This is where I am going to group a few different topics into one area - again, being too lazy to look back - Instead of prolonging all this TOO MUCH - and because BigGuy suggested to his mom that our Chicago pics were up - I am going to just do a few short slide shows that will outline what we did. And add a few extras. Honestly, at this point I am semi ready to leave Chicago and move on.....
The Walk
I actually loved the walking! I loved that we did not need our car. Even when the walk through Lincoln Park seemed to take forever - it was still fun. Now....if it had been raining....probably not as much. The kids did really well. SuperStar kept trying to convince me that TheKing really wanted her to sit in the stroller to ride. And really she was probably right - although TheKing didn't seem to mind much that he didn't have to walk unless we were in a museum or sitting still in an area dangerously close to the lake.
The Meal
First thing we did after we checked in was walk down Jackson, across the LakeShore and into the park. Then we made a right and headed toward the Museum area (probably has a name - let me know if you are so inclined to make it known). The catalyst for the trip was Spidey's presentation (see his teacher decided to "challenge" him and the other little one who is ahead in reading and she assigned them a research project with a class presentation. Spidey chose Dolphins. They had to do an interview and he did a phone interview with someone at Shedd and an email one with someone at SeaWorld - yes you can do this) in class about Dolphins. So Shedd Aquarium was our first stop. Only.........when we got there we noticed this HUGE impossibly LONG line winding out and around almost all the way over to The Field Museum. We got in line and then someone came by to tell us the wait was only 1 hour!! We got out of line. We decided tomorrow was a better day for Shedd. We was a hotdog stand. It was 12:30. We decided to eat. So we did. This turned out to be the only "Chicago" style cuisine we had - except for eating at The Billy Goat, which was enjoyed by BigGuy if you took out the fact that Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi used it in their skit I would be complaining about it - I don't care for cheepz). The hotdog, however, was very yummy!
The Hill
Not all of us ate our HotDog - some of us only Rolled UP and DOWN the hill - over and over and over. You would have thought this would have made TheKing tired - nope - UP and DOWN - UP and DOWN - didn't take a nap all day long.
Field Museum
As I said - Shedd was out. Plan revised we decided to hit The Field Museum. What was my favorite part? Hmmm........maybe that it was FREE!!! Yep. You all know how cheap I am right? How I would much rather buy something that is on sale just because it is on sale? Well our Childrens Museum membership back home got us into the Field Mueseum free - yea! A few other spots too. As we entered we looked for lockers to put our coats. Nope. Nada. But there was a coat check - how much - $10 - this is where BigGuy got frugal so we were going to pass and carry when a woman walked up and asked if we needed help - that is when TheKing started to squawk - we explained we were just debating spending the $10 for coat check or a soda and snack later - she smiled, said, "Wait right there" and then came back with passes for the coat check. How Cool Is That. I hugged her and said that was the sweetest gift we had all day. We were in the right place at the right time apparently - because 5 minutes later they closed that table down and they were all gone. Sweet!
Without dwelling forever on this museum - the best way to summerize it is - Great Museum. We spent a big chunk of the day here. The kids all enjoyed things - they were typical and didn't stop to read things - BigGuy and I were unable to read things to make sure we didn't lose anyone - but we did SEE a lot of things. And we made a friend in the restaurant. That was during TheKing's melt down - no nap and too much hill makes him a cranky boy - so he attracted a lot of attention when we were sitting still.
Navy Pier
This was the only walk that took FOREVER. We were tired by the time we left Field the walk from one side to the other was about 2.4 miles - not bad, except we had already walked a number of miles during the day and Spidey (who was reminded)ended up having to go to the bathroom at the 1.1 mile mark. Right in the middle of the park and next to the lake I was tempted to let him hang it over the edge into the lake, but there was a lot of foot traffic going by and Spidey is NOT descreet. So we walked faster - for what seemed like FOREVER. Along the wasy there was a portapotty and it saved Spidey's pants. Navy Pier there we were. We hit the Children's Musuem there - and there was a HUGE line waiting there too - but guess what???? Yep - being members at ours got us in FREE and we Did Not have to wait in the line - Sorry Losers (ooops did that pop out of my fingers? well....honestly at the moment SuperStar and I felt a bit like Royalty being able to skip that line and....well it still doesn't warrant my calling them Losers - perhaps Minions would be better?). So we did that a bit and then sought food - which brought us to The Billy Goat - which I have already weighed in on (pass unless you are a huge SNL fan and HAVE to do it - there is a guy who has the accent and he really wasn't all that nice - so you can really have the experience). After that we hit Ben & Jerrys for some overpriced ice cream and headed back to the hotel - this time using public transportation.
Lincoln Park
Still with me? Good. Wondering where the Shedd pics are? Well..........I did take some. We went to Shedd first thing in the morning - no line - straight in - kids were so pleased I thought they would pee thier pants - only museum we had to pay for and that was to a tune of just around $80 for all of us (we fibbed about TheKings age because $15 for him to see fish seemed silly - now if there were free shows or something he could have "experienced" in a personal way - or the tickets were cheaper - or we were rich and $15 didn't mean anything to us.....well, you get the picture - we are liars who cheat the system.....shame shame). No finger pointing - I am sure you have done the same at some time or another. So forward - Shedd - we were there for maybe 1.5 hours and the kids pretty much said, "Do they only have fish to look at?" Dolphins, whales and such were on vacation to Connecticutt - we knew this. My thought was, "We paid $80 to get in - that is $40 an hour if we stay 2 hours - we have yet to see 4 areas (which were tiny)". We stopped to have a granola bar snack - I appealed to BigGuy to support me on the "we have to stay long enough for the cost to even out" and he said, "They wanna go and how many fish can you look at?" So - after hitting the gift shop (which is every parents personal torture room) - we hit the sidewalk to figure out the public transportation to Lincoln Park. Yea us - 1 bus to the Loop L - Loop L to Lincoln Park - hit a Dominicks for a snack (I loved the Dominicks store and wish I hadn't felt like such a dork and taken pics in there - I love living in cities - have I mentioned that?) - walked from the Domicks to the Lincoln Park Zoo (which they told us would take 15 minutes - and perhaps they were right if they are speed demon walkers and not 2 adults dragging 1 finally lifeless 3 year old, a 7 yr old who only has to go to the bathroom when there isn't one around and a 9 yr old who keeps wondering if we are lost because it has been longer then 15 minutes - this was the only walk that was not so enjoyable - so we were doing okay). Just as we were about to give up (keep in mind our map made it look like we were only half way there - their maps suck by the way - and we told them that and they laughed in agreement - what is that????) we rounded a corner, crossed a street, entered a park and figured we had to be close - maybe it was on the other side of the park - stopped a woman to ask where the Zoo was and she kindly turned around, pointed at the wall maybe 50 yards away and said, "Right there". If it would not have scared her I would have hugged her. We were there!!! This was the one thing TheKing wanted to do and we finally made it - and he was passed out asleep. So the only real dilemma we had - wake the 3 year old to see the Zoo and suffer the wrath later - or let him sleep. BigGuy, always on the side of caution said sleep - I woke him up. He couldn't miss the Zoo.
Lincoln Park Zoo was very nice. As I told my friend later - who is a strong supporter of our tiny small town Zoo that only has 1 of maybe 20 animals (clean Zoo, but sad sad sad) - Lincoln Park is like the Love Child of our beloved St. Louis Zoo and our sad pathetic small town Zoo. She mentioned that perhaps I am not being fair - perhaps I am jaded by growing up with the STL Zoo - well.....I have been to other Zoo's.....lets see there was the San Diego Zoo, the Wildlife Preserve there....okay, maybe I am jaded. Our small town Zoo still sucks though. But Linoln Park Zoo was very nice - and we enjoyed it as our last stop in our Chicago trip.
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