Chicago Getaway

The weekend after Valentines Day Grams was awesome and watched our kids so that Tyler and I could go on a little getaway to Chicago. With the weather being so unseasonably warm here, Tyler has been unable to go up North for work so he was able to take a half day Friday and we headed to Chicago around noon. With the one hour time difference, we were able to make it to Chicago around 4, which was our check in time. Not only was our timing good but we found an affordable parking lot within a short walking distance from our hotel (the parking at the hotel cost $61/night so definitely not paying that). 

When we walked by half of our hotel being demolished, I was pretty worried that I had made a bad choice in hotels but it ended up being ok. The demolishing was mostly in the afternoon so not waking us up and the room was clean so that was a bonus. It did get noisy at night (I think it was the room above us that we kept hearing) and there was the constant sound of a nearby train (it sounded like constant wind) but really nothing that we couldn't sleep through. So all in all it turned out ok.

That night we kept things simple and got a CTA pass and took the Red train to Macy's (which was 7 stories high) and ate dinner at the Walnut Room on the sixth floor. It was a fancy, yet old, place. It had a giant fountain and all the crown moldings and chandeliers and these fantastic views of the city but it definitely could have used a renovation. I got a chicken pot pie and it was seriously one of the tastiest chicken pot pies I had ever had. It was honestly a perfect start to our getaway.

Afterwards we hit a 2 floor CVS and got some cough syrup (Tyler has had this never ending cough) and we got some junk food and we vegged out in our hotel room.

Saturday morning we woke up and got breakfast and then walked to the Shedd Museum. The weather was so perfect that it made for a nice walk. When we got there I was so proud of myself for buying tickets ahead of time- the line was awful. 

I really love sea animals so I enjoyed pretty much the whole thing. My favorites- turtles, some huge puffer fishes, the beluga whale and the dolphins. I just love dolphins so the aquatic show with them doing fun jumps and flips and swimming on their backs was definitely a winner for me. We also had tickets for the 4D show which was not our favorite. It kept squirting us in the face and even in the back. I wonder who actually likes that? 

Anyways, it was pretty crowded but that didn't matter so much because we didn't have any kids to loose in the crowd. And we sent videos of the sea creatures for Grams to show the kids so then we felt less guilty about them missing out, ha ha! It was the best way to visit an Aquarium! 

After the Shedd Aquarium we regrouped at our hotel and then headed to the shopping district. There were like 5 billion stores and they were all like a million stories high, it was so intimidating that I had no idea where to even start looking. That is why we stuck with the "small" Lego store. I could totally handle that and it was a lot of fun for Tyler and I. We found some awesome Minecraft Lego minifigures for the boys and then we got to make our own minifigures for the girls. Here I am posing with my new friend and Tyler asked one of the workers to let him hold a squirrel:

After the Lego Store we headed to Lake Michigan. It was such a pretty view. Tyler found a lot of flat rocks that he had fun skipping on the lake. We thought about just walking from their all the way back to our hotel but my poor out of shape body decided pretty early on that that was just not going to happen--so achy-- so we found the closest red Train stop and took it back to the hotel. 

At the hotel we decided the perfect way to end our night was with a movie so we grabbed some Chick-Fil-A downtown (because, of course, how could we pass up that opportunity) and then we went to one of those fancy AMC's with reserved seats and reclining chairs and watched "The Great Wall." It wasn't the best movie, it seemed to care more about being visually impressive than it's plot making sense but that was ok, it was nice just to relax and rot our brains.

Sunday morning we went and got breakfast and then took the bus to the Museum of Science and Industry. Honestly my legs and feet were so achy from all the walking the previous day and I was just worn our from all our fun the previous day that I kind of wished we hadn't planned anything for Sunday. I would have rather sat on the beach and read books but this was Tyler's museum pick so I'm glad we did it. He really seemed to enjoy the Brick by Brick Lego exhibit and the cool weather exhibit and all the other geeky things there so that made it worth it. 

After the museum it was time to head back to reality which was super sad. Like I said, I could have used just one lazy day. But I know my mom was glad to have us come home since Lucy caught a stomach bug again and had been throwing up all of Saturday night and Sunday. Grandma is such a trooper to have dealt with all that. We are so grateful to her watching our kids so that we could enjoy some time together. We definitely need to do things like this more often!