Checking Out Chicago

On Saturday night we stayed with my friend's parents. We had such a good time with them and appreciated their hospitality so much. Then bright and early Sunday morning we headed for Chicago.

We landed at Millennium Park and headed off to The Chicago Bean.

This was such a fun thing to see. The kids loved checking out their reflections.

Then we headed across the really fun BP Pedestrian Bridge designed by Frank Gehry.

We walked across the Chicago River...

...and landed at Navy Pier. We enjoyed an awesome lunch at Bubba Gump's, bought some souvenirs, and walked back along the lake to Millennium Park again. We wanted to go on the Ferris wheel but the line to buy tickets was incredibly long and we decided we weren't that excited about riding it.

We found a kind soul to take a family picture of us along the lake. I think this is Christmas card worthy, don't you!? Ha!

We even took some time to stop and smell the flowers.

I was really excited to note, when I was Google mapping other things, the sign for the beginning of Route 66. This is a road trip I really want to do someday. Although Dave and I have decided that we need to wait until the kids are a little older because that really would be all about the slow road trip.

Way back in 2001 or so my friend Alissa and a few others started an e-mail women's group. One of those woman, Carmen, lives in Chicago so I was so excited to meet up with her for a brief time. We enjoyed visiting while the kids cooled off in a fountain.

And then on Sunday night, we went to a Cubs' game at Wrigley Field. Dave was very excited to be at this historic ballpark. I was excited we were there on the night they were handing out free jerseys to all the kids!

Again, it was a night game so we didn't stay until the end, but our time there ended with a beautiful sunset over the ball park. By 10pm we were heading towards out next destination. And since the game went twelve innings and didn't end until 11:45pm, we were glad we'd left early. After struggling through most of the game, the Cubs ended up tying it in the bottom of the ninth and then winning so that was exciting. Listening to it on the radio kept us entertained for most of the way to our next destination.

Read about Day 4 here.