Chicago Trip Report

Chicago Trip Report: March 26 – April 1, 2009

Chapter 1. Can we Beat the Blizzard

We had made the decision the night before – we would get up as early as we could bear and head on up to Denver to try to beat the storm. We knew there was no guarantee that it would even hold off that long, but we also knew that if we weren’t out of town by early morning we were not going to make it at all. The whole region was put under a Blizzard warning at around 6am – we got on the road by 6:30. We had to drop Nala off at the PetsHotel – they opened at 7am, and actually let us in a few minutes early. That went smoothly and quickly so we were soon on our way. The storm was coming from the North, and we drove straight towards the middle of it as fast as we could. Thinking the whole time we must be a bit crazy. So far the morning seemed so calm and serene though – the sunrise was even peeking through the clouds a bit in the East. The calm before the storm.

We were fortunate not to encounter any snow until we were coming into downtown Denver. We should have looked into the parking situation before we left– being used to travelling from airports I assumed that there was a set parking deck for Amtrak – but there was no such thing. So we had to find one of the city decks, and none that we spotted seemed set up for long-term overnight parking. The snow was starting to come down pretty hard and feeling a little panicky all of the sudden, we pulled into one of the decks and parked. The overnight rate was not clear… but we got out and lugged our suitcases through the snow back to Union Station. We had gotten a little turned around while searching for parking, and with the reduced visibility it took us a few minutes to figure out which way to walk. But we got there with no major problems. The station waiting room was large and mostly empty. Afterall, the train wasn’t departing for another 12 hours. The station is old – built sometime in the 1800s I think. It still has the grandeur of an old-timey train station, but with a few modern amenities added.

I went ahead and printed our tickets from the self-service kiosk, and we walked over to the baggage room to see what we could do about our bags. It turned out we could go ahead and check the suitcases, and later we went back and had them store our carry-ons as well. The baggage guy mentioned that so far our train was running on time – we could only hope that remained the case throughout the day.

Feeling much less burdened now, we decided to venture out to find some breakfast. We were in the middle of the downtown area so we figured there must be something within walking distance. We didn’t walk too far before finding a Starbucks, we relaxed inside for quite a while with some warm drinks and breakfast snacks. It was nice just sitting inside watching the snow come swirling down outside. I started thinking how this was not at all how I pictured this trip beginning – I had imagined us driving up here after grabbing a quick dinner – getting to the station after dark after a long day of work and school –this was a very different adventure indeed.

We had seen a bookstore (The Tattered Cover) close to Union Station so after we left Starbucks we made our way through the snow back to it. Everytime we came inside somewhere after walking through the blizzard it was such a refreshing feeling. We quickly found the kids book section and spent a lot of time looking around, and reading books on the couches. We even picked out a couple to donate to the church RE library, and Lily got a new Disney Fairy book. After a while in the bookstore we started talking about our potentially poor choice of parking – we weren’t at all sure how much they were going to charge us, or if overnight parking was even allowed. We knew that there were some Park-n-Ride lots for the light rail (which also went to Union Station) and we decided to see if we could find one. So we got the car, stopped by the station to get a light-rail map, and headed out into the now increasingly strong blizzard in the car. This was not a good idea.

We ended up wandering around for almost an hour looking for a station with a parking lot, after several unsuccessful attempts we found a garage, but couldn’t find any information on whether it required a permit, had overnight parking, etc. Finally after talking to some other people and reading some signs, it looked as though if we parked there our car would get towed. I think it was a parking lot for the college and required some sort of permit. While we were in the deck, the snow started coming down even harder and the wind picked up, the blizzard had arrived in full force –we needed to head back towards the station and fast! Back on the road, the situation seemed to be deteriorating quickly – surely we weren’t going to get stuck now, we were so close! Why had we ventured this far from the station again??? We passed a couple of wrecks, stuck cars, traffic jams, and had a few tense moments at stop signs thinking we were stuck as well. Visibility was terrible and the roads were getting slick. This was why we had come early, so that we wouldn’t have to be driving in this! I suddenly had visions of being on the Titanic as the last boats were being lowered… okay our situation may not have been quite that dramatic but the thought crossed through my mind anyway. After a few harrowing minutes though, we made it back to the area we had started from. We picked a different lot this time – one that seemed to indicate a flat rate per day with no additional overnight charges.

Glad to be back within walking distance of Union Station, we now set out to get lunch. We had seen a Noodles and a Chipotle near the Starbucks earlier, and decided on Noodles. Walking around downtown in a blizzard was always challenging, but a fun adventure in its own way. Again, we were in no hurry to leave and enjoyed the chance to relax someplace comfy and warm for a while. Lily kept talking about seeing people outside walking on their heads – we finally realized that one of the glass panes on the door was reflecting people on the sidewalk in such a way that they did indeed look like they were upside down! She thought watching them was hilarious. After a while, we headed back to the station, not wanting to be out in the cold anymore. They even have a free shuttle that runs up and down the 16th Street Mall, so we took that back and saved some walking in the storm. It really amazed us how much effort was being put into keeping the city running – everywhere we looked there were plows, snowblowers, people shoveling, putting down salt - it was an operation of scale I had never seen before in these conditions. We were certainly grateful!

Back in the warmth and calm of the station waiting room (which was still mostly empty), we set about trying to entertain ourselves for the afternoon. So far the train was still basically on-time – fingers crossed that it stayed that way! Lily read some, and ran around playing various pretend games in the spacious waiting area. I laid down for a while and stared up at the ceiling, admiring the old-fashioned charm of the place, but noticing a few odd juxtapositions – like the fancy chandelier chains that now had a large fluorescent light fixture hanging form them… and the computerized self-ticket kiosk that was in front of the old sign for the telegraph… it was a neat place though. An older man who was also waiting for the train talked to us for a while- he was working on his autobiography and had apparently had quite a few adventures in his time.

Finally we decided to head out into the storm one last time to find some dinner. We took the shuttle again, and after some indecision ended up at Chipotle. It was earlier than we were used to eating but I didn’t want to cut it too close getting back to the station. When we came back, it had gotten little more crowded, but so far everything was still on schedule. For two days I hadn’t really known if this trip was going to happen, at least not without some major complications, but now it suddenly seemed like more of a reality, and we started getting excited for the first time.
It wasn’t too much longer before people were lining up to board. The train was a little late coming in but it looked like it would still be able to leave close to on time. It got very crowded in the last few minutes before boarding. Apparently most of the flights out of the airport had been canceled or delayed and many people had made a last minute change of plans and come to the train station instead. Sure glad we weren’t planning to fly tonight!

Chapter 2. The Polar Express… I mean… The California Zephyr

Well it sure FELT like we were getting on the Polar Express. It was now dark, the snow was still coming down in furious swirls as the wind howled around us. We found our assigned car and quickly came in out of the cold and found seats. It felt mostly like being on a plane, except everything was bigger. The aisles, the seats, the overhead compartments, and most importantly, the legroom! Before long we started to move, slowly at first but finally started picking up speed as we made our way out of town. Watching the storm continuing out the windows, it sure felt nice to be in a warm, cozy seat inside the train! It was actually much nicer than being on a plane – much roomier and didn’t have that same rushed, stressed feeling boarding. It’s too bad we don’t have more variety of easily reachable destinations by train from Denver.

We munched on some snacks, then tried to settle in to get some sleep. Our seats reclined more than airplane seats, and there were also nice footrests that extended from them. But it still wasn’t quite like being in a bed, and before long it became evident that Lily wasn’t going to be able to get comfortable enough to go to sleep. So I let her go down in the floor below the seats where she could stretch out with her pillow and blanket. There was actually plenty of room, and the conductor didn’t seem to think it was a problem when he came by. She was asleep pretty quickly after that. I tried to sleep, but it didn’t come for a while. Now that the initial excitement over being onboard was over, my fear of trains started creeping in instead. Several times I was almost asleep when the train car would shake or sway violently from side to side – and I would suddenly be sure that this was it – expecting at any second to hear the crash of metal and realize that we had derailed. But of course we never did. Statistically speaking, I know that train travel is far safer then by car or plane… but still. I have a bit of a phobia, what can I say? I kept thinking back to a lab I did with my kids a few years ago – using cups and metersticks to simulate the motion of a train wheel on the track. The shape of the wheels causes the train to be quite “wobbly” but it is that same shape which makes it very unlikely that the train could come off the track. So I tried to reassure myself with that knowledge.

I eventually did drift off to sleep, but woke fairly often to change positions, get a drink, etc. We made a few stops, some of which I am sure I slept through. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke to see us coming into a fairly large city, must have been Omaha. I woke another time and smelled smoke – of course I thought at first the train was on fire, but it must have been coming from outside somewhere. Lily slept a bit more soundly than I did, but did wake a couple of times, and went to sit with Brian (across the aisle) for a while as well.

They had announced shortly after boarding that the dining car was closed for the night, but would re-open at 6:30am for breakfast. So everytime I woke up it became my habit to see how much longer until breakfast. Finally around 6:45 we all woke up again and headed to the diner. It was the first time we got to see the other train cars – walking between the cars was a little freaky, and several times I almost fell when the cars jerked back and forth. But we made it to the dining car, and were seated at a table with the same older man that we had talked to quite a bit in the station. We chatted some more and enjoyed our breakfast. The sun was coming up now, so we could see the countryside passing by through the windows while we ate. On the way back we stopped by the observation car and sat there for a while looking out the big windows. We passed the next few hours going back and forth between our seats, the observation car, and the snack bar. Lily colored, read, told jokes, etc. We were in Iowa most of this time, so not too much interesting to see but it was still neat. We made stops at Oceola, Ottumwa, and Pleasant something, Hill maybe? Not sure. But lots of quaint looking small towns, farmhouses, etc.

Around 11:30 the first call for lunch was made, so we headed on down to the dining car to beat the rush. This time we were seated with a middle-aged woman who was quite entertaining. Had lots of weird stories – our lives must be pretty boring in comparison to most…We crossed the Missisippi River while waiting for our food, then Lily fell asleep before it came, so we wrapped it up and brought it back to our seats with us. After a couple of hours she was awake enough to eat it… it wasn’t too much longer before we were coming into the outskirts or Chicago. And finally, seemingly out of nowhere – the Sears Tower appeared! We rolled right on into Union Station, and then it was time to get off – we were here at last!

Chapter 3. Welcome to the City

Since we had been in the last car, we had quite a walk to the front where we entered the station. There was a train on both sides of us – talk about a little intimidating! They were huge, and loud. Finally we made it into Union Station – quite different from Denver’s Union Station. This one felt more like a modern airport – with different gates going off in every direction. We found baggage claim, and our luggage came before too long. Now time to go find a taxi and get to our hotel…
As soon as we stepped out the doors a guy met us and asked if we needed a taxi. Assuming he was a taxi driver we said yes and followed him. In hindsight, we should have seen this one coming, I guess we are just too naïve. He lead us to a taxi and started loading our bags in the trunk – about this time the driver stepped out, and the driver of the taxi behind ours and started yelling at him – I didn’t realize what was going on until we went to tip him a couple bucks – and he claimed we owed him $3 per bag! The other drivers got very mad and were yelling at us not to give him anything.. we finally ended up giving him a dollar or two and he left us alone, seeing that he was clearly outnumbered by angry taxi drivers. With that fiasco over we got in and were dropped off at our hotel – the Essex Inn on Michigan Ave.

It looked about like what I had expected – afterall we had been snooping a little bit by looking at the images on Google before we left. We checked in - they must have been out of the double-queen rooms that we had booked – the manager told the guy to give us this other room, and told us we would be very happy there. It turned out he had given us an upgrade to a king suite – on the 11th floor overlooking Michigan Ave, with a nice view of Museum Campus and Lake Michigan! It even had a separate living room. That was some good luck to start our trip – we couldn’t have hoped for better accommodations.

We had dinner reservations at 6:45 at the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant, and we had about an hour until we needed to leave so we unpacked, then hung out in the room for a while enjoying the view. We had to change clothes to go to dinner as well – we were headed to a very fancy steakhouse! The restaurant was about 6 blocks south of our hotel, the weather was chilly but not unbearable so we decided to walk. It was neat to get to see some of the city, but man that wind was pretty nasty at times!

We got to the restaurant, just inside the door there was a coat check that greeted us and took our jackets. We checked in at the podium and were seated right away. It was definitely a dress-code worthy place. Almost a bit intimidating actually, but at least we were well-dressed and prepared for it. The waiter was very formal of course – he had some type of very thick accent but I couldn’t place it exactly – European I would guess though. Being a steakhouse they didn’t have anything vegetarian on the menu, but they were very accommodating and let me get some pasta in a vegetarian version. It was possibly the best pasta I have had, at least in a very long time! Very yummy. Brian loved his steak as well. There weren’t any other kids in the restaurant, but they definitely didn’t make us feel unwelcome having Lily there. The Chicago guide-book I bought had listed this place as being one of the “child-friendly” restaurants, that was one of the main reasons I chose it. I was glad to see that the distinction was not a mistake. Many of the reviews I had read were not that great – but we had a wonderful experience. Just goes to show that it pays to make up your own mind about a place! A pricey meal for sure – but worth it.

Feeling rather proud of ourselves for having made it through the upscale meal with no major faux-pas, we headed back to our hotel. Lily was begging to go swimming, so we agreed to a short swim before bed. The pool was on the fourth floor – in the section of the hotel above the parking lot. It was indoor, and of course heated. But man did it feel chilly in there! The water was a little warmer, but still not entirely pleasant to be in – at least for me. After a few minutes I saw some other people going into the sauna, and decided that sounded like more fun. I sat in there for a few minutes, then went back to a chair and watched Lily and Brian for a while. When it was time to get out we all went back to the sauna (it was warm but not super-hot) so Brian and Lily could dry off and get warm before heading back to the room.

We got ready for bed, and it was decided that I was the lucky winner of the middle spot in the large King size bed. Grrr. I hate the middle… but we eventually all fell asleep – I think all three of us spent most of the night taking up about 2 feet of the width of the bed, at least that’s how it felt to me! But this was still better than sleeping in a seat on the train…

Chapter 4. The Museum of Science and Industry

The sun woke us up the next morning – shining brightly into the east facing windows of our bedroom. We should have set an alarm to make sure that we got going early enough to make it to the museum in time for opening, but Brian insisted that we were on vacation and were going to get up when we were ready. There was a restaurant in the lobby of the hotel, that seemed like the easiest way to get breakfast. We were seated right away – but then there was some confusion over our drinks. Again, I had read lots of bad review of this place, and this time they seemed more justified. The food was fine, but seemed overpriced. And the service definitely left something to be desired. And it was SLOW! We were already running a little later than I had wanted, and the extra time we had to spend here was frustrating. Finally we were on our way.

Today’s destination was the Museum of Science and Industry. It was the only museum not within walking distance, and since we were running late we went ahead and flagged down a taxi rather than try to navigate the bus system in an unfamiliar area. It was a rather long way, and I think the taxi fare was close to $20, one way. Oh well. At least the other museums were closer. We walked right up to the ticket counter – I had already bought a City Pass for each of us, which included our entrance fee and movies at each of the museums we were going to. It turned out to be a really good deal actually.

We first went up the really long escalator to the second floor. I had made a list of exhibits I wanted to see… but today (and for most of the trip) we ended up kind of winging it once we were in there. The first area we saw when we came off the escalators was the Great Train Story. Poor Lily – she was so excited she just wanted to see everything all at once, and was darting from one thing to another for the first few minutes. The neatest part of this exhibit was the large model train area – not only were there multiple trains (and even an Amtrak one just like the one we arrive on!), there was a very large model of Chicago! We walked around it admiring the buildings – Lily had been fascinated for weeks by the Sears Tower, we showed her the model one and talked about going into the “real” one tomorrow!

Hanging up above us were several airplanes, including a modern commercial jet that you could walk into. Lily was determined to go see that so we went on upstairs. She didn’t want to spend too much time on anything else until we had gotten to the airliner, so we went there first. I was a little surprised that she was so fascinated by this – she has travelled on so many airplanes that I would have thought she would find a model of one kind of boring. But she made us pretend that we were going on a trip somewhere….then we went back and looked at some of the more historic planes hanging from the ceiling – they were a little closer to us now than they had been downstairs. There were some other exhibits up there, but none that interested her too much, so I took her downstairs to see the Chick Hatchery while Brian finished looking.

The Chick Hatchery had some eggs that were cracked, but none that looked like they would hatch soon. So we spent most of our time there watching the baby ones in the other compartment. A whole group of them ran up to Lily several times while we were watching, and she became convinced that they thought she was their mommy! After a while, we went back to look for Brian, but we must have missed him on his way to us, finally we all connected near the chicks again and spent a few minutes looking at the other exhibits in the Genetics sections. There were some cloned mice, and some frogs who had glowing eyes, thanks to some genetic manipulation. Lily declared those to be “freaky”.

From there we headed to the Petroleum exhibit – I hadn’t planned on doing that one but it was close by and looked very colorful. Not a lot of content that Lily enjoyed or could understand, but she had fun running around looking at everything anyway. There was a room of colorful water with bubbles running up it, and rock climbing wall. You were supposed to be “climbing the corporate ladder”… you could choose which paths to take. I think Lily ended up going to court. But she climbed pretty well. Then there was this statue or a person that would take your picture then put your picture on the statue for a minute. Next was the Fast Forward Exhibit. Lots of futuristic stuff, including a musical instrument that consisted of a coffee table and some blocks that you could move around –Brian had a great time playing on that. Had to rush him out of there though – we were running a little short on time and needed to get lunch before our Imax movie. On the way we stopped briefly to look around in Net World, Imaging, and Revolving Planet. We had lunch in the Brian Food Court – it was pretty crowded but fortunately they had some additional seating areas outside of the main room and we found a pretty isolated quiet area to enjoy our meal.

After lunch we made one more stop before the movie – to Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle! Talk about a big dollhouse. All around it there were phones you could listen too that told about the various pieces inside of it – some were thousands of years old! And of course lots of illusions to all the classical fairy tales. Lily loved it of course, and wanted to shrink down to be a fairy so she could live in it! Then it was time to see our IMAX movie – The Wild Ocean. The IMAX area was packed when we got over there – finally they let us in. I was afraid we wouldn’t get good seats since we were near the end of the crowd, but there were plenty of good seats left up near the top. Partway through the movie, Lily fell asleep. We hated for her to miss it – but going all day without a nap was tough and I thought it was probably best that she catch some shut-eye while she could.

We were in the Space section, so after the movie we explored that a little. It was neat, but reminded me a lot of the space area in our museum in Denver. We didn’t spend too long there. We wanted to go to the Idea Factory – a new area for kids to do some hands on exploration of physics concepts. We had a few minutes before they would let another group so in so we wandered next door to the Farm Tech Area. Lily sat in a big John Deer Tractor! Then we went back to get in line for the Idea Factory. It was a neat place – very colorful and lots of fun games and gadgets for the kids to do. There was a river running through the whole place that ended in this big water wheel contraption – small plastic balls floated from one end to another. To get back again, someone had to put them in this tube that blew lots of air the push them through. Putting balls in there and then racing to the other end to see if she could find it in the water was Lily’s favorite part of the whole place. After what seemed like just a few minutes (it was actually 30) they were ringing the bell for the next group, so we had to leave.

We went back to the Farm Tech area, sat on some more tractors, and milked a cow. The museum was going to be closing soon, and we had dinner reservations to consider so we began to work our way out towards the front. Lily had some money to spend on souvenirs and of course wanted something from the museum. I took her to the gift shop while Brian went back to one of the exhibits we hadn’t been able to finish. Lily picked out a small, strange looking stuffed animal (called a “yoo-hoo”). It had a long striped tail, she named it “Pinky”. She also got a small mug with a picture of the Fairy Castle on it. On the way out we took a quick walk through the Burlington Route train – it was the same train that we had taken to Chicago – just an 80 year old version of it! We got a taxi again back to the hotel and relaxed for a while before heading to dinner.

Chapter 5. Dinner at Hard Rock

After some down-time in the room were feeling refreshed and ready to head out again. Brian figured out how we could get to the Hard Rock Café using the train system so went to find the station. It was quite cold and windy, and some rainy-snowy stuff coming down too. The first entrance we went to didn’t sell fare cards, so we had to back-track a little to find the main entrance. We bought a fare card and got on the subway! It was a bit of a walk on the other end as well – we were very glad when the giant lit-up guitar came into view! It was pretty crowded in the lobby – I had made reservations online the week before, but I know at least at home that at a lot of restaurants that doesn’t help much. We checked in – at first he couldn’t’ find the ressie, it turned out online ones were in a different part of their system. I thought he was still looking for it, then suddenly we were being taken to a table! A booth actually, and right by the window. Not only was it a nice view, but it wasn’t so crowded feeling as the tables out in the middle. Wow, that online reservation sure made a difference. I think the standard wait time was over an hour.

The place can be a little overwhelming – Lily was just staring at everything seeming almost speechless. Brian commented that she looked “drunk on atmosphere” we ordered some nachos for an appetizer; we were all pretty famished after our long days’ adventure. It was a good meal – definitely a unique experience for Lily. After we ate, Lily and I ordered a chocolate milkshake to share.

Earlier in the day, at the hotel, we had gotten a notice about “Lights-out” night. The whole city was supposed to observe an hour of “lights-out” between 8:30 and 9:30 to show a concern for conservation. Well, not all lights just all unnecessary ones. I had forgotten about it until I noticed the street outside suddenly got darker near the end of our meal – then I remembered and looked at my watch – sure enough it was 8:30! Nice to see that many of the downtown restaurants were participating – Hard Rock even turned off their big lit up guitar. Fortunately I had snapped a picture of it on the way in. I overheard the manager talking to a waiter about – seemed to be griping a bit that they “had” to do it… then noticed I was listening and started talking to us about how proud they were to be participating… people are funny like that.

After dinner we retraced our steps to and from the train stations back to the hotel. I tried to use my umbrella, but it was so windy that it wasn’t really working. A guy on the street pointed out that fact and I laughingly agreed and put it away. But we made it back – only a little wet and cold. Back in the room we admired the view some more – the rain had given everything an orange glow outside looking through our windows. No swimming tonight – it was time to sleep! Tomorrow is a new adventure…

Chapter 6. The Adler Planetarium

We followed the same routine this morning as last, waking when we were ready, which was a little later than I would have liked. When we did get up – the view out our windows had changed a little – everything was covered in snow! The blizzard had caught up with us – it was indeed part of the same storm system that had pounded Colorado a few days earlier. But we hadn’t let it stop us in Denver, and it wasn’t going to stop us here! We decided to do something different for breakfast – having not been impressed by the restaurant downstairs the day before. We were headed to the Planetarium, and their website said they served breakfast there so we decided to wait until we were there to eat. We could see the planetarium from our window, and thanks to some tunnels and bridges it was walkable, so we bundled up and headed out on foot.

The snow was still coming down a little, but the biggest problem was all the slush on the ground! It was sort of like walking through jello. Cold jello. And there was some construction going on at the aquarium which had the sidewalk blocked for a ways, complicating our journey further. We were doing pretty well in spite of the conditions, though Lily mentioned that her feet were pretty wet. She had on her boots, but they were not waterproof at all, so no big surprise. Once inside the planetarium, Brian took her to see what they could do about her wet feet while I turned in our City Passes for tickets, and got a locker. Thanks to my waterproof boots, my feet were still warm and dry.

After drying her socks and shoes the best they could, we headed on into Galileo’s Cafeteria. She was being a real trooper about it, but her feet were still pretty soaked and I know she wasn’t comfortable. As we walked past the gift -shop, I glanced inside… and saw… SOCKS ! They sold socks! That was some good luck – we picked her out a nice thick, fuzzy pair with all the planets on them. Couldn’t do anything about her shoes, but a warm, dry pair of socks would help a lot. It turned out that they didn’t sell as much breakfast in the cafeteria was the website had lead us to believe, but we got some fruit and a muffin anyway. And Lily put on her new socks – I wish I had been taking video –she oohed and ahhed over how nice they felt so much! She said they were the nicest feeling socks she had ever put on. I dried off her boots some more with some napkins – they were probably going to be wet for the rest of the day, but thanks to her new thick socks they never seemed to bother her again. We finished our food, and enjoyed the view from the atrium of Galileo’s. We could see the Solar System exhibit from our table and headed there first when we were done eating.

There were some really cool exhibits here – we steered a virtual Mars probe, watched a short 3-D movie, created a solar system on a computer, launched a 500mph asteroid and saw its crater, just to name a few. We made ourselves move on finally, because there were many other parts of the museum and we wanted to see everything. The Milky Way area was next door – there were some cool wavy mirrors that simulated the spaghettification that happens in a black hole. Then it was time to see our first show!

Our City Passes had included two shows – Brian had convinced me to add one more so that we could do a show in each of the three theaters. Our first show was called “Fly Me to the Moon” and was in the new 3-D theater. We found our way there (by following the special “red line”) and ended up decided to sit in the very front row, so there wouldn’t be anyone in front of us. The show was really cute –about three teenaged flies who hitch a ride to the moon on Apollo 11. The 3-D stuff was really neat being in the front row – felt quite real! When it was over they let us use the special escalator to the stars which brought us up inside one of the other theaters – the walls along the sides glowed like thousands of stars! It was quite a treat.

After that we went back to Galileo’s Café for lunch – a little early but with our afternoon show schedule that was likely to be our only chance. This time we sat by the atrium windows – it was still snowing quite a bit, but the massive fog had cleared to where we could see parts of the city out the panoramic windows now. We had enough time to explore the Shoot for the Moon gallery before the next show – had a lot of exhibits about the history of lunar exploration. I suspect that Jim Lovell (from the fateful Apollo 11) has had something to do with that area – lots of his quotes and things he has personally donated on display. Lily and Brian both participated in the “What do you think” part by drawing their idea for a lunar exploration vehicle and putting it on the wall! Our next show was about to start – we headed up to the Sky Theater – which is the more traditional planetarium part of the museum. This one was called Skywatchers of Africa. Typical planetarium type stuff – showed a lot of constellations and the like.

Once again, we had a little bit of time, so we explored the area with some of the modern astronomical research and discoveries. Lots of cool interactive screen type exhibits. Our last show was in the Definiti Space Theater (which is sort of a cross between an IMAX theater and a planetarium, kind of like the one we have in Denver), this was the one Lily had been looking forward to because it had Big Bird and Elmo! It was called One World, One Sky. Big Bird and Elmo taught us about constellations – obviously intended for a younger crowd that the others but it was entertaining.

We had about an hour to finish up the museum part once that was over – we spend some time in the History of Astronomy section. I find a lot of that stuff fascinating – it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in the last millennia or so. There was one part where you could sit on a throne, and look out a “window” to see a lunar eclipse. A voice told you that if you could also see Jupiter, you were safe to keep ruling, otherwise you had to find someone to replace you. The voice scolded you if you made the wrong choice. Lily loved that “game” and did it over and over.

Before we left we made another visit to the telescopes in the atrium – the sky had cleared enough that you could use them to see into the city now. We also went by the gift shop – Lily spent some of her money on a rocket playset, it even had astronauts with it! The walk back to the hotel was more pleasant than the walk there – still cool but now calm and clear, and most of the slush from earlier had melted away. This tijme we took the path that went right alongside the lake. Earlier that morning it had been too icy and widny, we didn’t want to risk slipping a falling in! The waves would sometimes break right up against the the wall and splash onto the sidewalk, we had to be carefull not to end up with wet feet again! We were hoping to go to the Sears Tower this evening, as it was forecasted to be the only precipitation free night. It looked like the clear weather was going to hold out so after a brief stop by the room to regroup and relax, we headed out to yet another adventure!

Chapter 7. The Sears Tower

Brian had become our transportation wizard and again figured out how to get us there by taking the subway – we had to transfer from the underground train to the elevated train – but we made it without any difficulty. The entry area was almost deserted when we got there – our City Passes had some sort of “fast pass” that would let you by-pass the line most places but so far we hadn’t needed it. They took our picture (in front of a blue screen – no doubt going to add in some sort of background), then we handed over our City Passes and were on our way up!

The elevator ride spooked me a little more than I expected – the floor counter was going up by tens and was moving pretty fast! The ride was mostly smooth, but swayed occasionally – I think I would have been less nervous if I had been able to see out but there were no windows. There was a screen that played a little cartoon though. We arrived at the top pretty quickly – it was more crowded up there than it had been at the bottom but it seemed most people were leaving already. The view was amazing of course – Lily liked it but wasn’t totally wowed like I thought she would be. We made our way around, checking out the view from each side. We could see where our hotel would be –but couldn’t see the actual building because there was a tall building between it and us.

Lily looked around in the gift shop at the observation deck, but didn’t buy anything since she was running a little low on funds and we still had two more museums to visit. I bought some Obama mints and an Obama coffee mug – should have figured I would find such paraphernalia in Chicago! I hadn’t even thought about it until Brian looked it up – but Grant Park (which was right across the street from our hotel) is where he made his election night speech.
We were getting hungry – and a wave of people had suddenly arrived and made it quite crowded so we decided to go back down and find dinner. This was the only night I hadn’t made us reservations anywhere because I didn’t know exactly how our trip to the tower would work out – if we would want diner before or after, how long we would be there, etc. So we were on our own to find something, and we ere starving! Fortunately there was a Giordano’s Pizza just across the street. It was fairly busy but had no wait for a table. It was a nice place – a well known Chicago favorite – kind of noisy but still felt relaxing somehow. We got some garlic bread for an appetizer to hold us over until the pizza was ready. They make them from scratch so it was going to be a while. Lily fell asleep during that time, but we woke her up once the pizza came and she ate quite a bit.

After dinner we again retraced our steps back to the hotel, and again were tucked into bed pretty quickly. I think I was again nominated for the middle, after having escaped that fate the night before.

Chapter 8. The Field Museum

This morning was pretty much like every other morning, getting up and ready. We did wake up to a beautiful sunrise – I wish I hadn’t been too lazy to get out of bed and go get my camera. Oh well. You’ll have to take my work for it. We decided to go have breakfast at a coffee shop nearby – Caribou Coffee I believe. The we were off for another walk – this time a dry and sunny (though still cool) one. The Field Museum was also a part of Museum Campus (along with the planetarium and aquarium) which was only about a half- mile from our hotel. It is an incredibly large and old building – walking up those massive rock steps can be a little bit humbling!

Once again we were let right in with our City Pass, and our first stop (after checking our coats) was Africa! There were lots of neat hands-on type displays, and outdoor “scenes” that you could walk around in. It started out with ancient African artifacts, traditions, where everything was bright and colorful, then gradually worked its way toward the darker days of slave ships and captivity. I realized we hadn’t really explained any of that part of our history to Lily, so we did the best we could here. She just didn’t get how you could “own” a person – I was glad to see that she had a fundamental understanding of human rights at least.

After Africa we went into Egypt – they had a reconstructed tomb that you could go inside. Some of the blocks were the originals from a real tomb thousands of years old. We have always thought it was neat that our museum in Denver has a mummy – this one had dozens! From all different time periods and regions too. It’s going to be hard to be impressed by anything else now…this would end up being a common theme from the whole trip. As much as we love the Denver museum, nothing can ever compete with the incredible collection of museum that Chicago has amassed. There were some other exhibits too – more artifacts and realistic street scenes from ancient times. We grabbed a quick lunch after this – McDonald’s is what was in the museum. Even though we typically avoid that like the plague, there was no sense leaving to find something else so we dealt with it.

We were going to go upstairs to see the dinosaurs next, but we passed the Kid’s PlayLab on the way and decided to go there instead. Lily could have easily stayed here all day. She went to the “Be a Scientist” area first, where they had different stations set up with specimens that identified (with pictures) and observation record sheets to fill out about each one. She ended up doing two full sheets (four specimens – rocks, fossils, artifacts, etc.) She was positively beaming. Then she studied some dinosaur fossils at the dig area and looked at some things under the microscope. Then she explored the Pueblo and planted, harvested, and grinded some corn. Finally she spent some time the the Rhythm room, making music on different instruments from around the world. There was an art room that looked really cool – but it was closed, too bad because I know she would have loved that.

We moved on, this time determined to make it up to the dinosaurs. They were part of the Evolving Planet area, we were first taken on a trip through time and got to see the various stages of lifeforms on Earth during its long history. Several of the stations had video screens with little cartoon dudes explaining an evolutionary concept – Lily made it a point to seek out every one of them. There were tons of trilobite fossils – Lily has always been fascinated by those since seeing them in Denver when she was very little. Finally we got to the dinosaurs. An impressive collection indeed – they actually have the largest and most complete skeleton anywhere of a T-Rex, which is named Sue. Lily also like the human ancestors part with the monkey-like beings, and had fun trying to decide if many of them were more like monkeys or humans, sometimes it was hard! I really liked the mosaic they had at the very end with one of my favorite Darwin quotes in the middle of it, I was hoping to find a poster of the whole thing but no such luck. The picture I took myself will have to do. The exhibit had its own gift shop – Lily was going to wait until we went to the main shop on our way out, but she found something we have searched for years for, and not been able to find – a trilobite! So of course she had to get it. She was now down to a mere $4.

There was a special exhibit at the museum called “Underground Adventure” that we didn’t want to miss, so we went to that next. We were shrunk down to the size of a worm so that we could explore the dirt below our feet – we encountered giant bugs, fungi, all sorts of stuff! Lily did not want to be blown back up again, and at first when we came out insisted that she was still small.

We had time for just one more exhibit so we went back upstairs to the Polynesia area. There was a lot of stuff about spirits and the afterlife – I tried to explain their beliefs and traditions as best I could to Lily but she kept asking why they wanted their dead ancestors to come back! I think she thought it was weird. There was also some more modern stuff about travel to Polynesia. At the end there was a real, 200 year old, full size Maori meeting house that you could go in. We had to take our shoes off. A guy who worked there got onto Lily for leaning against one of the posts, but then started telling us some more about it and even took our picture inside!

It was getting to be close to closing time though, and again we had dinner to get ready for. So we slowly began making our way toward the exit. We hadn’t come close to seeing everything, the place is humongous! We picked up a snack from the coffee shop inside the museum to take back to the hotel with us, picked up our coats, and were on our way. Feeling a little like no museum would ever seem cool after this again.

Chapter 9. The Rainforest Café.

We had a pleasant walk back, and had some time to relax back at the hotel. Lily even slept for about an hour. We had reservations at the Rainforest Café, which was right next to Hard Rock, so we were following our same route on the subway that we had used to go there. We saw the giant frog on the roof and knew we were in the right place! We check in at the podium, and only had a few minutes to look around the in the gift shop before being called to go on our safari! We followed the footprints up the stairs, and were taken to a table next to the monkeys! We all decided on drinks first – you can’t come here and expect to get something normal like soda or tea. I think I got Ricky’s Rainforest Juice, Lily got a Pacific Sunrise, and Brian got a Mai Tai. Of course we all had to get ours in the souvenir keepsake cups – we were going all out tonight! Mine and Brian’s cup even lit up, and Lily’s came with a small plastic crocodile toy. We got an appetizer of chips and queso, then ordered our entrees – I had the “Planet Earth Pasta”!

There were the usual thunderstorms and times when the “animals” would get worked up and start doing their thing… you gotta love this place. Actually, again most of the reviews I had read were terrible, but I think a lot of people come here not knowing what the place is all about. You don’t pay for the food, so don’t expect some type of exotic, gourmets fare… you are paying for the experience and the atmosphere, period. And if you don’t like being surrounded by animated wildlife and pretending that you are on a safari, you aren’t going to enjoy it. But we think it is fun! The whole evening felt exciting actually. The last time we ate at one of these was on the last day of our Disney World vacation, at Animal Kingdom for breakfast. I remember being quite depressed at that meal actually (since we were to leave in a matter of hours), and enjoyed this one quite a bit more. I think the atmosphere is more fun at night as well.

After dinner we picked out some t-shirts in the shop downstairs, I hadn’t bought any shirts the whole trip and found a yellow one with a frog on it that I really liked. Ay some point during our meal they had taken our picture, so of course I had to buy that as well. And not to forget, we were all leaving with souvenir cups. Quite the tacky tourists we were, I know. We were pretty worn out by the time we made it back to the hotel on the subway… but Lily and Brian were being very silly and wouldn’t go to sleep for the longest time! I was a little worried the people next door were going to complain because they were being rather loud (especially Lily) but finally things got quiet and we were off to sleep – our last night in the hotel.

Chapter 10. The Shedd Aquarium

We woke up on our last morning, and again it took longer to get going than I would have liked. We had to get everything packed and get check out too. We just snacked on some crackers in the room for breakfast, and Brian made his own coffee. We finally got everything lugged down to the lobby, and had the bellman store it for us. It was raining a little, and suggested taking a taxi, but we walked instead. Fortunately no soaked shoes this time.

Once again it wasn’t busy at all going in, but for the first time on the trip that was going to change shortly. We only had a couple of hours here before we had to leave – a large part of the aquarium is closed for renovation so I figured that would work out okay. Less time, less to see. We went into the Amazon Rising area first, which shows the changes as a river changes his height throughout the year. Some really cool tanks, for sure. But it started getting crowded! We didn’t even finish before it was time to go see our 4-D Planet Earth show. Again we sat in the very front row so we didn’t have to worry about heads in the way. Not only was it 3-D, but they do funny things like spray water and air on you, and even poke you in the back! It was about a whale, some stuff about coral reefs as well. Pretty cool – very short but that was probably good since we didn’t have much time. Lily laughed a lot, but mentioned that it was kind of scary too.

When we came out we got in line for Wild Reef – this is when the place really got packed. Wild Reef takes up the whole lower floor. It has lots of coral reef tanks, plus the sharks. For much of it it was so crowded that we couldn’t hardly walk though! There were a lot of school groups there of all ages, plus a lot of general tourists like ourselves. It hadn’t been anything like this at any or the other museums, I guess that much is lucky. We made our way through, taking advantage or a few slower spots in the crowds to get up to various tanks. We saw dome divers in one of the big tanks, and got some close-up views of the sharks! Lily remembered from Sea World that they must keep the sharks very well fed so they don’t eat the other fish in the tank.

We went back upstairs to see the rest of the Waters of the World tanks – it was shoulder to shoulder people everywhere, and we didn’t have much time before we would have to head back. We managed to see most of it. They have a 75 year old lungfish in one of the tanks! Plus we saw a giant iguana, a Popeye, and a lot of other really unusual ones. I wish we could have spent more time, and been on a day when it wasn’t so crowded. But I’m glad we got to come anyway. We made a whirlwind trip through the gift shop – Lily spent her last $4 on a dolphin keychain and I bought the blue-screened-in background picture they had taken of us earlier, and then we grabbed a quick lunch at the cafeteria (VERY quick since we were running late to get back).

Then we high-tailed it back to the hotel to get our bags. It was threatening to rain, and we were running a bit late.

Chapter 11. Going Home

We should have taken a taxi like we had when arriving, but Brian was convinced he could get us there on the subway. It would have been better to transfer to the elevated train, but with our suitcases that seemed downright awkward, so we just walked the rest of the way from the station. And walked, and walked, and walked. And then it started to rain. By now I was REALLY wishing we had taken a taxi. We got to Union Station around 1:15, train was leaving at 2:00. We already had our tickets but had to wait a long time to check our bags. Finally we got to our gate (remember that Chicago Union Station is set up much like an airport, all that is missing is having to go through security), and before long we were boarding. The train seemed a little more full than it had coming, but we found a row where we could all be together.
We snacked a little, then I turned on the computer to start writing this report. Lily read, played with her magnet board, played her leapster, she seemed to have no trouble passing the time. I spent a lot of the afternoon in the observation car sitting at one of the tables actually. We had 5:30 reservations for dinner in the dining car. Brian was afraid it was too early when he made it – but it was the latest available. It turned out well though because we were all hungry by then. Being a group of three we were again seated with a lone passenger in our booth – this was a lively older fellow – Bob I think? Had a good time talking to Lily and telling jokes. Our dinner was good, afterwards we went back to our seats. Lily was sleepy before too long, even though it was still early. She curled up in the floor again and went to sleep. The ride seemed bumpier and rougher than before, maybe it was just because of where we were sitting. If we ever do something like this again I would love to get a sleeper car, but this was the economical way to go for this trip, for sure.
The night passes very much like it did on the trip there – I slept quite a bit, but still woke briefly every half-hour or so, and continued to check my watch to see how much longer till breakfast. Finally around 5:40 we got up, attempted to fix our matted hair as best we could, and walked through the train to the dining car. We only had to wait a few minutes before they were ready to begin seating – it was still dark outside and most of the train was still asleep. We were seated with an elderly woman from Iowa who was on her way to Denver as well to visit her son. After breakfast I packed up our stuff, and it wasn’t long before we were arriving at Denver Union Station. The sun was coming up, and so far the weather looked good – we had heard that more snow was on the way. We de-trained ,and waited a few minutes for them to bring our luggage. The walk to the parking garage didn’t seem nearly so long now that we weren’t stumbling half-blind through a blizzard. And the automated cashier machine only charged us $8! It was supposed to be $8/day, but it wasn’t smart enough apparently to figure out the difference. So that was a lucky surprise. The drive back down to the Springs was uneventful – we dropped Brian off at work, went to the PetsHotel to get Nala, and then home, where a busy schedule awaits us these next few days. It was a whirlwind of a trip – but an awesome experience for sure!