With court being scheduled six months out, we have to really prepare and plan in order to take vacations. We try to mark three or four weeks off throughout the year so we don't completely lose our minds to the daily grind. We had marked the last week of July off for a long trip to Michigan (Cliff's old law school stomping grounds), Mackinac Island, and the Upper Peninsula. Then the morning sickness happened and there was no way we could imagine making the trek. So, we cancelled our plans. Then I started feeling normal again and so we decided to still take that week off but just do some day or overnight trips and work around the house and yard. That was a great idea, except half way through the week, as we were filling the car up with gas, Cliff said, "Man, I wish we were filling up on a big road trip." So, we decided, spur of the moment, to book some train tickets and head north to Chicago. My mom was free so she could tag along too.
Chicago may be one of my most visited cities, and if you didn't hear about the last trip I took there with Cliff, you'll want to so you can compare it to this one.
Finley is overly obsessed with trains right now, so he was extremely excited about riding one. In fact, we literally stood on the platform for thirty minutes watching for the train to arrive. His focus never wavered. It may have been the most boring thirty minutes of my life, just staring at empty train tracks.
Distracted by the girls again...
This boy and his dad shared a car with us and Finley made fast friends with the five year old.
Finn fell asleep for his afternoon nap, so we took advantage of the Chicago History Museum. It was very neat and more kid-friendly than I had expected. Cliff and I went on strike for civil rights while there.
Once again, Finley's (and Cliff's) favorite part was Chicago's first train.
We watched Chicago shrink away as we took the train back home early Sunday morning.
Chicago may be one of my most visited cities, and if you didn't hear about the last trip I took there with Cliff, you'll want to so you can compare it to this one.
Finley is overly obsessed with trains right now, so he was extremely excited about riding one. In fact, we literally stood on the platform for thirty minutes watching for the train to arrive. His focus never wavered. It may have been the most boring thirty minutes of my life, just staring at empty train tracks.
He really was excited; for some reason he wouldn't smile for this picture. Probably because I was distracting him from the train. I also don't remember his outfit looking that funny.
He spent a majority of the trip like this:
And then the last ten minutes like this, which I'm sure is completely against Amtrak's safety policy:
We arrived in Chicago about 10:30pm and had planned to take an Uber to our hotel. Little did we know, we had scheduled our trip overlapping Lollapalooza (or Lolleep as my mom called it the entire trip because she, for some reason, couldn't say "Lollapalooza".) There were teenagers Ev.Er.Ee.Where. Union Station was crammed and buzzing with girls in shorts cut above their butt cheeks and belly revealing spaghetti strap tops (seriously, every.single girl was wearing some version of that outfit) and boys in colorful tank tops or sports jerseys (seriously, every.single boy was wearing some version of that outfit). So, Uber was like eight times the regular price. We waded through the kids and jumped in a taxi to our room.
The next day, we did a private walking history and architecture tour of the downtown area. These are so awesome. This is the second time we've done this in Chicago. If you plan at least ten days in advance, you can sign up for a Chicago Greeter tour. These are two hour walking tours led by a volunteer that is a long time or lifetime resident of Chi Town. You can pick your category (architecture, history, art, landmarks, etc.) Since we did not plan ahead for this trip, we did an InstaGreeter tour. It's only one hour long and you don't pick a category, but it is still really great. Both tours are 100% free.
Then we went to Millennium Park, which is one of our favorite spots in the Loop. Finley liked Cloud Gate, but he liked all the girls there better. Here, he was watching girls while we were trying to take a family selfie.
And finally making his move.
I completely failed at selfies this entire trip, as is evident in this photo, possibly the best I captured while there.
We spent the rest of the day on Navy Pier. The escalator was probably Finley's favorite part of the pier.
Although, he did like the Ferris Wheel, too. We timed it perfectly and rode during a small rain shower.
A trip to Chicago isn't complete for us unless we've had Giordano's pizza. This time, we bypassed the eateries and had it delivered straight to our hotel room. The best part of the pizza this time was that I ordered it with green peppers on half. When I opened the box and saw this, I thought they had only put green peppers on that ONE piece. Cliff, who is much smarter than me, especially when I have pregnancy brain, could hardly keep a straight face to explain it signified that half of the pizza had the green peppers.
The next day we went to the Lincoln Park zoo. It is a very neat and clean little zoo, and again, totally free! Finley could not understand why he couldn't chase the zoo birds like he chases our free range chickens at home.
Of course, his favorite part was this over-priced three minute train ride that we did over and over and over again.
Dad is playing as much as son here.
We all got comfy in our seats and took a good nap.
We made it home later that afternoon and agreed it had been a very fun spontaneous vacation.
The train is my favorite way to travel with or without a kiddo, but with a toddler it is thee best. You can get up and walk the aisles, sit in the reserved family seats that face each other, hang out in the dining car, have plenty of room, plug in your electronics, and the other travelers always seem to be so nice. And no matter what you're doing on the train, you're still moving toward your destination!
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