Chicago

At last, here’s the article I promised about our Chicago trip. Sorry I’m a little slow. I can’t imagine why. 🙂 The description of our trip follows, but if you want to skip straight to the pics, here’s the gallery: http://kerrspot.com/gallery/v/travels/chicago2006/

We left Mt. Pleasant on Sunday, June 25, shortly after church and headed to Grand Rapids to stay with Aaron’s parents. Packing for a family of four is hard work, but we did. And we even left when we were planning to! The only important thing we forgot was Aaron’s garmet bag with his shirts, so he had to do some emergency shopping once we arrived in GR.

The next morning we drove straight to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Madeline slept for most of the drive but woke just as we were just entering Chicago.  It didn’t take too long to find a McDonald’s, and I nursed Madeline in the back seat of the van before we enjoyed some parfaits inside.

The aquarium was great! Kayla kept wanting to see more fish, and she loved watching the dolphins in the oceanarium. We randomly bumped into an old friend from college right before the dolphin show and ended up sitting with her and her family.

Exhausted from a full day, we headed downtown to check into our hotel. When we got to our suite, I couldn’t believe how nice and large it was! There was a full kitchen, dining room, living room and a master bedroom! We enjoyed some local pizza and then headed out to buy groceries.

On Tuesday morning the girls and I headed out for a long city stroll while Aaron went to his class. We had lunch in our hotel room and then the girls “napped.” (Madeline napped, and Kayla played in her Pack & Play). This was our afternoon routine each day.

That evening we all walked to 1492, a Spanish tapas restaurant. The food was outstanding!

On Wednesday morning we walked again and attempted some shopping (bad idea when you have two little girls by yourself!). That evening we had dinner with Tammy, a friend from college. Tammy offered to stay with the girls so that Aaron and I could watch the fireworks that night. The girls both fell asleep, and Aaron and I headed to Navy Pier to watch the show. A thunderstorm rolled in right as it was starting, and it was outstanding! It was so amazing to see the lightning in the midst of the fireworks. Very cool!

On Thursday and Friday mornings the girls and I walked to Millenium Park and played in the fountain (and we took Aaron there on Saturday morning). Here’s a picture of Kayla:

On Thursday evening we took Kayla to the Children’s Museum at Navy Pier. She absolutely loved it and didn’t want to leave. It was fun watching her play and explore.

Our last adventure was a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Aaron’s class finished early on Friday, so we hopped a bus (quite the task with two girls and a double stroller) and headed to the zoo.

The only other thing I didn’t mention about our trip is that our housekeeper only spoke Spanish. She was so nice, and we had many conversations. One day she stayed for a half an hour and even held Madeline for a while. She really loved the girls.

Here’s a picture of Madeiline, too. She’s snuggled up on the bed in the hotel:

That sums up our trip! We sure had a great time.