Chicago, Day 7: Saturday, July 16

On Saturday morning, we packed up all of our things and checked out of the hotel. Then, we decided to walk down by the Chicago River for awhile. It wasn't too hot and it was still fairly early, so it was a nice walk. We went to Big Bowl for lunch and ordered Chinese and Thai. Eric and I went to a Thai buffet in London several years ago, but we're not entirely sure what we actually ate that night. Other than that experience, this was the first time we'd ever had Thai, and it was pretty good. Lately, Anya has been wanting whatever we're eating and we typically try to give her what we're having unless she either won't eat it or it's not good for her to have. We decided to let her try the Kung Pao Chicken. It wasn't that hot - at first. Anya ate the first couple of pieces with no problem, but after a few minutes, she just started screaming. She refused to take a drink or to eat anything else on the plate. Instead, she started licking the plastic mat we use at restaurants to put her food on. I know it's not really funny, but we couldn't help but laugh. Finally, Eric pulled out some applesauce and Eric got her to eat some of that and she got better.

After lunch, we got our car and headed back to Evansville. On the way, we stopped by a daylily farm to feed Eric's addiction. In fact, it was the same farm we stopped at on the way back from Michigan last summer. Eric bought several daylilies and we got back in the car to head back. We stopped at Arby's in Terre Haute for a quick dinner and then got back around 9:15 pm. Anya was up late that night because she had slept in the car so much, but she eventually went to bed.

We had a great time in Chicago. Even though we spent 6 nights there, there is still so much to see. We would highly recommend our hotel (Comfort Suites). It was right in the middle of the city and the staff was excellent. It was also nice to have an actual bedroom, kitchen, and living room. It made it a lot easier for Eric and I to stay up and watch TV after Anya went to bed. We would also recommend the CityPass. It got us into most of the museums and attractions and the whole packet of tickets was half the price of what it would have cost to go to each of them separately. For the metro, it was nice to have a pass as well. The best choice we made was to park the car and just take public transportation. The traffic is stressful and I hated driving in it to and from the hotel when arriving and leaving. It is much, much easier to just hop on the bus or the metro to get to where you are going. We just took the umbrella stroller with us and carried a large backpack as our diaper bag. This made travel around the city fairly easy.

Now that our family vacation is over, Eric and I are counting down to Jamaica!

Chicago, Day 6, July 15

On Friday, we planned to be indoors a majority of the day because it was supposed to be really hot. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry for a good portion of the day. It was fun, but I think it will be more fun in a few years when Anya is old enough to enjoy more of the museum. However, she got to see baby chicks hatching from eggs, which was kind of neat. There were a lot of interesting exhibits at the museum, but we noticed that there were so many school groups there that it was hard to enjoy much of it. The kids didn't seem to be very well behaved. When I went on field trips as a child, I remember having to walk quietly in a line, but this wasn't the case with these groups. You could barely get through some of the hallways because the kids were running up and down the hallways.

After the Museum of Science and Industry, we had planned to visit the Oriental Institute, but we were exhausted so we just headed back to the hotel instead. After a bit of a rest, we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner and then stopped by Fannie Mae's to grab some ice cream to take back to the hotel. The three of us split the ice cream and if we weren't feeding Anya fast enough, she would just help herself with her little spoon. After Anya went to bed, Eric and I relaxed with yet another glass of wine. it was a fun day but I feel like the last full day of vacation is always the worst just because the fact that you are leaving the next day is always in the back of your mind...

Chicago, Day 3: Tuesday, July 12

Because of the weather, we decided to change around our original plans for Tuesday. Also, since we had such a long day on Monday, it was nice to do something more informal. After breakfast, we went to North Avenue Beach. It is crazy to think that Chicago has beaches because we never really thought about it, but it is actually pretty nice. The water was really cold so we didn't get in much. Instead, we spent the time playing in the sand. Anya hated the sand at first but eventually played in it, though she wouldn't sit in the sand. We also had a little tent set up for her to sit in if it got too hot or sunny. She liked sitting in there eating her puffs. We brought a picnic lunch so we ate lunch on the beach and then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up.

After spending some time resting in the hotel, we set out to take the brown line on the metro. It weaves in between office buildings and you are close enough to peer into the windows. While it was neat, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be and didn't seem any different from anything else we've seen while travelling in Europe.

Once we left the metro, we decided to look for somewhere to eat. We were really hungry and ended up settling for a place called Burrito Beach, though it wasn't quite what we were looking for. One nice thing about it, though, is that it was cheap. After dinner, we walked around the Magnificent Mile a little and ended up stopping at the Hershey store to get some treats. We got them to-go and then headed back to the hotel. Anya fell asleep in her crib so we got her right in bed when we got back and were able to enjoy our treats with a nice glass of wine:)

Chicago, Day 2: Monday, July 11

We got up early Monday morning so we could get to Shedd's Aquarium as close to 8:30 as possible. While we were in Chicago, we used public transportation or walked 100% of the time, so we took the bus to the aquarium because it was the easiest and straightest shot to it. Of course, while we were on the bus, Chicago was hit by a really nasty storm. When the bus arrived, we ran to the covering by the bus stop to regroup and then ran in the rain to the entrance. We had a great time at Shedd's and I think Anya enjoyed it, too. We went to a dolphin show and there was a special Jellies exhibition that was really interesting. I've never seen that many kinds of jellyfish all in one place. I didn't even know there were that many kinds, either. We brought our own lunch and ate near the dolphin pool. There was a ledge that Anya could stand up on and stand right at the glass. She loved the dolphins and kept pointing at them when they swam past her. She also liked the beluga whales. After lunch, we took Anya to the play area where she put on a penguin suit, went down the slide, and crawled through tunnels. We didn't stay long because a lot of bigger kids eventually showed up and we didn't want her to get trampled.

After Shedd's Aquarium, we headed toward The Field Museum. While this was a good museum, it just wasn't as interesting as Shedd's. I don't know if it was because we were tired and Anya was a little fussy or if it just really wasn't as good. We went through several exhibits, including the Eqyptian tomb, the African animals (to see the Lions of Tsavo), and Sue (the T-Rex). What's kind of interesting is that Eric and I were both on family vacations in the western part of the US when Sue was being discovered and they were trying to figure out where she was going to go.

After going back to the hotel, we opted to go down to Navy Pier for dinner. We ended up eating at Bubba Gump's, which was a little expensive, but good. Then, we rode the bus back to the Mag Mile and walked to the Ghirardelli store for an ice cream brownie sundae. It was amazing!

Back at the hotel, Anya didn't take quite as long to get to sleep but she was definitely fighting it. It was like she knew we were on vacation and she was too excited to sleep. After she finally went to bed, Eric and stayed up a little later and had a glass of wine before bed.

Chicago, Day 1: Sunday, July 10

We got up before 6 am so that we could leave by 8 am. Eric and I were both able to get showers and get ready before Anya woke up. After loading the rest of the stuff into the car and eating some breakfast, we were off. Unfortunately, our GPS did not know about the construction and closures right outside of Chicago so we drove around in circles for awhile until we figured out exactly how to get into the city. We finally pulled in around 3 pm. We got the car sent to the valet for parking and checked into our hotel. The nice part about our hotel room was that we had a 1-bedroom suite, meaning that we could put Anya to bed in her pack and play in the bedroom and then we could hang out in the living room until we were ready for bed. We also had free breakfast and free internet. We were on the 11th floor and had wall to wall windows in parts of the room so that we had a great view of other buildings. While we were there, Anya loved standing up at the window and looking out at the city below.

Once we got settled in, we ventured out to explore the Magnificent Mile, even though it was pretty hot out. We stopped to see some street performers who were dancing in the street, which was pretty neat to see. We were also lucky enough to meet up with Tricia, a friend of mine from grad school who lives in Chicago. She, her husband, and her son met us downtown and walked with us for awhile. Tricia was 9 months pregnant and her due date was the following day. (She actually ended up having her daughter the day after meeting us.) When we got hungry, we headed for Giordano’s for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza. We had decided that we were going to try 2 different pizza places during the week we were there and we kept hearing about Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s. We had stuffed mushrooms, garlic bread, and deep dish pizza. The pizza was pretty good but not quite as good as I had hoped, though overall it was a good meal.

After dinner, we walked around a bit longer but then went back to the hotel. Anya was up really late because she didn’t want to go to sleep. I think she knew we were on vacation and wanted to stay up with us so she wouldn’t miss anything. We ended up walking her up and down the street at like 10:30 in the evening to try to make her sleepy. We walked around for about 15 minutes before the people started to look kind of shady and then came back to the room. Anya wasn’t completely asleep, but she had at least calmed down a little and was able to fall asleep. It was a pretty good day, other than getting Anya to sleep, and we were excited for an entire week to spend in such a beautiful city.

More to come about our week as time allows…