Clearly the building was designed as a music school

Reynolds, Gainsborough and Turner are household names but Kanaoka? Why does his name appear on the frieze - the institute does not appear to have any of his works. Kose Kanaoka is a distinctly obscure ninth century Japanese artist.

Carbon filament lightbulbs in the entrance hall of the Institute

The original trading room of the Chicago Stock Exchange has been re­constructed here.

America Windows, 1977, Marc Chagall

The Drinkers, 1890, Vincent van Gogh.

Picture of Dorian Gray, 1943-1944, Ivan Albright. Used in the 1945 movie version of the story. Shot primarily in black-and-white, the film features two inserts in 3-strip Technicolor one of this painting and the other of the portrait in its original state.

Nighthawks, 1942, Edward Hopper. Within months of its completion, it was sold to the Art Institute for a mere $3,000.

American Gothic. Right beside it hangs …

Originally this railroad ran beside Lake Michigan. Then Grant Park was created on land reclaimed from the lake and the Art Institute was extended over the railroad into part of the park.

Not my image but I have one of the same subject. It looks quite insignificant on Google streetview - interesting that two wiki nerds should both spot it

In civilised units that is 34°C at 21:22 hours. In fact the weather was hot even by US standards. Ten days later USA Today was reporting that the night time low temperature in Death Valley, California was 107°F (89°C).

The California Zephyr is number eleven in Wikipedia's world list of longest train services and the longest in the USA. It runs once a day from Chicago to Emeryville, just across the bay from San Francisco. See the timetable using quaint 12-hour clock times and the route guide.

Leaving Chicago

near Princeton, Illinois

near Galesburg, IL

Crystal Lake - note the house on stilts - we are presumably within the Mississippi levees.

Looking upstream to the bridge that takes Interstate 34 across the Mississippi.

Now in Burlington, Iowa looking back to the bridge by which we have just crossed the river.

Every few minutes the train would give out its "lonesome hobo squall" as it approached a grade crossing (Brit: level crossing). This is North Adams Street, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
I originally thought it was North Cherry Street about 600 yards to the east and provided this link to Google's current satellite view saying it is worth looking at because it shows a freight train with over 90 cars. The current state of that satellite view does show a train but it is much shorter.

This was announced as a cigarette break stop and a chance for non-smokers to stretch their legs.

The corridor is eight feet off the ground. The Americans don't seem to know about yards - road signs say "… 500 feet ahead".

Not sure what this revolution detector is for - possibly to detect skidding or stuck brakes.

The church of St Mary of The Visitation on the corner of North Court Street and East 4th Street, Ottumwa, Iowa. Photo on Panoramio.

Mid-West Gas & Grocery Store, 105 South Main Street, Fort Morgan, CO

The Suncor Energy refinery, Brighton Boulevard, Commerce City, CO

About 5 miles southwest of here is Aurora, a suburb of Denver. While we were asleep on the train 600 miles further west and 16 hours later, James Holmes entered the Century 16 Cinema in Aurora, killed 12 people and injured 58 others. News story 1. News story 2. News story 3. Wikipedia: the crime and murderer bio.

The "Big 10 Curve" west of Arvada, a Denver suburb. Winds can be so strong in this area that hopper cars welded to the rails and filled with sand sit on an adjacent track to act as a windbreak.

Looking back to Denver and the curves we have just negotiated.

Plasser und Theurer seem to have the European monopoly on ballast tamping and similar track maintenance equipment. Plasser American probably also have a monopoly.

Blue Mountain Estates, looking like a typical Alpine village, seen from here.

Taken from about here, I thought I was taking the Rocky Flats Plant (read about different Federal agencies doing battle with each other) but in fact this an unidentified gravel or cement works. The Rocky Flats Plant was about a mile to the southeast and very little trace no remains.

Gross Dam and Reservoir. Water supply for Denver. Most of the rain falls on the west of the Rockies and Denver is on the east so various water capture points on the west lead water through a tunnel and to this reservoir.

Volunteer park rangers provide a narr­ative between Denver and Grand Junction

Gore Canyon through which we are about to pass is seen in the in distance

It took half an hour with Google maps and street view but I am confident that the map links on this image point to the building in the foreground. View is looking northwest.

Incredibly, as recently as 2005, the railroad through Reno crossed eleven downtown streets on the level - full story. Here we see Lake Street and Evans Avenue crossing over the railroad.

Poor quality - train decided to move just at the moment of shooting

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/67652868

View out of the rear of the train.

The massive pillar behind which the sun is rising looked to me like a late addition but it is part of the original design. Cables-wise the structure is two separate suspension bridges and this pillar, called the Center Anchorage corresponds to the land side anchorages at either end.

Jason Jenkins caught this view

The San Francisco Belt Railroad used to run here

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

I think these loops are a second line of defence against falling material.

Santa Cruz is a bit like Blackpool with palm trees. It was a Sunday and busy so we just drove straight through after seeing the recently created roundabout - a very unusual feature in the US. See this article.

Jetty Road, Moss landing. We watched these people for at least half an hour trying to get these two horses into an horse box - they just would not go. The people were still trying when we left.

This building is known as the White House!

They call these just "jellies", not "jelly fish" because, however big they are, they still count as plankton: sea animals incapable of swimming against a current.

Not a jelly but Roger's face repeated multiple times in a demonstration of jelly symmetry.

Note the Buddhist monks at top right.

See this postcard to my big sister.