The kiddo had Friday off from school so I got the bright idea to take a trip to Chicago. We signed up for a membership to the Field Museum when we visited in April and I thought it would be a good time to check out the whale exhibit. (Which was indeed very cool.) So here’s our 24-hour recap.
We headed over on Friday morning and spent four hours pounding the marble in the museum before checking in at the hotel and heading out for dinner at Goose Island Brewery, via the subway, which elicited a lot of smiles. I had some tasty hummus, but he pronounced his mac ‘n cheese less than special. Then we visited a bookstore to pick up something for the night’s story time and had a relaxing evening in the very comfy bed, with five fluffy pillows each, at the JW Marriott.
Saturday morning we got up early. So early that I advised him that bath time would be better at that point since the restaurants wouldn’t be open for breakfast yet. (As you can see by the pic below, the bath tub was REALLY deep.) The concierge pointed us to Wildberry, which turned out to be my kind of place. Pancakes, crepes and french toast galore. Dev ordered the oreo s’more pancakes and then complained that there was too much chocolate and claimed that all of a sudden he didn’t like marshmallow fluff. Harrumph. Breakfast is my favorite meal out and I don’t see how he can be such a breakfast scrooge. I wolfed down my wildberry french toast and helped him out with his a bit. Because that’s what moms are for.
Then we headed across the street to Millennium Park. It was a perfect morning. The sun was beautiful and the fall leaves are still on many of the trees right now. Dev wanted to visit Cloud Gate since he doesn’t really  member the couple of other times he’s been to see it. And what 7-year-old can resist hamming it up in front of a gigantic bean-shaped mirror? Afterward we hopped on the el for another requested “train ride.” We had no destination. We just headed to Belmont on the brown line and then crossed over and took the red line back downtown. He refused to sit and was happy as a clam standing and holding the bar and adjusting his balance as needed.
Our plan was to stop at the Lego store next, but we got to the mall early so we walked over to the river. The bridge was going up for boat traffic. I had to laugh since I lived in the city for five years and never saw the bridge go up. That took a good 10 to 15 minutes of observation and then we returned to the mall to discover that the Lego store was gone. Gone! My phone informed me that, luckily, it hadn’t moved very far. Just down the street. So we walked back to the hotel (with lots of grumbling from the kiddo) to check out, then took a cab to the mall (to avoid further grumbling).
After that it was a carriage ride and a trip to the Hershey’s store. Their sundaes, by the way, pale in comparison to Ghirardelli’s, but he was heavily swayed by branding and the big G lost out due to obscurity in the childhood lexicon. He’s agreed, however, to visit the competition next time because he was underwhelmed by his ice cream concoction. (Once again, I ended up finishing it.)
So there you have our Chicago adventure. We went back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage and car, then headed out of town to Grandma’s house for the night. Now we’re back home and relaxing before another week of work and school.
He loves Sue
Check-in treats
Awesome photos as always. 🙂 What a fun, spur of the moment trip! I love that you guys jumped on the train with no destination just for a ride. I bet he totally loved that. Too bad the food wasn’t a hit, but at least he’s learning his tastes!