Westward Ho - Day Three

A Day in Chicago.

Chicago was our first full-day stop. It was good timing, because we all needed a break from the car. We had arrived at the hotel late the night before, so when Jane woke up at 5:30am, I tried to convince her to go back to bed. No dice. Oh well, I thought, she get up at 5:30 at home, I'll just get up with her. We had two rooms (6 people are too many for one) so I carried Jake into the other room, so she wouldn't wake him up, and got her breakfast, dressed etc.

Before too much longer the other kids were up, and all headed to the pool (the most important part of all our stays.) Then Rick went to work out, while I showered & got everyone dressed. When he got back, I looked at the clock and said "It's 9:30, too late for the breakfast here." He looked at me and said "It's only 7:30 - that clock is 2 hours fast." Are you kidding me, Jane and I have been up since 3:30 this morning!!! At least we had a good early start to our day, and I made sure I checked that the clocks were correct in each place after that!

We decided to start with a river tour of the Chicago architecture. It took us a while to find street parking - we couldn't go underground because of the Thule on the roof. We knew it would be an issue in Chicago - but probably no where else. Once the car was stashed, we headed to the river.

Emily on the boat.

Daddy helping Jane look over the side.

Sharing lemonade.

I loved Chicago, such a great city. I loved the beautiful & interesting buildings, and that it was on the river. I always say I wish I was married to Rick when he was in graduate school - now I wish that even more!

After the river cruise we had lunch at a restaurant on the river & then went to Fanny May's for ice cream cones for dessert. Yum.

The kids were tired and we had wanted to go to the campus of the University of Chicago to see where Rick went to Grad school, have him show us around & see his old apartment. I thought Jane would fall asleep on the way, so we went there next to get in a nap. The Campus was beautiful, and it was fun to look around. When we went to Rick's old apartment, it had been demolished and they were in the process of building a new health building on the site. Oh well, at least we got to see where it used to be.

After that we headed back into the city to the Navy Pier. Jacob had seen the Ferris Wheel earlier that day and asked several times to go on it. We spent the afternoon into the late evening there. There was a pirate show just as we arrived, and both Jacob & Emily went up on stage to participate in a game they were playing. Then we went on the Ferris Wheel, and let the kids go on a bunch of other rides.

We had a very good dinner at a little Mexican place called the Twisted Lizard. Then let the kids run & play in the in the fountain in the plaza. It was a cool evening & I know why they call it the WINDY city. Jane never had slept in the car, and since she'd been up since before dawn, and it was late, and they were all cold and tired, we all headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.