Adventures in the windy city!

Our adventures in the windy city were short but oh so sweet...and not just because we loaded up on chocolate at the Hershey store.

 

 

The sightseeing duo and myself walked a good 50 blocks over the course of a couple days.. well, Jon and I walked and K hitched a ride. The 3rd largest city in the U.S. is no joke when it comes to people everywhere. He did not seemed phased by all the buildings or the people. total trooper!

 

 

 

 

The river boat tour through the river and out to Lake Michigan was pretty cool. The history and tall tales behind all of those old buildings was intriguing. The architecture is quite impressive, but I will have to say the lighthouse close up was my favorite part. From early childhood I've been beyond fascinated with lighthouses of any kind or stature. Hopefully some day Jon will whisk me away to Cape Cod.. sigh 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that walking, ummm, riding on dad's shoulders is exhausting. we stopped off for a tasty treat and to people watch. childhood is a beautiful thing, and chocolate ice cream cones are just part of it!  

The Field Museum was massive and something I think he will appreciate more when he's older. We had told him he'd see animals on this trip. It rained us out of St. Louis zoo the day before, so I think he was wondering where the real animals were. He kept looking at the stuffed animals funny, half expecting them to move or make a noise. bark back at him or anything!  

Not even the boy named 'Sue' dinosaur was impressing him too much because it did not move or bark or growl back. ha

(I was impressed with Sue)

 

...and THE BEAN

was an added little something special.. I honestly didn't know it was in Chicago until we took this trip, and once I found out, I think it was one of my top priorities of things to see. It was pretty cool.

 

Oh sugar baby!

We found the Hershey store and had a good ol time.

 

and bums on every corner here in Chicago.

 

 

K's first time to a Lego store and he loved it. The Magnificent Mile was shopping galore. The 900 shops were no joke either. The Chicago Clubhouse was fun for me.. Jon took a picture and sent it to Clay and said ' I can't make myself go in.'  ha Then he walked in and asked the worker 'Do you have any cardinal stuff?' and laughed and the guy was like 'oh yeah man, we have cardinal stuff.' then he yelled to the guy behind the register and was like 'hey Stan ( I cant remember the name), he's asking where the cardinal gear is.. Stan lifts up the white trash can from under the counter and written on it are the words 'Cardinal stuff' ...

Oh I'm guessing they've heard that a time or two.

giggle giggle   

(side note: we thought of the location originally to catch a cubs game and they didn't have a home game the week we decided to go. somehow I think I'm the only one bummed about that. sabotaged! )

:)

 

THE SKY DECK

 

 

 

The ride up the elevator some 1400 sq ft. or something like that ? was pretty fast considering word on the street is that Willis Tower is the tallest building in North America.

My son and hubs had no fear stepping out onto the glass box, but for some reason I am admitting I was a little apprehensive. I think its the 'mom' thing versus the dare devil. I kept wanting to tell Kellen to get back so he didn't fall.. ha

Fun experience none the less, we loved it!

 

Itsa Pizza -ria!

The Lincoln Park Zoo

We were both, without a doubt driving Kellen to this city zoo, thinking the entire time that it was going to be a DUDD. 

Needless to say we were both pleasantly surprised at how lively it was, and how much fun we ended up having.

This is probably a grandma story, but a side story to the above Zebra is that a month ago or so at the Tulsa Zoo, he was none to happy that they did not have any Zebras out the day we went. He looked for them everywhere and then was completely bummed when we left w/o seeing 'him.' .. yada yada, so reading him books the last couple of weeks any time we got to a page with Zebras he would get a sad little face. I told him that the Zebra was very upset too that he had missed seeing Kellen and that he was really wanting him to come visit. He would tell me.  He would point to the page and say 'Momma, theres that Zebra. He is very sad that he didn't get to see me.'

We were delighted there were Zebra's at this zoo!

And Kellen had the biggest smile when he saw 'him' and was so happy for the 'zebra', so that he wouldn't be so sad from missing Kellen anymore.'   love my sweet boy!  

The Lynx above was accompanied by another female Lynx on this day, and they were both being lazy and laying right up against the bars of the cage just veggin out. We walked up unsuspecting the drama that would soon take place. While standing there, we notice a bird has flown into the building and is flying around the top right hand corner of this cage, almost right above where the female Lynx is laying. The bird, obviously not the brightest Crayola in the box, looks like its almost trying to fly IN the cage. We see the male Lynx bow up and get the pounce stance, and the female Lynx just continues to lay there just watching the bird. All of a sudden the bird flies into the cage and within a split second, that female Lynx has climbed up the rock, snatched the bird, and now is waking around carrying the bird in her mouth! The male Lynx is pacing, like she is supposed to share, but she is having no part of sharing. She goes to the far corner of the cage with her catch and looks like she's burying it or eating it or something.. who knows.. but nothing like a real life nature show at the city zoo! It really was a great show.

 

The monkeys were a wild bunch of barracudas also, and not just the two I brought along.

They had a pack of male monkeys they were referring to as the bachelors all in one cage. It was funny to see that even in monkey packs there were goof balls, jokesters, pranksters, and the big husky one that didn't have time for child's play.. ha good stuff

Let's see, Garrett's popcorn was out of this world delicious.. now I'm thinking of popcorn and wishing I had some!! and Gino's East was a great dining experience.

 

The crust was weird to me.. Thick and yellow.. like a hard corn bread? Not exactly my thing, but the taste and Chicago style didn't disappoint.

Our first morning in Chicago I woke up to a fresh Starbucks. Jon had remembered there being one a few blocks up from our hotel and headed out bright and early that morning to get us one. He ROCKS like that though..  :)

 

 

We headed home from this trip on the 4th and on the agenda was BBQ in St. Lewie and to catch their fire work display downtown. We'll just say we got to downtown, found out the BBQ joint had sold out of grub for the day, and the downtown area was packed like sardines, so we just kept going. There was a brief period on the car ride home that we thought we might miss fireworks for K as we were flying through from small city to the next city, but never to fear, we lucked out and hit the mother load. Not only did we stop at a great spot, but we parked and laid our blanket out next to the firework stand of the people that happened to own the firework stand and own the fireworks that were being shot off! We kicked it among the locals for an hour, enjoyed the breeze... they were shooting off these lantern fire lights into the sky that was completely neat and new to us.. and then the show was awesome to boot.

 

Great 4th with my fam.

I am without a doubt in love with my boys. I love that the three of us can take off to wherever and have a great time joking and playing and living life. They are my world and I wouldn't have it any other way!