Chicago

Susan said she would let me do the travelog for our Chicago trip, so here it is...  (Yes, that is a reference to Susan's post). Susan hates Chicago, and really all big cities generally.  I think it all stems from an incident years ago when she was caught off guard by paying $50 a night to park at a hotel and then having to tip the people that parked it, along with some other trauma.  So that means we have not gone there very much.  We have gone on a few occasions, but it is mostly by train and just a day trip, which avoids hotels and parking entirely.  My hang up has mostly been kids.  Road trips, even short ones, with small kids is painful and close to impossible without a second adult to handle the constant needs of the kids.  I had wanted to take the kids to some of the great museums up there for a while and decided that we needed something to do while Susan was out of town, because bored kids sitting around the house is just as painful as bored kids sitting in a car, but just slightly less likely to cause an accident.

This time the trip up and back was actually really pleasant.  Alice and Robert are old enough to take on some of the responsibility for the younger kids' needs and Matthew is finally old enough to enjoy a book on tape for more than a few mins.  In the past, there was a constant battle between James wanting stories and Matthew wanting music (wheels on the bus like music).  Which as you may guess also made it difficult for the older kids wanting to read or listen to their own stories.  So the day before the trip we went to the library and got books on tape, actually play-aways which are MP3 players for a single book.  Each of the kids got to pick out some that they wanted, including plenty of Captin Underpants and Timmy Failure.  After that, we went to the store and picked out snacks, which will not be named because of Susan's request to not know what the kids ate while on vacation.  Alice was in charge of snacks for the kids and Robert was in charge of entertainment (mostly making sure that everyone had headphones, and appropriate volume, and fresh batteries).  It worked out great for the 2 hours up there.  For the ride back the next day Matthew slept the entire way which avoided some issues there too.

Day 1: Field Museum

When we first get there we find parking right across the street at Soldier Field.  We walk in, flash our tickets and the kids see this.



a giant dinosaur.  They are amazed by it and before we can go upstairs there is a docent there with a real sabertooth tiger skull that the kids can touch if they are gentle with it.

I like how they can mix in learning with the excitement.  Alice, Robert and I, using English and the Spanish Alice learned in school, we were able to decipher the name of the cat (Smilodon Fatalis) which the kids got a kick out of.

We went upstairs, saw the Pacific Islands exhibit because that is what is at the top of the stairs.  It was interesting, but the kids got bored with it before we finished the loop so there are not that many pictures.



After that, we got to see more dinosaurs and mummies, which is what most of the day turned out to me. I am not going to divide it up too much.













Rocks that helped the dino digest its food. The kids liked seeing the parallels without chickens.


James was really impressed by the size of this fish.













Getting ready for the 3D movie about Egypt.



I didn't take as many pictures of the mummies, but the kids really liked them (not just the Egyptian ones, but from all over).

We also got shrunk down really small to explore some dirt.




We also went to lunch and got some souvenirs, but are not really worth showing.  Neither is us hanging out at the Hotel relaxing after the long day. Suffice it to say that our afternoon was mostly uneventful.

Day 2: Shedd Aquarium

The next day we went back, but this time turned more towards the right after leaving the parking garage and went to the Shedd Aquarium.

Upstairs is a typical aquarium and Matthew got really bored after just a few of them, but we persisted for a while.



















Finally, we drove home...



Overall it was a really good experience and I would love to do it again with my awsome kids.  Just wish we could get Susan to go with us next time.  Perhaps we could try something different next time.