Chicago

Austin and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary earlier this year. As a treat to ourselves, we went on vacation to Chicago. Austin's mom came up from Florida to stay with the boys. We had a wonderful time! THANK YOU MIMI!!
Day 1, Friday
The first full day of our trip we slept in, had brunch at a little diner downtown, went to the Museum of Science and Industry, and to the Broadway show Jersey Boys. The Museum closed at 4, so we didn't get to see the whole thing. We did see a HUGE pumping heart that pumped in rhythm with mine, fetuses ranging from 5 weeks to 39 weeks, a human hamster wheel, a jet, and the German U boat captured in WW2. I enjoyed the German U boat exhibit. Fortunately (read with sarcasm), museum entry was free on weekdays so we were able to go back a second day to see all that we had missed.
Day 2, Saturday
The OU/texas game was at 11:30 so we slept in then headed to Wrigleyville to watch the game. We watched the game at Cubby Bear, a sports bar right across the street from Wrigley Field. There were some people rooting for tx, but they left at half time. After spending the better part of the day watching the game, we went shopping on the Magnificent Mile.

Day 3, Sunday

Today was the first sunny day of the trip. We took advantage of the weather and headed to Millennium Park. We saw the bean (officially called the Cloud Gate), the amplitheater, the Art Institute of Chicago, statues from China, and then had Chicago deep dish pizza for lunch. After lunch we headed to the Shedd Aquarium. It didn't take us long to tour the aquarium since we were child free. We did see a 4D movie where we were poked in the back, had water spit in our faces, air blown on us, and our seats shake.

Day 4, Monday (last day)

Back to the Museum of Science and Industry, Yippy!! You can see the excitement on Austin's face. We were able to complete the museum in just 3 more hours (for a total of 5.5 between day 1 and day 4). I thought the Chicago landmark buildings built with Legos were cool. I also got to see how the plumbing works inside a house, including inside a toilet. Let me just say, FASCINATING! After Austin had seen all he could see of Science and Industry we went to Navy Pier. At Navy Pier we enjoyed a Chicago style hot dog for lunch, a ferris wheel ride, and a windy walk to the end of the pier. After the pier we went to the Sears (Willis) tower (the pics below are out of order). We had fast track tickets so we were able to avoid the LONG lines. The most cool thing about the Sears (Willis) Tower is the Ledge that hangs 3 feet off the side of the building.

From there we headed back to the Magnificent Mile for Austin to buy a new phone at the Nokia store. He had been researching this phone for months and had already spent 30-45 minutes looking at it and comparing it to others on Day 2 of the trip. By the time he made the decision to actually buy the phone we had spent another 30-45 minutes in the store. Due to the slowness of the phone purchase we missed the 1st half of the Bulls game, but were able to catch the second half. We decided $60 seats weren't worth it for only 1/2 a game so we bought $20 standing tickets and headed inside. Once inside we found some empty seats and I watched the game while Austin played with his new toy, I mean phone.

We ate at some very yummy places while on vacation. We ate Italian at Carmines, steak at Harry Carays, and pizza at Pizano. We tried local brewerys like Goose Island and the Hopleaf. We stayed in downtown in the Loop. Our hotel, The Wit, just opened in June. It was a great location and a great hotel. We had a corner room with windows that looked out onto State and Lake streets with a view of the river. We were not ready to come home on Day 5, but Mimi said we had to come rescue her. Just kidding, she and the boys had a good time together, although I think they wore her out. I can't imagine how my kids could exhaust someone in just 5 short days. HA HA!