Adventures in the Windy City

         I've been quiet lately, but a lot has been happening around our home...I just can't share our major news yet. My mind has totally been consumed with it, so I haven't been able to write about anything else...until now.
         Last year, we celebrated the end of the school year with a field trip to the children's museum. This year we went on an even greater adventure, traveling to Chicago. It was sort of last minute for me (being the super planner that I am) since my hubby first mentioned the possibility of me going on a trip last weekend. Monday,  we talked about it some more (originally, we had discussed him taking the girls on this trip). Tuesday evening,  I made the reservations, including a bid on Priceline for our hotel (my $99 bid was accepted for a four star hotel on Michigan Avenue--hooray!).  Wednesday morning, we began our adventure in the "Windy City". I just took the two oldest and our three month old baby while our three year old and five year went on their own adventure to Nana's house.
         Going into a new situation with kids in tow can be a little stressful for me if I choose to think about all the things that could go wrong.  Talking to a friend who lived in Chicago for many years helped me a lot, but I admit that "Adventure Girl" wondered if she could really pull this off. After successfully getting on the train loaded with a backpack, purse, diaper bag, and three month old in a sling, I began to feel a little more confident. After all, the girls were old enough to handle their own luggage and wouldn't wander off. By the time we arrived in Chicago, the four of us were in great spirits. However, I made a memorable entrance onto Chicago soil thanks to the narrow stairs on the Amtrak train and my long cowgirl boots. There was too much shoe and not enough stair to support it (when I dismounted on the way home I was sure to put my feet sideways on the stairs).  I tripped down the stairs, landing on my knees. Several people asked me if I was ok, but the baby slept in the sling through the whole thing...really it was all just very embarrassing.  Within a minute or so, the girls and I were laughing about it.
          One of the coolest things about the trip was watching the girls experience so many new things...their first train ride, their first taxi ride, their first trip to the American Girl Doll store, and their first trip to Shedd Aquarium. It was exciting to watch them take in another city's norms as well.They had never seen street performers and wondered how the saxophone player made it down the street  before us. They were surprised when I informed them that there was more than one person playing for people on the street...that this wasn't the same person we had seen several blocks before. They were amazed by the heights of the buildings as we walked along Michigan Avenue because they'd never seen skyscrapers up close before. We talked about the lake effect from Lake Michigan and how they dyed the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day (later we watched videos about it).
             I watched as my oldest came to life at the American Girl Doll Store. She has read every book at our library from their series of books, and virtually memorized their magazine. She's also been saving up money for the past eight months to buy her own doll. Five hours after we entered the store, we were finally done shopping.  My second oldest (who loves animals and spends hours exploring our pond) glowed with excitement pointing out all the crabs Shedd Aquarium had to me. She raced from one exhibit to the next, talking about all the turtles, snakes and frogs she could spot. My girls also fell in love with the penguins, the dolphins, and beluga whales. I personally thought the jellyfish were amazing, and the 4-D show was fantastic (the dimension they added when the shark snapped up the sea lion nearly made me scream and caused my ten year old to view the rest of the flick from the back of the movie theater).
          We were able to experience new cuisine in Chicago at Mercat, a restaurant that has a menu made up solely of appetizers (except for the whole roasted suckling pig for $440). It was hilarious to hear my daughter say," Mommy, I can't read this menu!" since she can read at a high school level. It took me a moment to realize that it was because it was written in Spanish (the english was written in tiny font following the Spanish). I thought the bacon wrapped dates stuffed with Marcona almonds were amazing! My daughters enjoyed the shortbread, one topped with beef shortribs, fresh horseradish, parmesan, and bacon marmalade...the other with marinated shrimp, chorizo cantimpalo, garbanzo bean puree, tomato escabeche, and manchego. It was definitely different fare than we've had before...but delicious!
          After all these wonders, guess what their highlight from the trip was? It was feeding seagulls leftover pizza crust in Grant Park. They weren't quite able to get the birds to eat out of their hands, but they were close. They delighted in that just as much as the store and aquarium we went to.
         I know this is a trip we'll never forget. I'm so thankful for my hubby suggesting I go (and financing the whole thing). I felt God's blessings continually upon us . Our room was even upgraded to one with a view of Lake Michigan. Nothing truly bad happened to us. No one mugged us...although a worker at the train station mistook my daughter's venus fly trap as trash and "stole" it, so I found myself digging through his trash bags to find it. We missed our return trip on the train by five minutes because I took a wrong turn  (and there were too many people and not enough taxis outside the aquarium).  After accepting that we would be late, I told the girls that worst case scenario we'd just stay another night. However, Amtrak exchanged our tickets for a train leaving a couple of hours later. The girls were severely disappointed to find out that we would be leaving Chicago.
         The "Windy City" blew us away and left us dreaming of another visit. That, however,will have to be an adventure for another day.