Chicago

Another long week-end, another city hop. This time Chicago. Let's start with the funny or curious things. First, at the airport, this sign for "animal relief area". Ever seen that ? Since it is the second busiest airport in the world in terms of passengers, I guess one could imagine it is also the second busiest for pets. Still about the airport, before checking back to Washington, they asked me to take my racket out of its cover, and put the cover in my back pack... When I remarked that I had no problem checking in at my original airport with the racket inside its cover, they said "it is the rule in Chicago"...
Chicago might be trendsetter when it comes to skyscraper, let's hope it is not when it comes to food. This ties in well with the results of the 2010 US census, which shows that Americans have on average become fatter in all the 50 states over the last ten years.
So instead of a McDonalds, we decided to go to the big open air food celebration called "Tastes of Chicago". There I opted for a much healthier Polish sausage roll... I guess it was in honor of the million Polish people who settled there.
But do not worry for my health, I still did some sport activity, like biking throughout the city. Great way to explore.
Chicago has a fantastic skyline, as can be seen from Lake Michigan.
By the lake, the Navy Pier, a local version of the "Waterfronts" is a great place to walk around, try various activities, and sit at an outdoor restaurant while fireworks go off.
The Millennium Park in the middle of town hosts a lot of special features, such as a modern music stage (where I got to hear the national anthem ... what else can you expect on the 4th of July), a AT&T cloud which reflects and deforms shapes and...
a ten-store high futuristic building, which spits out water. Welcome cooling in these hot days.
The iconic building is the Sears/Willis tower, which was built in 1974 and was then the tallest building in the world. It is so big that it has its own postal code. It is 442 meters high and has got a very specific structure to resist the notorious Chicago wind. The queue to get to the top was quite long. Time also to note the Swiss expertise, since the elevators are built by Schindler. The view from there quite magnificent. Not sure I saw the four US states one is supposed to see from there. The glass balconies where we are supposed to walk and get afraid of the high are definitely not as impressive as the glass promenade on Shanghai's tower.
An architectural boat tour on the Chicago river is the way to discover all the different styles of skyscrapers. But first it is quite impressive that the flow of the river, which naturally went towards lake Michigan, was reversed by engineers to flow towards the Mississippi in 1900. This was done so that the sewerage would not flow anymore into lake Michigan but towards St.Louis...
A few years after the great Chicago fire, architects started building skyscrapers starting in 1885. There are many style, like classic, modern, avant-garde, art-deco.
These two corn-like towers have the additional characteristics of having a marina directly by the river. So you can park your boat and take the elevator home. There is also no interior right angle and the apartments are all pie-shaped! The most recent Aqua skyscraper from 2010 (see below) has the specific feature that the size and shape of the balconies vary according to the wind pressure.
Still it is strange that with all these nice skyscrapers, the population of Chicago has actually dropped dramatically since its peak of 3.6 million in the 1950s to "only" 2.7 million in 2010.

Outer Banks

It was a long and slow drive to the beaches of North Carolina, probably because it was the beginning of the summer holidays. It felt like going to the Mediterranean. The road led us to Kill Devil Hills - that great name is owed to the fact that ships transporting rum (called "Kill Devil" by the English!) would often sink of the shallow coasts and sailors would then hide the rum casks in the hills. These days Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and the barrier islands of the Outer Banks are famous tourist resorts. Finally, a place where the Atlantic Ocean is warm enough to swim in it !
The lighthouse at Cape Hatteras is a major landmark in the area. Many will remember it because of the strenuous 268 steps needed to climb to the top of the tower. The lighthouse was built in 1868 and is still the tallest in the USA. What is also very impressive is that in 1999 it was moved by 870 meters to safer ground, because of the erosion of the coastline. Most houses are actually built on stilts to better resist against the hurricanes and other weather-related damages.
The sandy area, steady winds and remoteness were decisive factors for the Wright brothers (Wilbur and Orville) to come here during three consecutive summers to try and build and fly the first airplane. They collected lots of scientific evidence and had to correct many features of their models. This certainly inspired them more than their bike shop in Ohio.
Finally on the 17th of December 1903, Orville managed to lift of the first plane for the whole of 12 seconds. The rock on the picture marks the first "lift off" of the plane.
Unbelievable how twelve seconds - and few meters - did change mankind. For the Wright Brothers, they patented their product and went on a sales' tour, which brought them success in Europe. Still, it is very obvious how their technology was then rapidly overtaken. Even those flying Boeing can notice an improvement...