The Windy City

David had a seminar in Chicago this past weekend. As I love Chicago and the hotel was already paid for, the kids and I drove up on Saturday to spend the rest of the weekend with him. It was a wonderful weekend, even if we were only there slightly more than 24 hours before heading home again. Luckily Chicago is close by so we don't have to fit everything into one trip.

When David finished with class Saturday afternoon we headed to Navy Pier on the free "Charlie" Bus (OK, it's really a trolley bus, but Isaac misheard us and then when we went to correct him, he was insistent that he was the one who knew the right name). We took the kids to the Children's Museum first--what a blast! The biggest thrill for me was that it happened to be Korea Day at the museum and they had a troop of young girls demonstrating the traditional drum dances, had food tasting, etc. Nicole just loved the pretty Hanbok dresses and the drums, she was so thrilled. The boys couldn't get enough of any of it. It felt like we were having to drag them away from each and every activity as each one was just so interesting. After a couple of hours there digging dinosaur bones, building dams, creating flying machines, climbing through ship rigging, etc. we finally convinced them to leave the museum although we had only made it through 2 levels of it, and didn't even look at the 3rd level. We'll save that for another trip I guess.

We decided to eat dinner there at Navy Pier, and although there were tons of choices decided on Bubba Gump Shrimp--we all love shrimp and the kids meals come in boats so how could we go wrong? Then we strolled the Pier looking at all the cruising boats, water, gulls, etc. We decided against doing the Ferris Wheel as it was drizzling on us slightly by then. But the kids had fun seeing everything anyway. We headed back to the hotel, took a walk through the downtown in search of some dessert, and then retired for the night.

Sunday we woke up to the most beautiful of days. The sky was sooooo blue, the weather pleasantly warm. David had to take off for class, but the kids and I went swimming at the hotel pool on the 27th floor. I have to say this is my new favorite way to start the day, feeling like you are on top of the world, up with the birds on a clear sunny morning, and taking a refreshing swim. We had a great time until too many others had the same idea and the pool started to fill up.

David was done with class not too much later (he did skip out a little early this day, but after over 20hrs of class already his brain was starting to feel fried). We packed up and headed off to the Shedd Aquarium. The drive there was gorgeous. The downtown skyscrapers all around, framing the beautiful parks and fountains with Lake Michigan in the background. The Aquarium is right downtown too so we didn't have far to go. At the aquarium we took in the dolphin show, watched the penguins frolic, saw the otters and the beluga whales (including a fairly new baby). Skye was thrilled to find that their current traveling exhibit was on Komodo dragons that he just finished a poster/report on for school so he got to see one in person. Of course we saw lots of fish too, sharks, and even sea dragons ( a relation to seahorses).

At one of the main tropical fish tanks there was a diver in the water who, as Nicole was looking at the various fish, swam up in front of Nicole and waved at her. She just freaked out, and we finally calmed her down and got her looking at the fish. We kept encouraging her to then wave at the diver to get her over her fear, and finally when we were turning to leave the tank she waved at him. As we walked off she proudly announced, "I waved at the monster and no cry!" So then as we congratulated her on overcoming her fear we had to also convince her that it was just a person in a diving suit and not a monster in the tank with the fish. 80)

To finish off our trip to the windy city we had to stop at a sidewalk vendor for a true Chicago Dog. This was my first brave attempt at trying one, and actually they are phenominally good with all that junk on them. I was sure I would hate it, but I liked it! I do have to admit I did have to take the dill pickle off of it to really enjoy it.

For those of you who have not been to the windy city, or haven't been in decent weather. It really is a great city. The downtown area is beautiful, with something new around every corner. I look forward to many more weekend trips into Chicago in the coming years and getting to experience things that we haven't had a chance to check out yet. And if any of you are ever in Chicago, give us a call, we'd love to drive in and see you there.