Happy New Year in Chicago!

Having already done the train trip into Union Station, with Lynn yesterday, my confidence was boosted about replicating the trip to catch up with penpal and Facebook Friend, actor James Dauphin, on New Year's Day of 2013. We had a wonderful lunch, talked at each other about a million words per hour, and took a wander around the sights of Chicago's CBD. James had recently done some acting work on the then-forthcoming "Superman" movie, Man of Steel, and he pointed out several street angles that might appear on film. (Sadly, James' scenes were cut, but yes, lots of buildings were recognisable.

James is the master of the Facebook selfie, and as we bid each other farewell, we indulged in the above duo-selfie before I headed off for my train. He was deep into rehearsals for a stage production of Deathtrap, playing the role made famous by Christopher Reeve on screen. I understand the play ended up having a sell-out season, although I was already due to move on to my next destinations before opening night.

My first challenge for the day had been finding a while-you-wait photo lab that was open on January 1, to have my cousins' photographs scanned and printed. Although the shop I encountered had several self-serve devices, the guy took pity on the helpless tourist with the fascinating pictures and did an expert job on them, using the "special" printer behind the counter to get the best results.

While I was there, I remembered to ask for directions to "The Bean" (above). I knew nothing about it, except that its official name was Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, and that a Facebook Friend had urged me to add it to my bucket list. I wasn't that far away from it, and Millennium Park was certainly a great place to fill in time before the rest of Chicago's shopkeepers awoke for their late-morning January 1 openings.

Day 10's other photos:

Virtual waterfall, Millennium Park

The Bean!

Macy's Christmas windows for 2012 celebrated the history of Macy's

Art Gallery festive lions

New Year's Eve at the Field Museum, Chicago

Today, it was off to the Field Museum, via Union Station, Chicago, with Cousin Lynn!

Click HERE for a slideshow of the exhibits.

The Andorian sock monkey checks out his simian competition.!

Blasts from the past in Chicago!

My Mum's Aunt Grace Sutcliffe (fourth from left), working in Japour's haberdashery store in Parramatta in 1939.

Aunty Grace, the younger sister of my maternal grandmother, married a US sailor, Bob Stern, was voted "Most Beautiful War Bride", and went off to live in America. It always seemed like a bit of a fairy tale come true to us. Her annual Christmas cards, always with a golfing theme, were eagerly awaited each festive season, and we were excited to finally meet Aunty Grace and Uncle Bob in the mid 70s, when they made a trip back to Sydney. I returned the visit to Florida in January 1984, catching up with their son David in Chicago on the same trip. In 1991, I stayed briefly with their daughter, Lynn, also in Chicago.

I was able to squeeze in a brief detour through Chicago on this US adventure. It turned out to be a very nostalgic trip, with Lynn and I going through her now-deceased mother's photo albums, and making some amazing discoveries.

The above photo was posted to the "Lost Sydney" Facebook group, and those members of the collective who knew about historic Parramatta were thrilled about the pic. One poster confirmed the name of the store was Japour's. (Now that did ring a bell!) "That was how it was said and I can remember struggling over the letters of the sign and their sounds. My grandmother, Winifred Stoney, used to make ornate crochet coathangers using silk and cotton from there. They also sold balls of wool and much else. It was even interesting to go to when with her as a 5-year-old. I remember it being there for a few years after that. I am nearly 59yo. I can't shed much light on the exact location, but there were shops on either side."

Another person said, "When I was a kid... there was a drapery/haberdasher called Japours... which was somewhere around 333 Church (right next to the bridge). IIRC, with an old style milk bar next door."

Another said, "I think it was Japour's - we caught the bus home from St Pat's primary school to Carlingford outside their door - the owners were related to the Bokeyers and Tannas who I went to school with!"

And "I certainly remember the drapery as late as 1977, perhaps as late as '80 or '81. Whether or not it was the one in the picture above (which is obviously long before the 70s)..."

Another recalled, "Japour's was not drapery really. It was haberdashery, although the photo has the sign HOSIERY on it."

It seems that the term "jabour"/"japour" is a type of sheep wool, thus the name? Now, what is really weird is that three elderly Parramatta sisters, now all deceased, whom a friend used to mow lawns for as a young kid, would have all visited this haberdashery shop often. He remembers them talking about it and buying stuff there in the 1960s. One of the women, Phyllis, actually owned a milk bar in Parramatta, although her store was next to a cinema, not right near the bridge. Small world!

Grace and Bob Stern, Naples, Florida, 1984

The second blast from the past, also found in my American cousin's photo album, was my missing Santa portrait from 1963! My mother had sent it to her Aunty Grace in a Christmas card, assuming that she'd be able to order an additional copy at some future date. Just before my mother passed away, she mentioned thinking that that's why there was a blank space in her own album. I mentioned it to Cousin Lynn while visiting her in Chicago... and she remembered having only recently gathering together her mother's albums. Sure enough, there it was!

So, now 50 years after it was taken, here's to Christmas 1963, at Grace Bros. Broadway. I'm on the left:

Also in the album was a photo taken, by Aunty Grace, of Uncle Bob showing me around their tropical backyard in Naples, Florida, in January 1984. I'd never seen this shot before. I'm wearing a beloved "Get Smart" T-shirt, which I later lent to a friend (and never got back), so it was nice to have a copy made of this shot, too:

Frostbite folly

Today was Sydney's coldest overnight temperature for 2007 and here, near the base of the Blue Mountains, it was almost 0 degrees C. I hadn't thought about how truly cold it might have been until I was halfway to work - walking briskly - when a slight tingling on my ears made me regret not digging out a beanie and woolly gloves.

I well recall one particular morning in Chicago, USA, in December 1983. I'd been temporarily unable to make contact with my second cousin, and take up his offer of accommodation, and had booked a night at a hotel adjacent to Chicago airport. It was several degrees below freezing, but considerably even more below due to the wind chill factor.

With time to kill the next morning, I headed off to breakfast at the McDonalds across from a snow-covered park. (I was on a promise to my Ann Arbor penpal not to see falling snow until I got to Michigan.) Partway across the park, I realised that the stinging sensation to my fingertips and ears was due to going outside without the appropriate garments. I had visions of collapsing in a heap, being covered by fresh snow, and not being found until the next thaw.

I did finally make it to the McDonalds and, after eating, I reluctantly prepared to head back to the hotel. In a brainwave, I ordered a brewed coffee - and I hate McDonalds' brewed coffee - and used it to get back across the park: the coffee warming up one hand, and then the other, and reaching to cup one ear, and then the other.

Not quite frostbite, sure, but still scary (and not to mention painful).