Vacations Really Should Not Be This Much Work

We got up this morning (Sunday) ready for a trip to the Shedd Aquarium. We wanted to try and get there when it opened at 9am so we could avoid some of the crowds.

Ha.

We also thought that if we got through the aquarium by lunchtime, we could do the Field Museum, which is right next door, in the afternoon.

Ha ha.

We made it to the Shedd around 10:30. Not too bad, all things considered. We got right into see the sharks, which Logan was badgering us about all day. When he got up, he was impatient to see the sharks. All through breakfast, he was impatient to see the sharks. All the way on the walk to the aquarium, he was impatient to see the sharks.

Total time spent viewing the sharks before he got impatient to leave: maybe 10 minutes.

This proved to be the theme for the day. The boys were interested, but only for a few moments. Liam kept hounding me to go see the whales. We finally got to see the whales, and he immediately wanted to go see something else. Perhaps what we're missing is that when they say they want to "see the X", what they really mean is they want to see it. Not watch it, or see what X does for awhile, or see the X show. Just see it. As in "Okay, there it is. What's next?"

We made it back to the hotel around 4pm, got some dinner, and then hit the pool. All in all, a pretty good day. The "strain" of vacationing is starting to wear a bit on the boys, particularly on Liam, who is going napless pretty much every day. Tomorrow we'll visit the Field Museum before heading home.

Sorry for the lack of photos, Blogger's photo upload is not working this evening. I'll get more posted when we get back home to a better internet connection tomorrow night.

This Just In...

Oh yeah, they're pooped.

9:23pm:

Logan is singing, Liam is asking for and then spilling water, neither one of them will quit babbling.

9:25pm:

Party's over, folks. See y'all tomorrow.

The Days Just Aren't Long Enough

For our second full day in Chicago we took the boys up to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was, in all honesty, probably the one place that was most likely to not be as big a hit, particularly with Liam. He seemed to have a good time, but both boys are getting pretty worn out on this trip. We had another good breakfast this morning and headed off to the Museum around 11am. It turns out we're a week too early for their new "Star Wars" exhibit, so it looks like we'll be coming back in the near future. I mean, Star Wars. Come on.

Despite the fact that this was our only stop for the day, we didn't even come close to seeing it all. We did see a lot of the transportation exhibits, the U-505 German submarine (unbelievably cool), an Omnimax show, the space exhibits, the chick hatchery, and the farm exhibits. We also took the boys to the Idea Factory, which is kind of similar to the Magic House in St. Louis. We squeezed in lunch somewhere and finally made it out around 4pm.

After we left the museum we went downtown to Michigan Ave. and took the boys to the LEGO store. Logan was, as expected, rendered pretty much incoherent when he saw the store and all the Star Wars stuff right in front.

Yes, that is an R2-D2 and a Darth Vader made entirely out of LEGOs. They had quite a bit of other cool stuff in there as well, although thanks to the internet there was nothing really that you couldn't get anywhere else. Still, a cool store. The boys both walked out with a new LEGO set, and a lot of Christmas ideas.

Tomorrow we're aiming for the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. They're right next door to each other, so we're going to try and do them both in one day, but who knows? The Aquarium ought to be the highlight so that will be first. The Field probably has more that will be over their heads and not as exciting, but the dinosaurs ought to make up for that. That will leave Monday's half-day wide open, but I'm not even sure I want to try and make it downtown on a workday. Chicago traffic is horrid.

Anyway, so far so good! No more sickness, although the boys are getting cranky around dinnertime. Hopefully they hang in there through tomorrow. More then!

Vacationing with Kids. Well, it's...interesting.

We've had our first full day in Chicago, and it's been eventful to say the least. We left home yesterday afternoon and took our time getting up here. It was probably 6 1/2 hours, but we gave new meaning to the word "meandering". Jill found some good info from an Illinois travel office (their rest stops rock) and we decided to stop along Route 66 for some original road food - corndogs.

Cozy Dogs, to be exact, in Springfield IL. They're pretty good, and only $1.50. Logan discovered he likes root beer, and Liam still can't make his way through a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

We rolled into Chicago around 7 or so, and found the hotel. We're staying at the Hyatt Lodge on the McDonald's campus - basically the hotel that all the Mickey D's executives and "Hamburger University" students stay at. It's pretty nice, tucked into a little forested preserve right on the edge of a lake. We got a good deal, they threw in breakfast, and they have the best hotel pool ever.

Afterwards we headed out for dinner and introduced the boys to Chicago style pizza at Giordano's. I think they liked it.

The rest of the evening went fine, the morning not so much. Logan woke up around 6am and promptly threw up all over his bed. Since Jill was just getting off a pretty brutal bout with stomach flu earlier this week, we feared the worst. He kept getting sick all morning, and we'd pretty much resigned ourselves to a lost day at best, and a possible canceled vacation at worst. We finally decided to take everyone down for breakfast after Logan went awhile without getting sick. Apparently something did the trick, and he has been fine the rest of the day.

Around noon we decided to risk it and head to the zoo. It's close by, and the day was just too perfect to spend inside - sunny, around 70 degrees, you really couldn't ask for better weather. The Brookfield Zoo is Chicago's larger zoo and one of the better ones in the country. It's really nice, very shaded and park-like. We caught the dolphin show and the Children's Zoo, and saw a lot of other cool stuff.

Tomorrow I think we're headed to the Science and Industry Museum - bottom of Jill's list, but I think it's pretty cool. They have an intact German WW2 submarine, a bunch of Apollo space program stuff, an entire working Boeing jetliner that does a whole takeoff/landing bit with all the landing gear and wing bits flapping around. It's very much for the engineer in me. There's a lot to see and I think the boys will have fun. We're also going to try to make it to the Lego store, just to see the look on Logan's face.

More later!

Off to Chicago!

Logan is on fall break, and we're heading to The Windy City for a few days of fun with the kids. Both of the boys are very excited to see sharks at the Shedd Aquarium. Also on the itinerary are visits to the Brookfield Zoo, the Field Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry. (And we're likely to take a dip or two in the hotel pool as well.) We plan to take it slow and follow the boys' lead. This trip is for them...but it's going to be a blast for me and Jason too! We'll be sure to share all of the highlights!