After six months of living within striking distance, we decided it was finally time to take a trip to Chicago this weekend. So Kim spent the whole night and day planning and packing, picked Kelly up from work and we headed downtown to our Priceline destination, The Palmer House (of
Music Man fame - now part of the Hilton family).
In addition to a convenient HQ in a central location and our own little slice of history, we were also purchasing access to one of the only swimming pools in downtown Chicago. The boys were elated, and Mollie got to try out her new suit.
The hotel was right next to Millenium Park, home to some pretty neat modern sculptures, fountains that show movies, and a great place for Bennett to work on his one-footed hopping.
Kim demonstrating that she is not only cute and stylish in her spring wardrobe, but also very talented at taking pictures of herself. Oh, and the flowers were nice.
Like the other 2,400 people visiting the park, we loved the reflective bean and spent a lot of time examining the optics. That thing is just really cool - and I had no idea how big it was.
Curved reflections with tall buildings in the background provide a great opportunity for superhero poses. Bennett seriously did this kind of thing for 20 minutes uninterrupted.
Mollie June slept most of the time we were out, but even she appreciated the bean.
We met up with Kelly's friend Ty, who lives in the city. He took a family photo with the bean. Asher's favorite part about this park is the garage underneath. He told several tourists and homeless people about where our van was parked, and also reminded us a dozen times each. It didn't matter how impressive the sights - Asher kept asking to go back to the parking garage.
We also walked Michigan Ave and hit up Navy Pier, where we had a blast on the (overpriced and not-very-fast) carousel. There was also a USO party going on, so we saw lots of uniformed service people and even a military band at the pier before we caught a water taxi to the aquarium down the shore a ways. Also, Navy Pier has a pretty awesome food court.
Boys goofing around. Remind me next time we want smiles in a picture to make up a story about a kid falling on his face in a mud puddle and accidently chewing on a worm that he thought was candy. (Commentary from Asher: "It's the ramp to the parking garage. Ope, it's the bean. Is the ramp right by the bean, the one that slides down to the parking garage?")
Admiring the architecture in the big city. for a few minutes, anyway, until the big buses shook the bridge under our feet a few times and we got nervous.
View from the water taxi. We thought the ride would be fun for the kids, but after a couple minutes they sort of lost interest in the boat idea.
Inside the Shedd Aquarium. We were glad we got to see it once. Asher was really tired and kind of loopy - messing up Kim's hair in attempt to make her look even more fab and chic than she already was.
Overall a great day full of action and adventure. All three of the chilins fell asleep on the ride home, and we were glad for a Sunday to recover before we launch a new week.
