Chicago

Okay, so here's the story of our trip for those who care to hear about it. I've been working on it for two days, so I hope someone wants to hear about it!

Thursday after work I picked my husband up and we left right from there. We headed to my parents' house, which is about two and a half hours north. It was nice that our little one was already up there and we didn't have to worry about entertaining her. We enjoyed adult conversation and arrived in time to play with her for about an hour before bathtime. She was happy to see us but clearly was in heaven at Grandma's house. The living room was covered in toys and she walked around like she owned the place.

We decided to take the train because it was cheaper than paying for gas and for parking in downtown Chicago (what we saved in parking alone would have paid for our tickets!). Friday morning we left for the train station at 5:45. When we arrived we found out it was running about a half hour late. Not a huge deal, since we were only a few minutes early in the first place, so we really only had to wait about 45 minutes. The train came and we left. All was fine for the first hour or two. We made a few stops and moved quickly in between the stops. But a couple hours into the trip we started slowing down. And then stopping now and then for no reason. We learned that freight trains have the right of way, so Amtrak trains need to yield to them and allow them to pass. This slowed us down tremendously and we were over an hour late arriving at Union Station in Chicago.

We took a cab to our hotel--the craziest cab ride ever. The driver sped down the roads and around the corners so quickly that we were moving all over the back seat and holding on for dear life! We kept looking at each other with big eyes, thinking, "What is this guy doing??" But we made it. They had a room ready for us, even though it was way before check in time, so we were able to go up to our room to drop off our stuff and decide what we would do with our day. We had planned things ahead of time, but it was supposed to rain, so we kind of left some things up in the air, depending on the weather.

We set off walking for the boat dock on the river to buy our tickets for an architectural boat tour. You're supposed to buy them ahead of time because they sell out on the weekends, so we bought our tickets for Sunday morning. Then we walked down to Grant Park, where the Taste of Chicago had just started that morning. We decided to do that for lunch, so we bought our strips of tickets and pushed our way through the crowds to buy little samples of various Chicago food. It was pretty crazy--very crowded, hot, humid, and expensive. But like I told my husband, it was a once in a lifetime thing and I'm glad we experienced it.

At Grant Park is the famous Buckingham Fountain. And they had the Clydesdale Horses there as well...my husband made me pose for this picture.

We then continued on to the Field Museum. My husband was excited about seeing Sue, the dinosaur. It was an interesting place, but my feet were already hurting from all of the walking we had done, so it was hard to want to walk around some more and look at things. We stayed a couple of hours and then left. We found out that in the summer Chicago has a free trolley system that runs to most of the famous, touristy spots, so we waited for that, unwilling to walk all the way back to our hotel on already exhausted feet.

We rested a bit, cleaned up, and set out for deep dish Chicago pizza for dinner. There are many places to choose from, but we chose Giordanos because it was pretty close and had good reviews. Well, everyone else must've read those reviews too because we had to wait an hour to get seated! They have you pre order your pizza, though, so it didn't take too long after we sat down to eat. While we were there we met a family from the next suburb over from ours. It's always fun to meet people on vacation from where you are from. And we always seem to manage to do that, no matter where we go! Anyway, the pizza was great.

We had a great view from our hotel room, by the way. The Wrigley Building clock tower was easy to see, and straight ahead was the new Trump tower, still under construction. It was a beautiful view at night too with all of the lights.

Saturday we left after breakfast at the hotel for the hop on-hop off trolley tour of the city. I always like doing these in big cities, even though they're as touristy as it gets, because you get to visit all of the important spots and see the city while learning little tidbits here and there about the city. We decided we'd ride all the way around (it was a two hour tour) and then go around again if we wanted to see something and get off. So we drove around in a double decker bus seeing the sights, like the Sears Tower, Navy Pier, Chinatown, and Oprah's studio. The second time around we stopped at Hancock Tower, currently the second tallest building (soon to be eclipsed, however). We took the elevator to the restaurant on the 95th floor (the top). There we had lunch and enjoyed some spectacular views.

When we came down we went to see the Water Tower (one of the two buildings to survive the Chicago fire) and I briefly walked into the American Girl store on Michigan Avenue just because I wanted to see what it was like (you know, I have a daughter who will someday likely be interested, so I wanted to see what the hoopla was all about). I didn't see much because you have to go upstairs to see most of it, and it was crowded and my husband was waiting outside, so I decided not to take the time.

That night decided to check out Navy Pier, also as touristy as touristy gets. We were going to take the free trolley down there, but after waiting forever for one to come, it was so packed that we couldn't fit on it. We had to walk--much to my dismay, since my feet were still killing me. We got there and it was just wall to wall people, food, souvenirs, and rides. I didn't like it. We hung around a little bit so my husband could take pictures and then decided to go up in the ferris wheel, because he had never ridden one before (yeah, that was news to me, too!). We had great views of the skyline and I'm glad we went.

We decided to head back soon after that. We went to wait for the free trolley. Just as we were walking up one was pulling away. They supposedly run every 20 minutes. We waited. And waited. And waited. We even saw the 10:15 fireworks we thought we would miss because we were heading back early. I would've much rather have been on a trolley. People who were waiting too started dropping like flies, taking cab after cab because it was taking so long for another trolley. Unfortunately I had left my purse at the hotel which held all of our cash, so we couldn't get a cab. After about a half hour of waiting we decided to start walking back (on my poor, exhausted, aching feet). Wouldn't you know it....as soon as we left, another trolley pulled up. We tried not to think about it, but we were both so frustrated. I kept trying to look at it as, "Look at all the extra exercise we got!" (But who was I kidding? I really wanted to ride!)

Anyway, we made it back. Sunday was our boat ride. It was really interesting, as we went up and down the Chicago River learning about the history and architecture of the various buildings.

After the boat ride we went back to check out of our hotel, and they held our bags for us for the rest of the day, since our train wasn't leaving until 7:05 pm. We went to Millennium Park after that. We had been there briefly on Friday, but my husband wanted to take some pictures, so we went back. There's this really weird bean shaped sculpture, which we enjoyed. It's a mirror, so you can take a picture of yourself taking a picture.

They also have two towers of glass which pour water over the sides. Every so often an image appears behind the glass. In this picture the face started spitting out a fountain of water! There were kids galore playing in the water and couldn't wait for this to happen. We were wishing our daughter was here with us at this point because she would've loved playing in the water.Next we went and had lunch (sitting outside right under the El--it was SO loud!), and then passed time going up the escalators at the old Marshall Field's (now Macy's). We were waiting for our commuter train which would take us out to Hyde Park, where the museum of Science and Industry is located. My husband was interested in seeing the German U-Boat sub they have there. So we found the subway station we needed, asked until we found the right train, and made our way outside of town to the museum. We got there around 3, my husband's tour of the sub was at 3:30, and he got done at 4. Our train back was at 4:40! That didn't leave us much time to see the rest of this huge museum. So we did a quick run through and then left to go get our train back to downtown. There was a lot to see and we decided we'll have to go back when R is a little older, because there's a lot there for kids.

We walked back toward our hotel (yes, more walking....) and ate dinner close by. We went back to get our luggage and the door man was trying to get a cab for us, but it was raining and they were all taken. He stood in the street forever whistling (he whistled SO loudly and it echoed through the streets--it was funny) but no one came. Meanwhile it was getting closer and closer to the time we had to catch our train home! Finally a limo came and stopped. He said he'd charge us the same as a cab, so we rode a limo to the train station! Instead of enjoying it, though, I was all stressed that he was going to charge us more and our cash was dwindling! But he was true to his word and it cost about the same as our first cab ride.

We found out which track we needed and then found a huge line of people waiting to get on the train. There was a lady I nicknamed the Train Nazi, because she was ordering everyone around and wouldn't let us walk past a certain point until she was ready for us. Finally we were allowed out to the train, but then we had to wait until they told us which car to get in. We were confused and got in the wrong car, so they sent us back. They were all so stressed and could've all been called "Train Nazis" because of the way they were shouting orders. So we got all stressed, too. Finally we found the right car, got seats, and then were told we were supposed to be upstairs! It was a double decker train. So we had to leave again and find different seats. Ugh. Finally we found them and I called home to let my parents know we had made it, and to say goodnight to our little one. She had just gone to bed, so I was really sad to have missed her. I wouldn't get to see her until the morning.

Well, we had a very, very slow ride home. We were supposed to get in at 11:55, but at 11 we were still in South Bend, IN, which is only about halfway! We didn't get in until 1:30ish in the morning. My poor dad had to get up to come get us at the train station. And then he had to get up and go to work the next day! But we finally made it and I was happy to see my girl the next day, even though I was completely exhausted. We drove back home and all took naps when we got here. Yesterday I napped while she was napping, too, and I woke up finally feeling caught up.

It was a fun trip, and great to spend time together without having to worry about entertaining our daughter. We missed her, but we enjoyed the time away. It's good to be home, though, too.