Monday, August 18, 2008

Summer Road Trip - Day 6 & 7

Sunday was our last day in Chicago and we were going to make the most of it.

Rigby's allergies started acting up and he had a nice little cough. Luckily we had his medicine with us. As Erik got it out and was preparing it, the kids were on the couch watching TV. All of a sudden, Lucy started coughing. We turned to look at Lucy and she had her hand over her mouth preparing a great acting job. We all started to chuckle, but Lucy kept going. Rigby exclaimed that Lucy was tricking us. We all knew it, but Lucy was trying so hard to convince us - she wanted to be just like brother. It was a great moment.

After packing up the car, we checked out of the hotel and went into the city. We parked in South Chicago and rode the orange line train to the Loop. We emerged at the base of the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the US and in the Top 5 in the world depending on what is measured (occupied floor or to the top of antennas), although about 5 other buildings are being constructed in India, China, South Korea and the Chicago Spire that will kick the Sears Tower out of the Top 10.

The view from the 103rd floor is still awesome. We took a minute elevator ride to the top. It was a clear sunny day and we made a trip to each side of the building studying the scenery below and beyond. Rigby was amazed and played “I Spy” on the streets below with Stacy.

The restrooms on the 103rd floor sky deck, 1,353 feet above street level are the highest in the world. We made sure to leave our mark.

After a good time in the Sears Tower, we made our way over to the Magnificent Mile, shopping and eating mecca.

We went to the Original Uno Pizzeria and enjoyed a mid-afternoon lunch of tasty deep-dish pepperoni pizza.

Later, we did a little shopping at the Lego Store, Lucky Brand, Hello Kitty and Sephora. We loaded up on some Lego gifts and Lucy got a purse at Hello Kitty.

So that was it, we took the train back to our car and left the city heading for home. We drove through Indianapolis and into Greensburg, Indiana, where we stayed at a brand new Hampton Inn and Suites for the night. Greensburg is home to a new Honda auto manufacturing plant. We stayed in town all of about 9 hours, most of that sleeping.

On Monday, we drove a little out of our way and went to I-75 and made about an hour stop in Cincinnati for some Busken cookies and some new Xavier Musketeers gear.

We had a great trip. It was fun enough for Rigby that he declared he was okay with moving to Chicago if we had to.

We got back by 5 p.m., just in time to get to Rigby's school for a kindergarten parents meeting.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Summer Road Trip - Day 5

After our standard wakening and eating of the free breakfast, we loaded up early and drove to South Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.

This is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere.

The museum features a vast array of awesome exhibits, and these are all indoors so you get an idea of how big the place is:

- a German submarine (U-505) captured during World War II
- a 3,500 square foot model railroad that has a scale model Chicago skyline, mountain range and then a scale model Seattle on the other side
- the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel passenger train (Pioneer Zephyr)
- a NASA space capsule used on the Apollo 8 mission.
- a Boeing 727 hanging from the ceiling
- an Omnimax theater
- a steam locomotive
- a working toy assembly line
- a genetics lab
- a chicken hatchery (yes, we saw chicks hatched)
- a mock-up of a Chicago street from the early 1900s
- and so on . . .


The building was initially built as The Palace of Fine Arts for 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (better known as the Chicago World's Fair), then it housed the Field Museum and has been the science museum for 75 years. The building itself is a museum piece with its massive halls and beautiful rotunda entrance.

We stayed there for five hours and did not see everything. That is pretty good though with two kids! We played in the great lawn out front and enjoyed the clear blue sky before departing the grounds.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city by car, using our GPS to visit certain areas we wanted to see. We stopped at Wrigley Field and took Rigby's picture underneath the famous Cubs sign as well as with the Ernie Banks "Mr Cub" statue.

Our meal of the evening consisted of some great Thai food at Siam Pasta in North Chicago. We ordered lots of items. Rigby ate a plate of fried Tofu and soy sauce - he said it tastes like chicken. Lucy sort of picked through stuff, but she ate at the hotel later.

We got back to the hotel early to prepare for our last day in the Windy City.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Summer Road Trip - Day 4

Today (Friday) after breakfast, we decided to drive downtown today instead of taking the train. On our way, we stopped at the Sigma Chi International Headquarters. Erik met with the Executive Director, Mike Dunn, who has become a great friend since their first days together at one of Sigma Chi's Leadership Workshops several years ago.

After a quick tour of the headquarters building and the fraternity history museum, we headed down the Lake Michigan shoreline to the city.

We parked in a parking garage under Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.

Our goal for the day, visit the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium. What a day!

The Field Museum was amazing. Of course the centerpiece was "Sue," the largest and most complete T. Rex skeleton in the world. We saw hundreds of mammals and birds along our journey, all real, but stuffed with sawdust and metal. The exhibition halls in this place were massive. We could have spent an entire day in there as adults, but with kids we sort of raced through to see what was around every corner. One of the best was the massive hall of dinosaur skeletons, brontosaurus, triceratops, stegosaurus, etc.

At the Shedd, a 75-year-old Greek and Roman style architecture building, we visited many tanks and saw all types of fish from all over the world. We got very close to sharks in the new exhibit, Wild Reef. Lucy really enjoyed the penguins.

The attached 15-year-old oceanarium featured a 3 million gallon salt water tank. The surroundings had a spruce and cedar rain forest on the water’s edge. We watched a dolphin show where they leaped and splashed. Sea lions and otters played in other nearby coves. Another favorite was seeing the beluga whales.

We later walked all through Grant Park to the famous Buckingham Fountain. The sun was setting and the mist from the geyser-like fountain was cool against the summer sun.

We then walked through Millennium Park to the Cloud Gate, or "The Bean" as it is called. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is made of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's skyline and the clouds above. It looks like a blob of liquid mercury and measurers 66-feet long by 33-feet high.

Next was the Crown Fountain, which consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images of a 1,000 Chicago citizens, and when they open their mouths, water flows out. Awesome!

As darkness fell, we walked to the Red Line and took a train to the closest station to the Field. We walked back across a park to the parking garage under a full moon and beautiful night skyline.

We drove back towards the hotel and stopped in Evanston to enjoy a late night dinner at Dave's Italian Kitchen. The restaurant was in a basement and was all Italian. We started out with loaves of bread and olive oil. The kids loved that! Our dinner soon came out and featured an awesome whole wheat pepperoni pizza and a baked spaghetti, mozzerella and meat sauce. We had more than enough to take back to the hotel - thank goodness we have a fridge!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Summer Road Trip - Day 3

Day 3 was a monumental day! We went to see Ken Griffey, Jr and his new team, the Chicago White Sox.

First, of course, we woke up for free breakfast in the lobby. Rigby was amazed at the delicious doughnuts. "This breakfast is better than I thought it would be," he exclaimed.

After breakfast, we moved over to the indoor pool. Rigby trusts his arm floats now and swims all over the pool. Lucy was not as sure, but she liked the big yellow ball, the foam floats and the hot tub.

A refreshing morning at the pool got us prepared for a big day in South Chicago.

We drove to the Howard Red Line park and ride station and took the red line train through town and to the Sox-35th Station.

We got to the stadium about an hour before game time. Big tip is to buy on Ticketmaster, because there is a Ticketmaster station at the stadium to pick up your tickets and you do not have to wait in line at will call.

We had great seats on the club level, complete with an indoor concourse, an in-seat menu and servers that took our order and brought our food out to us.

Before the National Anthem, the Navy Seals' Leap Frogs parachuted in to the stadium with a Sox flag and an American flag. That was very cool. Throughout the game, the Blue Angels were flying around the city and over the stadium preparing for the weekend's 50th Annual Air & Water Show.

We saw Griffey hit 1 of 2 with a run and 2 walks. It was great to hear Rigby and Lucy yell for Griffey when he was up to bat. This is the guy, one of the best to play, that people will talk about for decades to come, and my kids saw him play!

The game blew up in the 6th inning when the White Sox hit four home runs in a row, a first for the White Sox in their long history.

When the game concluded and the Sox won 9-2, we rode the train to Grand Station and walked east to Navy Pier. Oh, the day was getting rolling now!

As we arrived to the Navy Pier, we saw the biggest McDonalds we had ever seen. Good Lord at the commerce and fattiness in that place!

Our purpose for visiting the Pier was to go to the Chicago Children's Museum. This place was great. We saw a dinosaur, a massive Lego Sears Tower replica, rope climbing area, a log cabin, a transportation exhibit, Lucy picking veggies, an outdoor patio overlooking the city, a large water play room, a big back yard exhibit where we were the small creatures and a great interactive room with screens where computerized butterflies landed on our bodies. That was just the tip of the iceberg. We all really enjoyed our visit.

As the sun set, Rigby and Erik took a ride on the 150-feet tall ferris wheel. Rigby could not stop saying how awesome it was.

As night fell, we took a bus to the Magnificent Mile. As we looked around for our red line station, we happened upon Chicago Fire Station 98. The firemen invited us in and we got to sit in a fire engine and looked at old pictures dating back to 1900. Big thanks to those guys for making us feel welcome.

So we finally hopped on another bus and to the red line station.

What a long day - our kids (4 and 2 years old!) walked everywhere with us. Lucy did get carried a good bit, but she is a great trooper. We got back to the hotel room after 11 p.m. We finished the day watching USA win gold and silver in gymnastics.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Summer Road Trip - Day 2

We awoke from our slumber, enjoyed a nice free breakfast and hit the road headed for Chicago.

We stopped in Indianapolis, hoping to see the NCAA Hall of Champions. When we arrived we learned it was temporarily closed for renovation to repair recent damage from an isolated fire. Too bad, oh well.

So we drove through the city and enjoyed the sights. The new Colts football facilty, Lucas Oil Stadium, opens this year. It is massive and seems to dwarf the exisiting RCA Dome.

We stopped for lunch at Penn Station in honor of Uncle Corey - he loves those sandwiches and there is not one near Chattanooga.

We arrived to Chicago in the mid-afternoon and checked in our Hampton Hotels room in the northern suburb of Skokie. We got a corner suite with a full kitchen, living room and master bedroom. Rigby exclaimed, "this rocks!"

After a brief rest, we hopped on the Skokie yellow transit line, then the red line and exited right in the middle of downtown. It was raining a little, but we walked among the skyscrapers and took shelter where we could. We walked past Millennium Park looking for a fun place to eat, but there were really only chain restaurants and we did not want that!

We walked a portion of Michigan Ave, across the State Street Bridge as well as the Wabash Bridge as the sun set. The water was beautiful, as Rigby and Lucy said. We saw the massive new and still under construction, 80-story Trump Tower. Wow!

We walked around a little more and then jumped back on the train. The kids fell asleep on the way back. We ended the day eating take out food in the room and watching Food Network. Now on to the next fun day in town!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Summer Road Trip - Day 1

Let the end of summer road trip begin! Destination - Chicago!

But first, we started the day with a monumental occasion. Today was Rigby's first phase-in day of kindergarten at Battle Academy. Rigby was hesitant at first, but he warmed up soon after his parents left and let him do his thing. He later told us that he was a little shy and that he did not know all the people that were there. He said he is ready to go back now.

So after the first big day was over, we picked up Lucy and Rigby and took off up I-24 to Nashville and north on I-65. A pit stop at a Jack In The Box restaurant was made to get out of the 5 p.m. Nashvegas traffic and we were on our way.

We made it past Louisville tonight and are staying in a Hampton Hotels Suite just south of Indianapolis. The pool welcomed a late night swim from Rigby and Erik. Stacy finished the night reading a book and Lucy had her warm milk.

Now on to sleep and ready for the last several hours north!