Kristi wanted to go real bad before school started so we just decided to pack and leave. We stayed really close to the Midway Airport (south of the O'Hare Airport- the famous one). We were about 15min away from everything we wanted to see. We bought Citypasses for around $80 (which is a STEAL) and included VIP entrances to5 things- Field Museum, Science Museum, Planetarium, Skydeck, and Shedd Aquarium. I'm sure you have seen the pics on Facebook so I won't repost those. The first day we got there around noon, so we hit the museum of science first, since it wasn't close to anything else (and to get it out of the way). we stayed there for about 5 hours. YES! you can actually stay longer....there is SOOOOO much you get to see, especially with exhibit entrances as well. I loved it! It was Kristi's and Spencer's first time seeing a movie in a planetarium- REAL IMAX. I wasn't sure Dominic was going to live thru it, but he did just fine. He actually slept right thru the movie- tornado chasing.
Dom had a hard time sleeping that night, felt so bad for Kristi.He just knew he was not in his room. So, anyways, we woke up around 8am. Our hotel was suppose to have continental breakfast- but it was a disapointment. Best Western is not reccomended to anyone traveling by the way. They used to be nice, and now breakfast sucks. So, we went to the field museum for half the day, then to the aquarium for about 4 hours, and then the planetarium for about an hour and a half. The kids zone was the best part. You got to experience what is like to step into space- pretty neat.
The field museum was primarily where i wanted to go. I wanted to see SUE the trex (the most complete one ever found) and the Tsavo Lions, which I had totally forgotten about. They were the man-eating lions (tru story) in the Tsavo region of Africa. Nobody knows why they were choosing to eat humans, instead of other animals. So, they brought over amazing hunters and rewarded a big bounty to whoever would catch them (2 brother lions). It took a while, but they did, and the field museum has them on exhibit. I thought they would be bigger. You can see the story "the ghost and darkness" with Val Kilmer in movie format. They also had a genghis khan exhibition, extreme mammals and something about central america.
The aquarium is world famous as a bredding facility. they got belugas and dolphis as well as sharks. A baby dolphin was just born about 3 months ago and you could watch him swimming with momma. That went by fast, cause you only look at fishes. Dominic was fascinated by them though. The Planetarium-not gonna lie- was a bit boring. Maybe it's cause we were all tired, but it just wasn't as cool as i thought it was going to be. Either way we saw all of it, except for the 3D movie included in the ticket. we left early- our feet were killing us. The reason we chose to do so much that day was because (we didn't know any better) the garages were charging $19/day to park (whether it was 20 min or all day). I told the crew we had to take advantage of it, and I"m glad we did cause that's a lot of money to come back the next day.
The third and last half day we went downtown. HOW AMAZING IS DOWNTOWN?!?!?! TOOOOO AMAZING! Loved it! All of it! Even Kristi pointed out how cool it was. EVERYONE walks, pregnant ladies in heels, businesssuits, kids, grannies...EVERYONE. I was also expecting people to be rude, but they really weren't ! They were actually nicer than in St Louis belive it or not. St Louis people are not friendly (no offense!) at all. I never have a good experience when i go downtown. But in Chicago, totally different story. We were already parked and about to put money in the meter, when this cooper stopped by us and the lady yelled " you'll get towed here! don't park....seriously...i've gotten towed here before...it's thursday". So, I went looking for the sign that said that we could park here and lo and behold in tiny letters it said "except thursdays 8am to 6pm- street cleanup". Meaning- pretty much everyone would get ticketed and then towed. I looked around and noticed that all the cars around had a red thing on the dashboard- tickets! they had already been ticketed so the tow truck wasn't far behind. I'm so glad that lady drove by, cause i'm not sure what we would have done. We found a spot around the corner (the construction guys nearby told Spencer about it- again...nice people). So we parked..paid our $7 (max for 3hr parking) and headed to the Skydeck. So, basically this is a big building (willis tower) and part of it got converted as a tourist attraction. They stuck out some windows and charge people like $20 to get in or something like that. it was included in our citypass, so we just went along. it was like the 110th floor or something. it was so scary! you can't even make out details in the cars below....that's high! and there is also a souvenir store on that floor too. After that, we went to the millenium park where they have the cloud gate. Kristi really wanted to see that...because it was in the movie "source code". I actually heard like 10 people say that while we were there. it was pretty cool, glad to know they didn't charge for it. We saw a family with BYU shirts (who were from CA) and stopped and talked to them. It was getting late so we decided to walk back to the car before the parking expired. OMG! Longest 30 blocks of my life! I had a baby carrier because I was not sure the stroller was gonna fit in the streets with so many people walking around. Well, Dominic was so heavy by the 15th block,that I wasn't feeling my toes. I seriously thought I was not going to make it. THAT CHILD needs to learn how to walk....or stop eating. Once we made it back we went off to find this pizzeria that supposedly invented deep dish. Once we ate, we headed back to the MO.
I would consider moving to the Chicago area, I had no idea how pretty it was. AND THE LAKE??? was gorgeous! It's probably too cold in the winter, but i bet it's just perfect in these summer days. there were so many people at the lake. Forget lake of the ozaks! this is where we need to be.
Then we found out, KJ had chicken pox (poor girl) and was oozing all over the car (just kidding!). So, we're pretty sure Dom will get them, it's just a matter of time. he's so goofy these days-like drunk. Laughs at himself for everything..Spence says he's dehydrated...and it could be...but who knows? He slept great these past 2 days...utnil last night during the thunderstorm. he kept waking up every two hours and then....the water was so strong it was coming thru his window. i had to rush and put towels down to make sure they would not get the carpet. it was horrible. i think the loud sound scared him, cause he had a hard time sleeping since then.
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