Looked up “bowline on a bight” (and variants), and it’s way, way more complex than what he’s calling a “rascal knot.” He made the rascal knot just by taking the center of a piece of rope, folding it over, and then as near as I can tell flicking his wrist in a secret way gifted to humans by the Great Old Ones or something, to make a square knot with two loops of rope jutting out of it, one on each side. What’s maddening is that the knot looks so simple.

  11. BOAB still sounds right. Try following the instructions, making one, and seeing if it has the utility the guy demonstrated.

    One thing to remember is that there are sometimes about five different ways to tie the exact same knot. I know three ways to hitch a bowline, for example, all that look different but achieve the same result. There’s the rabbit from the hole we all learned, and then there is this twist and wrap that puts the loop around a fixed object, handy when mooring to a piling or a dolphin.

    Hang around old salts long enough and they will teach you wrist flicks and subtle finger tricks that turn an anchor hawser into a macrame planter holder in about a nanosecond. It only looks simple because, once you get the trick, it is.

  12. Ohhh that would be way cool. I have it on good authority that July is very busy (and also we really have no clue when the moving truck is going to show up with my stuff), but we’d love to work out something. When you gonna be there?

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