Fun facts and Chicago History

Hello,

So I said that I would post this the following day after the last one but I've been pretty busy and not had too much time so here it is, a couple days late but better late than never.

I'm sure that anyone reading this has also been following the pictures I post. They aren't necessarily in a particular order as I have been between places. 

To continue from the last post, last Thursday (10/12) while at the first hostel we took a free basic tour on foot led by a fellow named Michael (don't have any of his contact info but if you search free tours on foot, I'd recommend the one he gives every Thursday morning at 10. I'm not going to bore you with the huge amounts of detail that Michael gave us but I will give a couple sentences from what I can remember.

We started at the Chicago Theatre, one of Chicago's several landmarks that Chicagoans know well. Now the marquee is not the original but an exact replica down to the number of lights used. Opening in 1921 and seating near 4,000 people at the time, attending this deluxe movie centre was as much about going to see the featured performance as it was about being seen. That is, suit + tie + limo = pretty much required. Fun fact about the marquee, the red "Y" behind the word Chicago represents split Chicago river that runs through the city, a symbol that frequents shows and films. Also, in his slump, this is where Frank Sinatra made his comeback mid 20th century selling out all his performances.

Our next stop continued along State street to Marshall Field's, the original upscale department store, from which several common refrains and amenities were born, such as the modern food court, price tags (as opposed to haggling and bargaining), return policies and "give the lady what she wants," revolutionary ideas at the time that made Marshall Field & Company so successful. The roots start with a smaller store owned by a businessman named Potter Palmer, who made many contributions to State Street's development during his life, and Marshal Field Levi Leiter. Macy's bought out Marshal Field's in 2005 but the original plaque is still on the side of the building (Macy's tried taking it down but Chicagoans were so upset and essentially ostracized and booed anyone who went to the store that Macy's decided to put it back up. 

Another fun fact, the stained glass dome at Marshall Field's was designed by Louis Tiffany, son of 19th century leader in American leader in jewelry trade and founder of New York City's Tiffany & Co., Charles Tiffany. Louis specialized in handmade iridescent glasswork ranging from lamps to Marshal Field's 1.5 million piece mosaic dome. This upscale department store is another example of how buildings were supposed to not only look extravagant but also give consumers that feeling of being super important and special in the company's eyes. Another novel idea that Marshal incorporated into the store was an entire area dedicated to shoes, with its own elevator button marked with a shoe. 

The next stop we made was to one of several plazas in Chicago, Daley Plaza. The main highlight about this plaza was the 50 foot steel structure gifted to the city by Pablo Picasso. The actual structure was not actually created by Picasso as original structure was less than a foot tall and had to be recreated. Aside from the historical significance of the plaza, it also serves as a spot for festivals, farmer's markets and other seasonal civic activities. During Christmas time, a load of German shops and hubs line the plaza to create the Christkindle Market. I have already been there at least 3 times and still enjoy looking at all the trinkets and foods that they offer. A must-see for anyone who is around Chicago during Christmas season.

Didn't take too many pictures but there was some pretty cool stuff. 

Couple glass ornaments.

Ended the tour with a stop at Millennium Park, with a couple stops in between including the beginning and end of route 66 and Palmer House Hilton Hotel (where the crumb-less chocolate cake, aka the brownie, was invented). This is the same Palmer businessman who invested so much into the development around State Street. Final stop, the BEAN (Cloud Gate)! 

 Made of near 200 pieces of stainless steel plates, the inside of the bean was actually constructed in such a way that allows for expansion and contracted with the changing temperatures. If you were to look inside, it would look like a dandelion right before the wind carries the seeds away. If you are interested in finding out any more about what the tour consisted of or would like suggestions on places to check out downtown, feel free to write me.

Thanks for reading and until next post!

Start of my 3 month journey- first stop, Chicagoland!

Hey Everyone:

So seeing as how I am most active on my Instagram account, I made it public so that you can all see the pictures of my travels (I haven't posted pictures/albums directly to Facebook in years).
Instagram --> @roberto_evans_sip
SnapChat --> @Roberto_evans
I will be adding links to my photobucket or google drive to see all the pictures I've taken on my trips in the next post.

I'm hoping to write once a week but will be posting more pictures via Instagram/SnapChat/Facebook. This post will just be about the first day in Chicago.

I arrived Tuesday 08/12  and went straight to the hostel. Here I met a Brazilian named Felipe that I ended up exploring the city with during my stay. That evening we met up with a couch surfing host, Mark, who drove us around the city to give us a quick tour. The following pictures were some of the places that he drove us around to.

Chicago Theatre at night downtown (ask me about the history!)

 Not sure what building this is but noticed it while we were driving down Lakeshore Dr to the Chicago south side (we avoided the bad parts). Anyone know?

Stepping on the grounds of Chicago University, about to enter Arley D Cathey Learning Center

Another side.

Inside the Library with Felipe.

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Next are a couple views where Mark drove us of the skyline from the south side. 

After that we went to a Blues bar. Another place I would recommend going. 2 things that made this place unique: 1) Kingston Mines has two sides with two bars and two stages so while one live band is playing, another one sets up on the other side, and 2) live music plays until around the bar closes 3:30-4:00AM. I mean how GREAT is that??

 Ronnie Hicks Band on one side...

...and Mike Wheeler Band on the other side

 Black santa has got some game

Kingston Mines was our last stop of the night and we ended up leaving around 3:00 and stayed the night in Ravenswood, a neighborhood north of downtown Chicago.


So the hostel (Freehand): Very nice but not my style and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone who is traveling alone that wants to not only get out but meet lots of unique interesting people, like me. If you're looking first for more of a cheap hotel with a good bar and food options then is for you. This was The Freehand located in downtown Chicago. Nice place, good location but I've learned that not all the action is downtown. The hostel offered cheap shared dorms at $32/night up to private king suites $150+/night. Anyone else I talked to was during breakfast and half came alone or in groups.

The people at Freehand: 24-hour desk staffed with very knowledgeable employees that do their best to answer your questions help you whether you need to get a taxi, find the best margaritas, or just find a food view of the skyline.
As for the residents, only spoke to a couple but were nice. Can't really say too much about the people that stay there.

So that's all for the first day. Tomorrow I'll post about Thursday (10/12) and Friday (11/12) when I decided to switch hostels.

Until then!

Little Life Update!

Hey everyone,

I know it's been a while since I posted and also that last time I said I was going to start up again, something I wasn't able to do. I felt like now was as good a time as any to let everyone know what's going on. This is going to be a short post.

Here are some of the bigger things that I would like to mention (some of which people already know):

1) I will no longer be a NY resident

1) I have recently been accepted to serve as a community health volunteer with the Peace Corps in Ecuador. I head out May 17th for 3 months of pre-service training in the capital city, Quito, and then will relocate to serve for an additional 24 months. This is something I will be extensively blogging.

2) Upon getting accepted and having a plan for the next 3 years, with all living/food/discretionary costs covered and then some, I've decided to use what I've made here in NY to travel a bit before I head out.
- To my Michigan friends/family, I will be in Traverse Nov. 26th - Dec. 1st and then again from end of February until I leave May 17th.
- To my Chicagoland friends/family, I will be around Chicago/Crystal Lake from Dec. 8th - Dec. 28th.
- To my Indian friends, I will in India from Jan. 6th - Feb. 2nd exploring the west and southwest areas.
- To everyone else, my family and I will be in South Africa beginning of Feb for 2 weeks.
- And to my New Yorker comrades, the time in between those trips I will be in New York. After February I will be heading back to Michigan.

3) I wanted to give thanks to my friends/family/colleagues/professors with whom I've been in contact with during my time in New York for all the help and support you have all given me. My situation would be quite different had I not had that support beam.

I don't have too many great pictures to go along with the post so I posted this one. This is from my first 5k run. It was more like a music festival with a 5k run included.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the read. Will post more as I start my travels.

Until next time!!

DC

Hello Everyone! The picture below is now a historical theme in our country.

So I know it may seem a little late to write about this seeing as it happened over a week ago but it is still a historical moment and will be talked about for generations because of the impacts that it has on the American society, acceptance of others and our culture in general. This is the Supreme Court ruling on the same-sex marriages.

As Kennedy is quoted from nearly half a century ago, “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.” And now we are finally allowing letting law as set by the constitution give everyone equal dignity in one of civilization’s oldest institutions.

6/26/15

The Ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges says that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state.

This is a great accomplishment for the US even if we are behind the curve being the 21^st country to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. It was only a matter of time when the Supreme Court would legalize it on a national level seeing as 37 states had already legalized it and the opinion of the general public in favor has reached over two thirds.

Even though a ruling is the final say in how our constitution is interpreted, they have little power to decide how it is enforced. There are many examples of how a ruling can turn out to have little practical effect. We are already seeing this as many presidential candidates are still speaking out against it and even some states are busy finding ways around it. We’ll see how state governors and county clerks may present resistance in giving out same-sex marriage licenses and how states will accept the ruling while accommodating the sincere religious beliefs of their employees.

Now back to our actual trip to DC. Below is a picture of the lovely couple that received us for the two nights that we were in DC, Maria and Constantinos Nicolaou.

There were five of us that took the trip down including my cousin Weston and two Finnish girls, Petra and Hannis. We were guests at the Nicolaou house, a greek family and some of the nicest and most generous people I've had the good fortune to meet in my life! I cannot praise them enough for everything they did for us while we were in DC. Everything from making traditional Greek meals to gracing us with some of the most interesting conversations.

Below is a picture of our drive around the district. An interesting fact is that there is a road, I-495, that goes all the way around the district traversing Maryland and Virginia and a lot of it looks like the picture below, like some sort of hall of trees or just a wall of trees on the district side of the road.

We arrived to DC on Friday the third late afternoon. Upon arrival we drove around the area checking out different landmarks and checking out the surroundings such as Georgetown. We ended up parking, going over to the Potomac River and renting some kayaks. We headed down the river and checked out some other landmarks like the Watergate buildings,  the well-known spot of the Watergate scandal under the Nixon administration.

From left to right: Rachel, Me, Petra, Hannis and Weston

Hard to see but there are the watergate buildings in front above Petra and Hannis in the green Kayak

After spending the rest of the afternoon on the Potomac we head back over to Bethesda to meet the Nicolaou family. The picture below was taken in their back yard/patio area.

The 4th of July started out with a trip to the Museum of American History. Below is the American flag with 15 stars and stripes, changed from the first flag of 13 stars and stripes that represented the original 13 colonies that existed after ties were severed with Britain under the declaration of Independence in 1776. The 15 star-15 striped flag was the flag for which our national anthem was written. There existed many variations in both of these flags as the only thing set in stone was the colors and the number of stripes and stars. Also, the two additional colonies that claim the two extra stars and stripes in 1795 were Kentucky and Vermont. The original can be found at this museum but is no longer hung up as it has become too fragile to hang and is kept in a dimly lit room as direct sunlight only works to deteriorate the fabric. 

The museum had a number of exhibits ranging from the history of the presidents to the history of the first lady/hostess. A couple interesting things to mention here. First, not every president who was inaugurated was married and so a close friend or family member was selected to be the hostess of the White House to join the president at the inaugural ceremonies. Second, the position of the first lady is not an elected one and carries no official duties. That meaning, the first lady isn't required to do much of anything except look nice. She traditionally organizes and attends official ceremonies and functions of the state either along with, or in place of, the president. The role of the first lady has evolved over time and each lady handles her agenda differently. That being said, if our next president happens to be Hilary Clinton, the title will change as will the role of "The First Man" or simply, the host.

Below are some of the ribbons and pins presented during the inauguration of various presidents

After that I have a picture of some road signs and crossing with presidents' names. Here's a little fun fact about the signs; almost every city in the nation has crossings that are dedicate to different presidents. So next time you take a trip to another area, even if it's just to a neighboring city, pay attention to the street signs and see if you recognize any of the presidents. Possibly check out the list of vice presidents who succeeded to presidency as they are not all very well known. For example, Millard Fillmore, Martin Van Buren and Chester Arthur.

Here was another part of the museum, a George Washington Statue, carved by Horatio Greenough in 1832, to commemorate the centennial of Washington's birth. The pose of the statue was chosen to compare to the classical representation of the Greek God, Zeus. It was modeled after Zeus specifically because Athens, Greece was the birthplace of democracy over 8,000 yrs ago and Washington led the colonies to Independence as commander in chief making way for a path towards democracy. However, many people saw the statue as inappropriate. The sword is representative of Washington giving the power back to the people to lead themselves, with the hilt pointing towards the people. When the statue was first presented, there was a lot of criticism as many people saw the statue as inappropriate.

Now I'm going to deviate from

Being the generous family that they are, here is a preview of our breakfast the morning of the 5th. We had some special invites, pictured on the right, join us. Ellen and Matt are the couple below soon to be newlyweds next month! I just want to say congratulations! And I hope that the wedding ceremony goes more smoothly than the proposal ;) I believe the date is August 8th.

Below are just more pictures that were taken over the two days that we spent in DC.

Here we are in front of the White House

The Washington Monument

This is where we set up to watch the fireworks. They went off right between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial (not pictured). Below are a couple of my favorite pictures of the show.

After the fireworks show we headed over and checked out the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial.

Me with my shadow buddies

Me and my cousin at Lincoln!

You can see the Washington Monument behind us!

This is what you look at every time you look at the tails side of a penny until more recently.



I hope you all enjoyed reading this post and learned a bit about the US in the process! I also those who celebrated the 4th of July had a wonderful holiday weekend because I know I sure did! I wanted to send a thank you again to the Nicolaou family for hosting us and to my cousin Wes for setting up such a wonderful trip! Thanks!

Until next time!

From NYC to MIA

Hey everyone,

It took me a bit longer to write this next post from when I said I would be updating.
This post is going to talk about a recent trip I made with Rachel down to Florida where we got to visit some very interesting places and met some really cool people.

Sight coming into Miami Int'l Airport

A hotel along the beach

We started our trip last Tuesday 6/16 flying into Miami int'l airport where we headed to Miami Beach. Stay at this very nice hostel, which I would highly recommend for anyone wanting to go to Miami beach that would like a relatively cheap place to stay where you will meet lots of people and are located 2 blocks from the beach. It is Miami Beach International Hostel. You get a single bed in a coed room shared with up to 7 other people. We met people from Denmark, Brasil, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, France, Libya, Northern Africa and many other regions of the world.

Due to a long 4.5h delay and transportation issues we didn't actually arrive to our hostel until around 3am, exhausted from the long delay and uncomfortable plane ride with Frontier Airlines (if you want cheap flight with no snacks, space, or reclining seats, then choose Frontier).

The following morning we took it easy, went to the beach, had a couple drinks, checked out the city of Miami Beach.

Complimentary drinks just for choosing the restaurant

After getting a bit more settled in we went and got discounts to go paddle boarding (Groupon).

Our hostel organized a group outing that evening to one of the biggest clubs in Florida, Liv Lounge!
Here are some pictures but you should check it out online to get a better idea of the atmosphere. Apparently this is where some of the top people go. Think Leonardo Dicaprio.

The prime day to go is on Sundays so it wasn't as big as a Sunday but the club was very packed regardless so I can only imagine it on a good day! Before heading out, the hostel hosted an open bar/DJ pregame before heading out because they didn't want us wasting money on $30 beers. This is what I was actually told. We were picked up from the hostel by a party bus, which was pretty awesome.

The next morning was an early morning as we stopped by the car rental to switch out our vehicle for a small compact. From there we headed out to the city of Key West. From Miami the drive can be made in under 4 hours. Due to the previous night that almost didn't end we took the drive at a much slower rate and arrived mid- to late afternoon.

A couple little facts about the keys before I continue. I know when most people think of the Keys they think of sunny beaches, fresh seafood, and some good bar-hopping along the main street, Duval. Some other facts about this area are not so well known though. First, Key West is the southern most part of the U.S. where we are 90 miles from Cuba. Second, the isle hasn't always been known for what it is today. To be more specific, the name in Spanish for it is Cayo Hueso, which literally means Key Bone. This was given by the Spanish settlers who were the first to inhabit it after the original indigenous people, many of which were either murdered and disposed of in communal graves on the isle or sold into slavery. I can't speak so much into the history but I can say that the city was built upon the graves of the original inhabitants. If you are more interested in another poorly known piece of US history then just look it up. Now back to the trip.

A little piece of advice for anyone driving from Miami to the keys. For those who are planning on spending more than one night, I HIGHLY encourage that you stop by one of the tourist/info centers on the way down, especially if you are thinking of booking some all day adventure. What happened with me and Rachel is that we stopped at one of these after making calls to different companies about activities to do for the one full day we would be there and found out that they were offering exactly what we wanted with a promotion that included a free open-bar sunset champagne cruise, something we couldn't get over the phone or any other way.

Beginning of the Sunset Cruise

More sunset pictures

I wish I lived there :(

The actual sunset over the horizon

I recommend doing the visitor's center this because these little centers will sometimes have deals and promotions with free add-ons that you can't get going directly through the company you're looking at or over the phone. This is how we were able to fill the rest of our night with something exciting while getting to meet new people.


The pictures below are just a few of the oddities we noticed in the Keys. This was actually before the cruise when we were wandering around Duval Street. Duval is the main street where all the action is located. There are bars, restaurants, cafes, gift shops and other touristy spots for booking adventure packages like we did.

Interesting Bar Stool Comic #1

Interesting Bar Stool Comic #2

The package we got was a full-day adventure package that included snorkeling, jet skiing, parasailing, kayaking, paddle boards, open bar, 2 meals, and more! It was definitely money well spent in my opinion. There are dozen of deals and combo packages to choose from which I would recommend especially if your trip is a shorter one. After that our trip came to a close as we gathered our things and made the drive back to Miami.

Not sure what you call that but it was fun!!

A slide

Jet Ski!

Notice the wild roosters running around....

Another common thing to see around Key West

Saturday was our last day in Florida and we decided to spend some time in Miami instead of on South Beach. On Saturday we took the bus over to downtown Miami and checked out some of the areas along the beach.

View from the tram looping DT Miami

Palm trees with a background view of the city

After that we walked to check out Wynwood Art District. As the name may suggest, it is known for the art.

Not only are there over 70 galleries, small museums and huge art collections, but the streets are also covered in wonderful works of art and different graffiti of all styles.

Mastr cola

These were a collaboration of artists from all around the world that helped promote the notion of Wynwood being known for the art and fashion. The spectacle is known as Wynwood Walls, the outdoor mural permanent exhibit, however artwork extends over the streets and ceilings of other buildings.

Aggressive

Love

This area is one of the biggest street art districts in the world!

More interestingly, many building that were abandoned have now been turned into studios for artists and even a couple that are works of art themselves, such as the huge old-fashioned beatbox next to the highway. Below you find more of the great works!

Loveism!

That about wraps up our trip to Florida. I hope you enjoyed reading and I will be sure to post more frequently. If you are interested in seeing more pictures just shoot me a message.
For quicker updates with pictures about what's going on with me and what I am doing just follow me on Instagram @roberto_evans_sip or on Snapchat @roberto_evans.

The next trip in the making is this weekend to Washington, DC to spend Independence Day! I will also include in the next post more about the pride parade we attend this previous weekend. Until next time!