chicago in a day

All along we planned to leave Michigan on Thursday, July 8th, and drive straight through - so Dave could go to work on Friday.

We left the lakehouse and all of our sleeping family, at 4am in our pajamas.

Dave noticed the GPS didn't have us going home through Indianapolis, the way we came.

So I checked the atlas to see if going through Chicago was a lot longer or not.

It didn't appear to be too much different - even if was a bit longer, we decided we'd like the new scenery.

So we just followed the GPS.

Around 9am we stopped 40 miles out of Chicago for breakfast.

That's when Dave got the crazy idea of taking an extra day and staying in Chicago.

I figured he was throwing it out there, gonna get me all excited and then take it back and say we really needed to get home.  He can be spontaneous with his ideas sometimes - but doesn't like to follow through and actually DO IT like I do!

But he didn't take it back, he was serious.

He said he could make a phone call and not go into work.

By 9:30 that morning we were planning out our day.

I called the one person that I know that KNOWS Chicago - thanks Megan! We missed her family by a day there!

I asked where the best area to stay would be, what we could do in a day, where everything was, etc.

I got all the scoop and then booked our hotel room on priceline.com - thanks to some friends that have recently given great reviews on using priceline! It was a first for us.

We knew the area we'd like to stay - but knew it would be quite pricey.

But priceline treated us WELL!

We got a room at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago.  A block or so off Michigan Avenue, walking distance to Millenium park and The Navy Pier.

And the best part - they let us check in at 10am!  I was trying to figure out where we were going to all go change and freshen up since we hadn't really gotten dressed that morning, thinking we'd be on the road for 16 hours.

So we got right in our room and then headed right back out to enjoy the city.

First stop...Millenium Park

We were about an hour or so into our day and hadn't covered much ground at all.

It's hard to move along in the city very quickly with a 2 and 3 year old walking.

So the one problem about being spontaneous was that we didn't have a stroller.

And we obviously knew we would not be making it far without one, and we got tired of trying to find a place to rent them.

So we hopped in a cab to go to the nearest Walgreens.
Mason asked if the police was going to get him because he wasn't in his seat.

2 ugly strollers = $60

But it made the rest of our day SOOO worth it.

We took Taylor to the American Girl Store.

And she picked out Lanie.

We're just gonna let her dream about that one.

We were headed to the John Hancock Observatory for $15 each, when a man told us to go the lounge/restaurant at the top and just order a few drinks and get the same view.

So glad we did!

We sat right at this table that looked out over the city.

The kids liked their "fancy" drinks with cherries - so much that it required a "cheers"

In this next picture you can see the Navy Pier - which is where we were headed next, by foot.

We had wondered about having to go back to the hotel for naps, and were hoping not.

They both ended up falling asleep in their strollers - PERFECT!  We just kept on truckin!

At this point we were both dragging - it was HOT and we had walked so much.

Dave relaxed at the end of the pier while we walked around and took some pictures.

They were too short for the big ferris wheel and other rides on the pier, so luckily Thomas was good enough.

Along with some Dippin Dots.

And then dinner at Bubba Gumps. SOOOO nice to sit down.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped here..

Of course he found some Lightning McQueen legos.

And Taylor picked out a camping-theme set - she said it was because we went camping with Daddy for Father's Day (a great memory for her) which I realize I have yet to post about.

Our hotel was pretty close to the fountain - so we stopped again on the way back and this time let them get wet!

We even still had energy to hit the hotel pool for a little bit before bed.

They loved the hotel room.

We were really high up so they liked to look down.

It was HUGE - with 2 bathrooms and 2 walk in closets!

I have never even heard of a hotel room with 2 bathrooms - especially one that you don't have to pay hundreds of $$ for.

The Palmer House was beautiful. We read all about the history of it on the way home.

It is the longest continually running hotel in the country.

When we walked out to the street to pick up our car with valet, we were under the train tracks, it was just such a cool city feeling.

We were SOOO glad we stopped - some of the best memories we've made as a family!

Our kids were DELIGHTFUL and had so much fun.

It is so fun taking them on new adventures like this. And it was such an awesome ending to our family vacation.

I know there is lots more to do in Chicago - but I think we did pretty darn good with all that we did in a day.

I think Dave figured that we walked approximately 8 miles.

NEVER to have been done without the lovely strollers. Thank you Walgreens.

My body was definitely feeling it the next day on our 12 hours in the car back home.