Chicago

We just got back from a week in the Windy City. And, yes, it lived up to its name! Actually, the weather was beautiful the first few days, but it got quite cold and windy during the last half of our trip. Despite the cold weather, we had a fabulous time! Bill had to go for work, so the kids and I were left to amuse ourselves. Luckily, there is no shortage of things to do or see! Every morning after breakfast, we'd hop on a different bus and head to new and exciting locations. Here's a little recap:

Thursday 11/1: We left for the airport at 4:30 in the morning. Our flight left at 6:40, which was a little too early the morning after Halloween! But the kids were so excited about our trip that they didn't seem to mind. The flight there was pretty uneventful. Avery read, Rhys listened to a book on CD, and Griffin sat in his carseat some, climbed over me and Bill some, played with Bill's computer, read a bunch of books, played with his cars, snacked, and tried to run up and down the aisles a little. I always forget how interesting it is to fly with toddlers!

Once we got to Chicago, we checked into our hotel, grabbed a quick bite to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, and headed to the Field Museum. Since this was Bill's only day with us, he got to choose the destination, and he was most excited to see the bones of the famous Sue, the world's largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton. Besides the dinosaur, there were exhibits with animals from all over North America, Native American artifacts, an underground exhibit that "shrinks" you down to .5 inch tall and takes you underground to explore the dirt, and a great family play area. Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and went back to our hotel to get some much needed sleep. (A quick side note -- our hotel room was full and since Bill had made the reservations when he was planning to go alone, our room had only one king sized bed. How, you ask, did five people fit in one bed? We all slept across the bed, and we all fit! Ingenuity at it's best!)

Friday -- We woke up bright and early -- 5 am to be exact (thanks, Griffin!), so we were all able to shower and dress in order to walk with Bill to get breakfast before his meetings started. After breakfast, we hopped on a bus to the Museum of Science and Industry. This museum was the highlight of our trip. It was amazing! We toured a U-boat from WWII, played with farm equipment, explored the circus exhibits, tried to figure out the riddles in the Eye Spy displays, toured a coal mine, learned about energy, oohed and aahed over Colleen Moore's fairy castle, and spent over an hour experimenting in the Idea Factory play area. After five hours, we were worn out! Despite having only seen about half the museum, we headed back to the bus. Griffin napped a bit while we rode back and waited for Bill to finish for the day. Griffin woke up feeling refreshed, so we went to eat dinner and stopped by the American Girl Store.

Saturday -- After a quick breakfast, we went back to our hotel to rest a bit before we went out for the day. After a quick nap, we took the bus down to Lincoln Park and went to the zoo. The weather was beautiful, and we even ended up shedding our coats as the afternoon wore on. After the zoo, we wandered around the park for a while, then boarded the bus to go meet Bill again for dinner.

Sunday -- After breakfast and quick regrouping at the hotel, we headed out to the Art Institute. This museum was the one I was most excited about, as it houses art by just about every famous artist from every time period. Unfortunately, my sons were less enthralled by the museum. Rhys liked finding pieces that he recognized, but mostly, he liked whining and hanging from my arm. Inexplicably, as we were leaving the museum, Rhys told me that the art museum was his "favorite place and Chicago!" and asked me if we could go back another day!

After the art museum, we went to Millenium Park. Wow, that was one amazing park! The front of the park has several different modern art sculptures, including the famous Bean (actually titled Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor). We all were completely taken with this piece. It's so interactive, and we spent a long time playing with our reflections and photographing from many different angles. Towards the back of the park, there was an outdoor audio installation called Arctic: Soundstage. It was an audio track of sounds you'd hear in the Arctic, like cracking glaciers, bird calls, whale sounds, and more. After listening for a while, we took the footbridge across to a playscape. The kids spent a good hour running and playing with other kids until it started to get dark and we needed to go meet Bill.

Monday -- When we went to breakfast, we realized that the weather had taken a turn. It was cold! We suddenly understood how Chicago got nicknamed "The Windy City". Unfortunately, we had planned this day to go to Navy Pier. We spent some time in the morning at the Children's Museum (actually, a very small part of the morning, as it seemed that every local preschool and kindergarten had dropped off busloads of children there, and it was way too chaotic for us). After a lunch of famous Chicago (veggie) hot dogs, we went out to explore the pier. I attemped to get some pictures of the kids on the pier, but it was much too cold and windy for Griffin, who refused to get out of his stroller. That is, until he saw the ferris wheel! He was definitely game for that. The views from the ferris wheel where spectacular, but a little scary (for me). After Navy Pier, we decided to do a little shopping to thaw out. We went back to the American Girl store (Avery had been mulling for a few days about what she wanted to buy) and we went to the Lego Store, which was a huge hit too. We actually took Bill back there a few days later because the kids said he just HAD to see it.

Tuesday -- We woke up to another cold day, and we chose to spend it at the Shedd Aquarium. The Shedd is positioned right on the shore of Lake Michigan, and the views through the glass walls were spectacular! We saw a dolphin show, lots of fish, and a lizard exhibit. It was a neat aquarium, but as I'm no fan of fish, it wasn't a highlight for me.

Wednesday -- We decided to take a vote on our favorite outing and revisit it during our last day. It was unanimous, everyone wanted to go back to the Museum of Science and Industry. We got to see all the exhibits we'd missed the first time around, like the trains, the human anatomy section, Main Street, etc, as well as spend another hour or so in the museum's play area, and revisit our favorite parts of the museum.

Thursday -- We packed up and headed back home on Thursday morning. We really had a fabulous trip, and the kids had a great time. Griffin was pretty worn out by the last couple of days, and while he was fine in the museums, he got more and more difficult on the bus and in restaurants. Bill nicknamed us the MBCU (Mobile Birth Control Unit) because he claims that anyone that got within a 100 yard radius of us would voluntarily sterilize themselves on the spot. Ha! It really wasn't that bad, except on the plane. The ride home was NOT fun, but we made it!

You can see the whole set of Chicago pictures HERE.