JFK to PHX to SMF

June 9, 20251 Comment

And so we ended the Spring Break trip to DC (the nation’s capital) and New York (the real capital) (yeah I know, New York isn’t even the capital of New York) (it’s a bit like explaining that Harry Kane was not the captain of Spurs, that being Hugo Lloris, despite being England captain). We flew from JFK in, ahem, first class. Yep, through the magic of airline points we managed to get a deal that got really good seats in first class all the way back home. Well, all the way to Phoenix, and then another short flight but those seats were nice too. These ones however had the little compartment with the massive screen and the lie-flat seats. No cushions or blankets though. It was strange to be seated at an angle on a plane. The attendant was very attentive (yeah don’t put your hand on my shoulder when asking me if I want a drink mate), though I did not know what to order, I felt I had to be fancy, but I just got a wine which I didn’t even finish. I sketched, watched Avengers: Infinity War, tried to sleep a little, basically it was like being on a plane but with more room. My teenager was there to my left watching some movie (Hunger Games maybe), I wish we had had a game of Battleships because that would have been perfect (you probably can’t play Battleships on a plane though). It was only my second time in first class, and mate, it’s hard to go back. But we only get a brief glimpse into life on the other side of the curtain, and then it’s over.

I did people-sketch at the airports, both JFK and PHX. I hate airports as you may know, and sitting around in departure lounges is slightly better than rushing about in corridors or going through security lines. I had done a lot of people sketches with that thick black pen on this trip so this was a good way to pass the time.

And finally, the last leg from Phoenix to Sacramento. It was late afternoon, nearly the evening, and we were all exhausted from the travel. I was watching Withnail and I, another classic. After watching Infinity War this was a change of scenery, but I imagined Uncle Monty and Thanos switching places, putting a new spin on his question “Are you a sponge or an infinity stone?” It was late, I was tired. I sketched to calm the old flying nerves, and slept well when we got home. I hope it’s not as long again until the next time I see New York, but I guess there’s only so much excitement I can take.

DC part 3 – Day at the Smithsonian

May 5, 2025Leave a comment

I was super excited to finally visit the Smithsonian, one of the greatest (maybe the greatest?) collection of museums in the world, all free entry, an absolute gift to the world. I obviously go to these places now with filling a sketchbook in mind, but I’m actually just super interested in all the history on display, and eager to see it all. When I was a kid, I remember my mum’s friend Terri went to America and visited the Smithsonian, bringing me back a pen from the National Air and Space Museum, one of those special pens that astronauts use that can write upside down. I imagined astronauts up there writing postcards, or drawing. I was delighted to see the gift shop still selling these gimmicky pens, but I treasured the one I had when I was a kid and would show it off at primary school. Of course I would just write the words upside down, wondering why astronauts needed to write upside down words, possibly to confuse any hostile alien life forms they encountered, or maybe like when you see ambulances display the word ‘ambulance’ backwards so motorists can read it in their wing mirrors. It’s all part of astronaut training I suppose. Now I like to draw airplanes (I say aeroplanes) even though they are a bit difficult, they are fascinating. The wings are always a lot longer than you expect. You really need those double-page panoramic spreads in the old Moleskine. Above, a whole selection of planes drawn from the second floor. There was a large section of the Museum that was not open to the public, unfortunately, which according to the man included the plane called ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ (I am glad I never asked about that plane, because as established in a previous post I would definitely pronounce it wrong). Still, I wasn’t disappointed. We spent a lot of time doing the slow museum-walking around checking it all out, until we needed an overpriced snack, after which the family left while I stayed to sketch.

Now this here above is one of history’s greatest bits of technology. I draw a lot of stuff, fire hydrants, trees, but once in a while I get to draw an actual piece of significant human history. this is the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, the actual thing that the other fellow sat in while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Lightyear (sorry, Aldrin) gallivanted about on the surface of the Moon. They were faffing about making small steps and playing golf or whatever, while up in space the other fellow, Michael Collins (not that one, Irish history fans) had to stay in the car. A bit like when you’re a kid and you have to wait in the car while your dad and your uncle go to the pub. It’s amazing to look at it and think that is the actual module, the real thing that went to space, that we all learned about at school (except in conspiracy-theory states). I’m standing there just inches from history, and it’s a tiny tin can. Definitely had to draw this. I also had to draw some of the space suits on display, see below. Imagine having to wear that. Being an astronaut is no walk in the park. I remember seeing this really realistic film when I was a kid called SpaceCamp which taught me exactly what real astronaut training must be like, and that ended my dream of being a space traveller.

Speaking of space, there was another piece of history on display, a life-size actual X-Wing fighter, suspended high above the seats next to the bathroom. I sat and drew that, of course I did. It was a T-70 model, which as you know is from the Resistance era, the sort Poe Dameron would fly, not Luke Skywalker. Strange that it had a little model of R2-D2 in it and not BB-8. I prefer the Rebellion era X-Wings, because their engines don’t split in half for some reason when they lock S-foils into attack position. What do I know. The X-Wing is like the Spitfire of Star Wars. Or maybe it’s like the F-16, I love an F-16, and the Naboo Starfighter is like the Spitfire. Oh I don’t know, it’s a pretend spaceship.

Still we came a long long way from what came first, which was the original Wright Brothers flyer, from 1903, as flown on that fateful day at Kitty Hawk. Here it is below, the real actual one. It reminded me a little of the Ewok gliders, but as you know the Ewoks could only glide from the trees, they were not technologically advanced enough to achieve take-off. This though is another piece of real actual history. Sure, we would have figured it out in the end, but from the moment humans learned to fly, figuring out how to both take off and land, well that was it. Game over. Of course Wilbur/Orville (below, the one who looks like the conductor from the Polar Express) was obviously lying in it backwards as we all now know, but back then they just didn’t know any better. It still looks more comfortable than flying Virgin Atlantic economy.

The day was moving away from me fast, and I can only draw so much in such a short period of time. I spent a lot of time looking at racecars, but it was time to go and draw dinosaurs…

across the country, by plane and by train

April 24, 2025Leave a comment

During Spring Break, our family took a trip across the breadth of the country to Washington DC and New York. For a few years now we have been using our Spring Breaks to see more of the USA, alternating between national parks and big cities, and this year we decided to visit ‘Our Nation’s Capital’ (as they call it here) and the ‘Big Apple’ (I don’t know if you’ve heard of that but that’s what they call New York). Of course when we travel I must also sketch, what else am I going to do, watch a movie? I did that too, and read a book (Agatha Christie ‘And Then There Were None’, which I finished on the train to New York). Above, the Southwest flight we took to St. Louis. I’ve not ever been to St. Louis, but we flew right over the big Gateway Arch, which was exciting, and then stopped at the airport to listen to the very different accents while waiting for an overpriced lunch. I can’t pronounce St. Louis, I never know whether to add the ‘s’ sound at the end or not, despite hearing it and being told, when I actually come to say it, my brain forgets and I choose the wrong one. A bit like whenever I need to plug in a USB, *every*single*time* I will plug it in the wrong way round first. This is called the ‘USB Law’, or the ‘St. Louis Principle’. We flew from St. Louis to DC, but I didn’t bother drawing that short flight, and caught up on some Agatha Christie instead.

After a couple of days exploring Washington’s museums and monuments, we caught the Amtrak train from Union Station, finding ourselves cramped into large seats with no legroom, looking out of a small window as the marshy landscape whizzed by. This is an America I have not seen, the East Coast where there are lots of little states and big cities around large estuaries, very far away from our dry sunny California. I love a train, watching the landscape change and wondering what will come next. I finished reading Agatha (the butler did it; only joking) and sketched. We passed through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and then the skyscrapers started to come into view as we approached New York, my favourite city after London.

Well New York was fun, but it was time to fly back to California. Thanks to the magic of airline points wer were able to fly back in business class, which was luxury with those little compartments, massive screens, lie-flat seats (with no cushions) and metal cutlery. I sat in the compartment next to my 17 year old and watched Avengers Infinity War. I was going to watch Conclave but thought I should save that for when the Pope died, which unfortunately he did just a few days ago. A shame, I liked Pope Francis. The flight took us all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, and I was still excited by all of our wanderings about New York City. Lots of sketches to post soon.

And finally the last leg, Phoenix to Sacramento, after a couple of hours in a lounge at PHX. We had the bigger seats for this leg as well, and while I did sketch a bit I relaxed and watched another old film, Withnail and I. I’ve not seen it in years. We made it back to Davis tired and in need of a cup of tea and a long sleep, more adventures around the country. I’ll post all my sketches soon.

flying there and flying back, again

December 30, 20243 Comments

Two more times up in the sky, going to London and back to San Francisco. The first flight was more comfortable, better legroom and an empty seat next to me, though I still struggled to get decent sleep. I always have to sketch on the flight, it does calm me, and gives me something to do. The entertainment system is good, though I rarely watch things on it, other than the flight map. I do watch stuff on my iPad, mostly I listen to my iPod, podcasts, audiobooks, music. I was re-listening to Fellowship of the Ring on the flight over. I hate these long flights, but they have to be done, since I can’t teleport. These days, I land at Heathrow and get the Elizabeth Line to Tottenham Court Road, before taking the Northern Line up to Burnt Oak, it’s a long journey all in all. The flight back (below) I was really crammed in, a full flight with very little legroom. I chose to sit in the middle (nobody moving past me to get up, like at the window seat) but it really felt squashed. On this flight though I was able to bring back my old guitar from London, and it didn’t cost me any extra, and just went into the overhead bins above other people’s bags (it’s pretty thin). I still had to draw, and in fact these flights back are also an opportunity to catch up on the sketches I didn’t get finished during the trip. So I spent a lot of time drawing, squashing in my elbows. It was a long flight, I was thinking about all I’d done, people I’d seen, people I’d not been able to see. It was nice spending a bit more time with my Mum. Unfortunately my Dad was in hospital for most of the time I was back, wasn’t doing too well, so I’m glad I was able to be there, it’s difficult being so far away. I started watching a film called ‘Hampstead’ which my Mum had started watching a couple of days before, and it looked ok, but actually was really dull so I turned it off. I don’t remember what else I watched, some Drive to Survive. I started reading a new book I’d bought, written by an old friend from university whose book signing I’d been to. My bag was full of mince pies and other food goodies for Christmas; I could have brought so much more back if I had the room. Anyway, bookends to another trip back home.

flying there and flying back

December 9, 2024December 9, 2024Leave a comment

A couple more in-flight sketches. At this point it’s just routine to draw these, that whole perspective practice, but for me it’s really more to do with calming my nerves in the airplane. Not so much the nerves about flying, more the anxiety of travel and of airports in particular. I hate airports probably more than anything. I mean, not more than fascism or mass murder or rampant plutocracy, but airports are pretty anxiety inducing. Once I’m on the plane, then I have to overcome the fact of being stuffed into a metal tube with a load of other people and being blasted across the planet, but I’m still in awe of the technology frankly. I’m spoilt by that one time I flew first class, from LA to Paris in 2019 like a movie star. Gotta love the points. Above are two sketches from either side of our trip to Kauai, the first was on Hawaiian Airlines out of Oakland, the second on Southwest Airlines out of Lihue. In the back of the seat on Hawaiian was a little sheet that said “hana-hou!” and on southwest there was the same but it said “hi, there”. On one, I sat on the left, on the other I sat on the right. As George Lucas might say, it’s like poetry, it rhymes.

typhoon and spitfire

July 22, 2024Leave a comment

We visited the Royal Air Force Museum in Colindale, London (RAF Hendon), a place I really like because it’s so full of historic old fighter planes, and also really close to where my mum lives, where I grew up. And yet a place I don’t go to often, even as a kid. It was always just there, over by Grahame Park. I am glad in a way though because every time I do go back, it always surprises me. Last time I was there was about five years ago when Urban Sketchers London had a sketchcrawl there, and I brought my nephew along. I love drawing the old World War Two planes. My family and I wandered through here, and I drew a couple of planes in pencil, the Hawker Typhoon (above), a small plane with some big guns, and of course, the Supermarine Spitfire (below). The Spitfire is the best, isn’t it, the most beautiful of planes. I used to call it the X-Wing of World War Two when I was a kid, but even the X-Wing isn’t this beautiful and iconic. There isn’t a better plane (and I love an F16) but to Britons, this is the plane more than any other that represents the British spirit, Battle of Britain and all that. I do love a Spitfire. It also has the best name. If there was a Transformer with the name Spitfire, it would be the most popular robot, more than Bumblebee or Jazz. Remember those little foam planes you could buy in the corner shop, for about 20p or so, they had all the old planes and you attached a little plastic propellor to the front and flew them until they crashed into a bush or under a car? You can still get those actually, I’ve seen them over here. The Spitfire was always the best one, flying against the Messerschmidts, Sopwith Camels and and the (hehe) Fokkers.

mammal bones at the NHM-LA

April 6, 20241 Comment

I drew more than dinosaurs at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. I explored as much of the place as I could (I was there all day after all, I wasn’t going anywhere) but when I saw the big mammoth, well, that was going in the sketchbook. I suppose technically it’s not a woolly mammoth because there’s no wool on the skeleton (and it was probably more of a hairy mammoth than woolly but I’m not going to, er, split hairs) (people kept saying “there’s a woolly mammoth!” but I wasn’t going to take them to tusk, etc and so on) (I was there a long time, my head ran through all the punning possibilities and decided none of them were worth it). I drew in fountain pen and was there quite a while; I considered adding some paint but it was a fairly white environment (ice age feeling I suppose) and I just couldn’t be bothered by the end. It was a magnificent display though, not every day you get to see mammoths. I have never visited the La Brea Tar Pits but I hear they have found some amazing skeletons of mammoths and other prehistoric creatures there, and still are; that’s a future visit right there.

Speaking of famous prehistoric mammals, there was the skull of a Sabretooth Tiger – sorry, ‘Sabretooth Cat’ as this one was more correctly called, they weren’t really tigers, the Smilodons – and I had to sketch that. The size of those incisors! I mean were they really necessary? I guess they were. What an impressive gob. I can see him hanging about outside the tube station shouting, yeah come on then you mug, getting into fights, all that. No wonder they went extinct, probably a bit too mouthy for their own good. There were excited kids looking at this while I sketched saying “wow, a sabretooth tiger!” without reading the sign that said it was a sabretooth cat and that you shouldn’t call it a tiger because science, but I wasn’t going to take them to tusk. Hang on I used that one already. It would be funny if we recreated one from its DNA and it learned to speak and said, “actually mate I’m ok being called a tiger, that’s fine.” Anyway tigers or cats, I like these a lot, but it f this is a cat I probably wouldn’t argue with it if it begged me to turn the bathroom taps on for it.

Next up, the Ground Sloth, every good Natural History Museum needs a Ground Sloth and I always draw them. This one was upstairs above the Mammoth and I loved the way it was standing, like an old end of the pier stand up comedian. I imagined him in a smoky Lancashire croak saying stuff like “I tell you, my missus, she says to me you’re so lazy you may as well be extinct, go and get a job, I says I’m a sloth! That is me job. I tell you she wears me down so much I’m a ground sloth” etc and so on. Catch him at your nearest Pontins (also going extinct). Now the one I drew from the London NHM (12 years ago) was actually a Megatherium which is a larger kind of ground sloth, living from the Pliocene to the Holocene, this one is a Nothrotheriops Shastensis (“that’s easy for you to say,” says the northern comic to much mirth), much smaller and living in the Pleistocene (“the missus tells me I can’t play with that stuff, it gets all stuck in the carpet” says the comedian, to a little confusion from his audience, forcing him to explain it, which didn’t go down well; “By gum you’re so slow, I thought I was the sloth!”). Perhaps though the Megatherium and the Nothrotheriops could form a double act, like all the old northern comedians used to do, Little and Large has already been taken by two other dinosaurs, so maybe ‘The Two Sloths’, ‘Megatherium and Wise’, ‘Good Sloth Bad Sloth’, I don’t know I’m a sketcher not a northern comic double act agent. They would have been long cancelled by now anyway.

Moving away from old bones and bad comedians, the gemstone and mineral section was pretty impressive. I sketched a few colourful ones with interesting names (the green one was surely Kryptonite) (I’ve always wondered about Kryptonite, did that planet explode because it relied too much on Kryptocurrency, was General Zod one of those Krypto-bros who don’t stop going on about it and was expelled to the Fandom Zone? So many questions). there was one room, a vault with tick walls and huge metal doors and security guards, that contained incredibly valuable gemstones of well over 100 carats each, it was like looking at the Infinity Stones. My son used to really like gems and minerals when he was younger and we’d spend more time in the geology sections of the NHM than the dinosaur sections, so I’ve drawn a few stones before, but this was a fascinating room to explore.

After going to draw the T-Rex having a chat with the Triceratops (see my previous post) I called time on the museum, and popped over to the California Science Center to have a very brief look before they closed. I drew this one plane, got a cold drink, and left as it was all closing up. All in all, a good day sketching old things. I wouldn’t have minded visiting the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition at the Science Center, displaying models of many of his inventions, but another time maybe. I know I would boringly have been taking everyone to tusk for saying ‘Da Vinci’ instead of ‘Leonardo’, and they’d have been saying “you mean taken to ‘task’ surely” and I’d have been like “look it was a call back to a previous joke you weren’t there for, I’m not a sloth you know.” It was a long day, though of course, I wasn’t done sketching just yet. Check back soon for more LA…

flying back home again

July 21, 2023July 19, 2023Leave a comment

Here is yet another in-flight sketch. You’d think I’d be bored of them by now (I am, actually) but drawing on a long journey does help me to relax. I’m so sick of flying and airports, but it’s the quickest way to get to the place 5000 miles away that I need to get to, since teleportation doesn’t exist. As on the flight over, I had the whole row to myself and the legroom was alright (very unlike my more recent flights to/from the UK). I was able to add more detail to or finish off some of the many sketches I’d done on this trip, and it was pretty smooth all in all. I drew this in the small Fabriano Venezia book, I love using pencil in that book and will try to use pencil a bit more, to do something different to the pen thing the whole time. It was a productive trip, I went back to places I had not been in many many years, put them in my sketchbook, saw people I’d not seen in years, but at the end of it I really wanted to get back home. I love going home to London, but I really love coming home again to California. I’m really lucky I ended up here.

my name is Sue, how do you do

May 5, 2023May 4, 2023Leave a comment

A great sketcher once said (and it was Lapin, by the way) that every sketchbook needs two things – a dinosaur, and an old car. Sketchbook #45 has those things now, after we visited the Field Museum in Chicago, an incredible collection which is chock full of dinosaurs. (I already drew an old car at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento) I missed out on going to the Urban Sketching Symposium in Chicago in 2017 (I had just been promoted, and felt it would be a good idea to stick around and learn stuff in that first month on the job), so I missed Lapin’s workshop “Groarrr!” which took place at the Field Museum, drawing Sue, the enormous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that is the highlight of the collection, as well as being pretty much the most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world. Plus it’s called Sue, so I had Johnny Cash in my head the whole time. “My name is Sue! How do you do! Now you gonn’ die!” I also briefly had the theme tune to The Sooty Show in my head, thinking of the silent cheekiness of Sooty, the mischievous squeak of Sweep, and the bossy voice of Soo, the only one who could use real words, if you don’t count Matthew who was a real human and now a hand puppet, or at least so we are led to believe (did you ever see his legs?). People who didn’t grow up in Britain will have no idea what I’m talking about, but I did imagine Sue the T-Rex talking in that voice, saying “izzy wizzy let’s get busy”. Never mind all of these pop culture ramblings, it has been a busy week. If you want to learn some actual stuff about Sue the T-Rex, you can visit the Field Museum website: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/sue-t-rex. We don’t know if Sue was a boy dinosaur or a girl dinosaur (insert an Ian Malcolm quote from Jurassic Park here) but they were named after Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the dinosaur in 1990 in South Dakota. The light in there kept going dark, for mood and storytelling, which made sketching a little tricky.

The first dinosaur I drew though was the nemesis of the T-Rex, the heroic Triceratops. I always imagine Triceratops as a Captain America type figure, fighting the big meat-eaters for hours, looking up and saying “I can do this all day”. In the books Triceratops would always be locked in battle with the Tyrannosaur, its large parrot beak, rock solid neck shield, and the horns of both a rhino and a yak, like who designed this creature, a four year old? Triceratops is nevertheless a design classic, really hard to beat. Parasaurolophus and Styracosaurus have pretty amazing heads, but Triceratops is beautiful. I sat on a bench with my son and drew the whole thing, a good spot to rest the legs after looking at so many dinosaurs already.

I did this sketch above while they were resting again a bit later, watching a school orchestra play some music from the movies (not Jurassic Park) in the main hall of the museum. Hanging above in the foreground is a model of the enormous flying prehistoric beast Quetzalcoatlus, which I’m not going to say is an ugly dinosaur, but is no Triceratops. It’s no Pteranodon either. It was gigantic though, you would not want this thing pecking away at your plane’s cockpit (spoiler alert for one of the Jurassic World movies, which was not very good). I should point out, Jurassic Park is one of my favourite films of all time, and I adored the book as well. It is for me nothing short of a perfect film. I quite liked the follow ups, the Lost World and Jurassic Park 3, though now I think about it Jurassic Park 3 was not actually very good. Jurassic World…well, I’ll say it was enjoyable, I guess. A nice idea, but not a re-watcher, and the characters were completely irritating. The follow up, Jurassic World Volcano Wars I think it was called, was utterly diabolical, and there was nothing whatsoever of interest, but I did watch it on a small airplane screen so no huge loss. The last one, Jurassic World Dumpster Divers or something, we actually went to a movie theatre and paid actual dollars to see, and the universe is never giving me back that five and a half hours or however long it was. It was advertised as having the original three back in it, and back in it they indeed were, and Jurassic Park it was not. Jurassic World Dominion made Jurassic Park 3 look like The Godfather Part 2. I’m not going to say it was the worst film I have ever seen (because I have watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Hour Long Sequels) but you know when you like apples and you eat all the different apples, but you eat one apple that tastes so disgusting and makes you want to vomit, that while it doesn’t put you off eating apples completely, it does make you much less likely to want to eat an apple afterwards, to the point where you just give up eating apples and eat cereal instead. Well that was the last Jurassic World film and movies in general for me. But you know, you should watch it, don’t take my word for it.

I could have spent all day in the Field Museum, learning and sketching, but we moved along, and headed for the Nutella Cafe. We decided to skip the Art Institute, due to Museum Fatigue, though my wife did go there on our final morning in Chicago and the pictures she took of all the very famous artworks made me wish I had actually gone. Next time! Instead, on our last morning I stayed at the hotel with my son, before heading out to do one last sketch, down at Michigan and Wacker. It’s a bit of an unfinished sketch, but I decided this time not to bother going in later and drawing all those windows, because you know, you get the idea. Tribune Tower (on the right) is an architectural masterpiece, containing stones from famous buildings from all over the world, which is actually a bit weird but ok.

Right, Top Five things I would like to do next time I’m in Chicago:

Listen to The Blues. I never got to go to any of Chicago’s famous Blues clubs, like Kingston Mines, or one of the other ones. I will admit, I’m not exactly a massive Blues afficionado. I like it, but not as much as I want to like it. But Blues in Chicago? That I want to see. I want to be somewhere in Chicago watching some old Blues player carve riffs out of a big Gretsch, taking in the whole atmosphere, so that all I want to do is get home and play Blues riffs until my fingers hurt.
Art Institute. As mentioned, I decided to sketch in the street instead of actually see some great art. That might have been a mistake, or maybe I was just saying to myself, no I’ll do that next time. They have Van Goghs, Picassos, they have that American Gothic painting, and Nighthawks by Hopper! My mate Roshan had that as a poster.
Watch some Improv. I never got to to go any of Chicago’s famous Improv clubs, like The Second City, or one of the other ones. I will admit, I’m not exactly a massive Improv afficionado. I like it, but not as much as I want to like it. But Improv in Chicago? That I want to see. I want to be somewhere in Chicago watching some old Improv actor carve witty lines out of a big Suggestion, taking in the whole atmosphere, so that all I want to do is get home and improvise until my fingers hurt.
Have a different Deep Dish Pizza. I really liked the one at Pizzeria Uno, as described in a previous post, but I would like to try some other places, maybe get some local suggestions.
Wrigley Field. I never got to to go any of Chicago’s famous baseball parks, like Wrigley Field, or one of the other ones. I will admit, I’m not exactly a massive baseball afficionado. (Okay, I’m not doing that again.) I do like a ballpark, but even I know Wrigley Field is pretty special and historic, and there’s nothing more American than going to an ancient baseball stadium,, taking in the whole atmosphere, so that all I want to do is get home and swing a baseball bat until my fingers hurt (I literally never want to do that after watching baseball).

There is one other thing I’d do next time, that’s get in touch with some of the Chicago Urban Sketchers I know, such as Don Colley, who is pretty amazing. I thought about contacting some to see if they wanted to go and sketch an old bar some night, but this was a family trip and I knew I’d be cream-crackered too. I am tempted by the Chicago Sketch Seminar this July, although it’s very soon after another trip I’m taking, and I’m sure I’d be too tired. But it does look really fun.

Ok, so we then went to the airport, where we waited for hours and hours for our plane to deign to take off. We spent so long at that damned airport, and I hate airports at the best of times. So I sketched people again, in my little red sketchbook. That was pretty boring. We played a lot of Super Mario Kart 8 on the Switch, I had bought a new Switch Lite before the trip as the battery in the old one was utterly dead. We were exhausted, and it was going to be a long flight if we ever got on a plane. I don’t know why Southwest was delayed so much, but it wasn’t Tornadoes, they all happened the night before. Anyway, get on a plane we eventually did, so I had to do one last in-flight sketch. Until next time Chicago! I always fantasized about doing that thing where you take the Amtrak train for several days across the country, watching America on ground level as it gradually changes, waking up in far-flung cities or small-town America, but after spending four hours in Midway airport and getting bored out of my head, I think spending three days in a train seat might be enough to make me just get a plane back. But Chicago was damn cool, and I’ll be back.