Monday, June 27th
With Deille and Hannah having rejoined us, we were now ready
to start exploring Chicago. Monday was dedicated to the Field Museum (https://www.fieldmuseum.org/) in
downtown Chicago. We had been concerned about how we would get from the suburb
where we were staying into the city. Travel forums warned about the difficulty
of driving downtown and the cost of parking. I had looked into using trains and
other public transportation. This would have required us to drive to a park
& ride, take a train into the city and then use buses or the above ground
train (the ‘L’). In addition to the amount of time this would take, the cost
for 4 people did not look that attractive. Then I found an app for my smart
phone called “Parking Panda”, which allowed me to find and pay for all day
parking in an apartment building very near to the museum for $11 dollars. It
was a no brainer and driving downtown did not seem that difficult to me.
The Field Museum is dedicated to natural history and is
housed in an impressive building from the early 1920s. The building itself is a
work of art and a reminder of how “they do not make things like they used to”….
I guess I am showing my age as I am sure my parents and grandparents often said
those exact same words.
The Museum’s most famous exhibit is probably Sue. She is the
most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil found to date. Hannah, our dinosaur
enthusiast, was appropriately impressed as were we all. The rest of the museum
was also very good, although all the taxidermied animals were a bit unsettling.
I believe that most of these were created many years ago, and I do not know if
this would be redone today, but at least they do give you an idea of how these
animals looked. Many are now endangered or even extinct.
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| Hannah and Sue |
We visited the exhibit on Ancient Egypt, including many
mummies, and the one about the evolving planet, but we ran out of time and
energy before we could see all the other exhibits. We ended our day at the
museum by visiting a temporary exhibit on the Terracota Warriors of China.
Deille specifically enjoyed this exhibit, and despite Elisabeth’s first thought
upon hearing the name, there was no cheese involved.
Tuesday, June 28th
After all the crowds of Chicago and the Field Museum on
Monday we decided to avoid the city center on Tuesday. Instead we headed for
the northern Chicago suburb of Glencoe to see the Chicago Botanic Garden (http://www.chicagobotanic.org/). This
garden was great and could easily compete with anything that we saw in the UK.
There are 26 display gardens including a really neat waterfall garden and an
amazing Japanese inspired garden, that is spread across two small islands of
its own. Eventually we got hungry and walked back to our van for a picnic lunch
I had prepared. Although I could have spent the rest of the day walking through
this garden, Hannah in particular was worn out. It would be really difficult to
truly enjoy the entire garden in a single day and I know we did not give it the
time it deserved. We will have to plan for a future visit.
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We decided to load back into the van and to drive north into
Wisconsin to visit the town of Kenosha. The drive would give Hannah an
opportunity to recover and there were a couple of small museums that we thought
would interest the girls. The town is very attractive and has a surprising
number of museums for its size. We first stopped at the Kenosha Public Museum (http://www.kenosha.org/wp-museum/),
which had great exhibits on the natural history of the area including some very
well preserved mammoth fossils. Then we went over to the Dinosaur Discovery
Museum (http://www.kenosha.org/wp-dinosaur/),
which was small but still pretty interesting. The cost for these two gems was
nothing (although we did make donations). There were several other museums that
we did not go to in Kenosha, including a Civil War Museum, a history center and
a light station museum. There are several reasons to make another trip to
Kenosha one day.
On the way back to our hotel we decided to try out a Polish
restaurant for dinner called the Red Apple Buffet (http://redapple.restaurant/#redapplebuffet).
The place was excellent and the prices were amazing. The only complaint we had
was that we do not have such a place in Phoenix. :(
Wednesday, June 29th
Wednesday we drove back into Chicago and to the same parking
structure from Monday. Our plan for the day was the Shedd Aquarium (http://www.sheddaquarium.org/). Like
the Field Museum next door, the aquarium is in a beautiful building from the
early 1900s. It was quite busy and it took us about 30 minutes to get inside
the door. Once inside, we toured the spacious exhibits. We watched a show
involving Beluga whales and a sea lion, saw a 4D movie (meaning they spray water
on you) and the girls got to touch sting rays. Overall it was a good aquarium.
Thursday June 30th
We stayed near our hotel on Thursday, visiting the Morton Arboretum (http://www.mortonarb.org/) in the morning. While there are some traditional gardens and a cool hedge maze for the kids, the focus of the arboretum is on trees. After viewing the gardens, getting lost in the maze and making our contribution to the survival of the park at the gift shop, we went for a drive along the 10 miles of road that meander through the park. There are trees from all around the world spread across 1700 acres, which we viewed during this slow drive along the winding road. Because much of the road is only one-way and it loops back together, one wrong turn and you get to revisit a part of the park you have already seen. Luckily it was all worth seeing more than once.
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| Elisabeth makes a friend at Morton Arboretum |
After our drive we headed back to our hotel where the girls
got to swim and we all got a nap. I really believe naps should be a mandatory
part of any vacation.
Thursday evening we met up with my sister, Nicole, and her husband, Kevin, at a restaurant called Antico Posto (http://antico-posto.com/) near to our hotel. Kevin and Nicole had heard that the fresh made pasta was good and they were correct. Everyone enjoyed the meal and the conversation was great. After dinner Hannah challenged Nicole to a game of checkers on a large outdoor checker board we had passed on the way in. Although you have to keep an eye on Hannah for questionable moves (likely intentional), she is pretty good and can beat adults, who have not played in a long time. By the time this game was over, it was getting late, so we made our plans to meet up with Nicole the next morning and called it a night.
Friday, July 1st
On Friday we went back into Chicago to meet up with Nicole. We met her at the Wit hotel where Kevin is the Executive Chef and we were able to use his parking space. Nicole was acting as our tour guide and we started by heading to the Chicago Cultural Center (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenter.html) which is a great architectural gem. Throughout the building there are mosaics constructed with Favrile glass, mother-of-pearl and colored stones. There are also two impressive domes; one is the world’s largest Tiffany dome.
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| Selfie in the Cloud Gate |
We then walked across the street to Millennium Park (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park.html)
where we took some fun pictures at the Cloud Gate and heard an orchestra
practicing at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. A short walk across the futuristic
stainless steel BP bridge brought us to Maggie Daley Park where Hannah had a
blast on the massive playground. Elisabeth apparently thought she was too old
and chose to read on a bench. From there we continued our journey into Grant
Park to look at Buckingham fountain.
Finally, we made our way back up Michigan
Avenue to where we started and then to the State and Lake Chicago Tavern (http://stateandlakechicago.com/),
one of the restaurants at the Wit. Kevin joined us and we had a great lunch. I
believe the menu changes on a fairly frequent basis and everything we had was
great but the deviled eggs and pretzel appetizers were the standouts. After
lunch Kevin gave us a tour of the kitchens and then took us up to the Roof,
which is a bar/club at the top of the Wit. The views from the terrace over the city were really good.
Eventually we needed to let Kevin get back to work, so Nicole led us down to the Chicago River where we enjoyed an architectural cruise. The cruise brought us along the Chicago River as the guide explained the styles of the buildings and a bit of the history of Chicago. He explained how the Chicago River originally flowed into Lake Michigan, but due to health concerns some of the early citizens of the city engineered the river to flow back in the opposite direction. This resolved the issue of the pollutants going into the lake, but all of the communities that were now down river from Chicago had to deal with the filth instead. The cruise is not the most budget conscious thing you can do in Chicago, but I believe it is worth it.
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| Building with reflections of other buildings on river cruise |
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