We had a fantastic time! I hauled the girls all over the city - by myself! I had Abby in the sling and Emma by the hand and off we went. I was a little intimidated to say the least but, by the grace of God, we made it and had fun along the way.
The first day there we went to Navy Pier and the Chicago Children's Museum
We took a bus out to Navy Pier and Emma thought it was a lot of fun to get to ride the bus and see the sites along the way. I had to buy a CTA pass so that we could ride the trains and buses and trolleys. So, that morning we walked down to a Jewel Osco grocery store and bought the pass, then made our way to the bus station. It was all easier than I thought it would be and all the people we came in contact with were so helpful and nice.
At the end of our day we went back to the hotel and met up with Travis. We ordered Gino's East pizza to be delivered to our room. It was the best pizza! We had not ever had authentic Chicago deep-dish style pizza before and it certainly lived up to the hype.
On the second day I decided we would get up early and go to a store in northern Chicago, in the Lakeview area, called Be By Baby. It was a lot of fun and it was so nice to be able to relax in a store where Emma could play and run around without me worrying she would get lost or taken. The women in the store were so nice, I felt like I was home. Emma is still talking about Be By Baby. We took the brown line train up there and that took about 40 minutes. We got off at the Paulina station and the store was right there, three doors down from the station.
On our way back downtown we took the brown line and then transferred to the red line which is a subway, Emma thought that was really cool! This time we got off at the Grand station to make our way to the Rainforest Cafe. We were seated by the elephants which would periodically go on "stampede". Emma was scared of them at first thinking they were real but she thought were neat by the end. Abby was oblivious to it all.
After lunch, we got back on the subway and made our way to the Shedd Aquarium, it was amazing. We got to see a dolphin show which Emma was amazed by, and it had some of the most fantastic exhibits I have ever seen. When on this page of their site, click the 'explore now' button and you will get a glimpse of how awesome their shark exhibit was. The entire wall, floor-to-ceiling was the tank the fish swam in. It was very cool.
After a long day of walking, we just had a 15 minute walk back to the hotel from the Shedd Aquarium. It was a walk through Millennium Park. The problem was that by that time I had Abby in the sling for about 8 hours excluding diaper changes and lunch where she sat in the high chair. And, Emma was tired from all the walking too. That was the LONGEST walk I have ever taken. Emma wanted me to carry her!
We made it back to the hotel and met Travis. We went for dinner at a sushi restaurant just down from our hotel a couple blocks, called Oysy (pronounced OH-EE-SHE). We were worried about bringing the kids along to a nice restaurant but it turns out that Emma was so tired she lay her head on the table and was out like a light. Abby was happy to sit in the high chair and eat Cheerios. It was a fun night, despite how tired we were.
On Saturday it was time to pack up and get ready to leave. Check out was at 11 and our plane didn't leave until about 9:30 that night. So, we had our bags stored while we got to play in the city as a family. We watched the St. Paddy's Day Parade. After seeing some of the parade we decided to move on. We found a Starbuck's to get warmed up and refueled and the girls and I waited in there while Travis tried to find a place to buy another CTA pass. No one had any and by the time he got back to us he was pretty miffed. We wound up walking some and taking a trolley out to Navy Pier and then walked to a movie theater to see Horton Hears A Who and finally walked back to our hotel to take a taxi to the airport.
We had so much fun! I definitely would like to visit Chicago again!
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