Derek and I took an extended Memorial Day weekend to go visit his Aunt Val who lives in Chicago. I will highlight the many places we went, and provide links to as many as I can. I just wish that by providing the links, that automatically meant the places had to pay me. Then I could at least cover the cost of the trip. Oh well. I will try to check back every so often to make sure the links are valid, but I make no promises on any given day that they will all work. Derek has been on a plane at least twice before (meaning two round trips), but he was too young to remember. So for all practical purposes, this was his first time on a plane. He was very excited about it all, and seemed to enjoy it. Though he did get bored waiting for the plane, and also got bored well after take-off -- but then again, so did I. On the plus side, his ears never popped or otherwise bothered him. Getting on the plane, one of the flight attendants took one look at Derek and instantly fell in love with him. She said her name was Kimmy, and that she would be taking care of us on the flight. She stopped by several times during the flight, and made sure he got his apple juice and snack. We saw her on the way to baggage claim in Chicago, and said good-bye.
We arrived in Chicago and made our way to Aunt Val's. She was at work and had left a key at the front desk of her building. We went upstairs and were greeted by the scurrying of her two cats. Walker is the braver of the two, and it didn't take him all that long to come and investigate us. He's gray and white. Abby is much more timid (could we call her a scaredy cat?), and it took her a lot longer to come out from under Aunt Val's bed. She's black and white.
Aunt Val got stuck at work longer than expected, so I fed Derek his dinner before she got home. When she did, we just ordered a pizza. It was basically a travel and unwind day.
Friday morning we decided we would go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. First we walked to lunch at the
Rainforest Cafe. Derek
and I had never been to one. Derek liked the mechanical elephants, as well
as the giant butterflies that could open and close their wings. He didn't like the alligator
at all, so we stayed away from that. He really liked the gorillas. He said he was the big one that
would beat his chest and roar. I said I was the medium one that was shaking the tree (not pictured).
That left Aunt Val to be the cute little one. Awwww. We sat at our table in the rainforest, and periodically
as we ate the animals moved, and there were occasional "thunderstorms". Derek's chicken tenders
were in the shape of dinosaurs.
We did notice on the walk to lunch that it seemed rather cold and windy (windy in the Windy City? I couldn't believe it either!). And on the walk back it seemed worse. We changed plans and decided that we should do an "inside" thing today. Our choice -- The Shedd Aquarium.
We got to the aquarium at the right time to catch the next Dolphin and Beluga whale show. We
made our way to find some seats. Our timing was great, as it was filling up, and after we
found some seats, it didn't take long until it was completely full. The show focused on how they humanely
train the animals.
After the show, there were all kinds of things to see. There were underwater viewing rooms for the dolphins
and belugas. There were many different kinds of sea life. One of my favorite rooms was the "Amazon Rising"
room, where they had all kinds of animals that I wouldn't consider typical of most aquariums. The
room was all about the yearly cycle of the Amazon River Basin.
We spent the whole afternoon at the aquarium, and as a bonus, we parked right by Soldier
Field, and they were in the process of renovating it.
On the way back to the parking lot, I noticed that we were across the water from the City, and there
was a nice little lookout to take some pictures. We then went home for dinner and to unwind.
I woke up Saturday morning to rain. It was supposed to stop later, but remain cold and raw. We again decided to pass on the Zoo and have an inside day. We went to Johnny Rockets for lunch, which is a 50's diner. Though I question the authenticity of it, because they played such songs as "I Will Survive" (a definite 70's song) in between the 50's music. On the walk to lunch, Derek was showing signs of seriously needing a nap. After lunch we went back and had him lie down. This proved to be a wise move.
After Derek's nap, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Derek has been to the Museum of Science in Boston, and his first conclusion was that this was a museum of science in Dustry! He could say it right after a couple of tries. I guess I don't know exactly what I was expecting from this place, but what it was is not what I was expecting. It's not that it was bad, it was just different.
The first thing we found was the farm room. I saw a big tractor and knew that Derek would like it. He took
a turn "driving" it. There were also rooms that had a plane, a 16-foot heart, a submarine, and a fairy tale
castle, among other things.
Sunday was supposed to be a nice day. For lunch we went to Pizzeria Due, which followed after Pizzeria Uno. The Chicago-style pizza in Chicago is different than the pizza you get at an Uno's elsewhere. After lunch, we made our way to the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Not only was it warm, but as the day went on, it actually crossed over into hot. The zoo is a free zoo, so
it was strange to just walk through the gates with no ticket counters or
turnstyles. We saw the primate house,
the big cats, and a polar bear, just to name a few. Derek took a ride on the carousel.
It was so hot, we stopped and had an ice cream snack.
For dinner, we went to
Joe's Crab Shack. Mostly because it was close
and didn't have much of a wait. Back at the apartment, despite having brought some of his toys with us,
Derek invented some games he likes using some of the cats' toys (games that didn't involve the cats).
He played these games throughout the trip.
Monday was a day of favorites. It was also the best day weather wise. We spent the day at the
Navy Pier. The first thing we did was take
a 30 minute harbor cruise with
Shoreline Sightseeing. I think it was
my favorite thing because I got to take a lot of pictures of the city, and also of the lighthouse.
Derek was excited about going on a boat. We left the dock and headed out into the harbor. I was
taking pictures just about the whole time. I'm also glad that we picked the 30 minute cruise, instead
of the 60 minute or longer ones. Near the end, Derek was getting bored. It was just in time to get him
interested in docking. The cruise went very well. Not ony that, but it was something that Aunt Val had never
done before, and we got a good view of her favorite building in Chicago, the Tribune Building.
For lunch we went to Bubba Gump. It's a theme restaurant based on the movie Forrest Gump. There was even a Forrest impersonator there. After ordering, and while waiting for our food, the waitress came over for some Forrest Gump trivia. I have only seen the movie once, and it was quite a while ago, so I did so-so on the trivia. If only they had a Simpsons restaurant with trivia questions...
After lunch, we went to the Chicago
Children's Museum. It was Derek's favorite
place on the whole trip, and it worked out well that it was last. There were lots of things to do,
such as a giant dinosaur dig pit, a tree house, and a room to make a fort out of pegboard. I liked the 14-foot
replica of the Sears Tower (making it just a bit smaller than 1/100 scale) made out of some 50,000 legos.
There were lights inside to light up some of the windows. It was quite impressive. Derek was having a lot
of fun playing with things and with other kids. We let him play for a long time. Luckily he didn't protest
when it was time to leave. (Possibly because I said we would go back to Aunt Val's for popcorn.) We had
a great day.
Tuesday was our travel home day. We got up and packed (well, I packed). Aunt Val had a morning meeting, then she came back to bring us to the airport. We flew home, with Derek still interested in the plane ride, but not nearly as excited (expect for maybe during takeoff). He asked me why Aunt Val had to go to work in the morning, and I said because of a meeting. He asked me what the meeting was about, and I didn't know. He said "Maybe they were singing." Maybe they were.
We both had a great time during our visit to Chicago and with Aunt Val. We kept very busy, slept well every night, and still managed to find time to watch some Sponge Bob almost every day. Derek is already asking about the things we will do next time we go there "after a lot of days from now".