Chicago

On our way from Kentucky to Chicago, my husband and I talked about how many trucks we have seen on the road this trip. We just were in awe of how many trucks inhabited the highways!! I guess it’s because the states are closer together and there are more people than where we live in the North. Because they were just everywhere.

But dealing with all of the trucks didn’t come close to preparing me for the traffic in Chicago. We had a couple of very near-miss accidents where we had to honk our horn. I was literally reminding myself to breathe.

We wanted to eat some real Chicago pizza and had been told about two places that would aim to please and give us the genuine thing. We programmed some addresses in our GPS and found most of them far away from us so we were nervous with all the traffic. We went to the one closest to us and just didn’t feel comfortable with the neighborhood. So tried another one. Which now meant 5 o’ clock traffic. I have to give “props” to my husband who had to drive and deal with all of this in a big strange city. I couldn’t have done it – that’s for sure! Anyways, the next one only was carry out. So it ended up taking us an hour and a half to find one of these pizza places. Thankfully, they had several locations! It was very good. I think I had the best breadsticks I’ve ever had. We got a large pizza that only had 8 slices. I asked the girl if that would be enough for our family and she said yes. Which might have been a funny question once we saw the pizza and how thick the pizza was. Because we each only could eat one piece and had half the pizza left! And we thought we got pan pizza at Papa Murphy’s! It didn’t touch the thickness of this Chicago pizza – plus they put the sauce on top! It was fun to try.

The big city of Chicago wowed me. It was so fun and exciting. I guess everyone else thought so too and that’s why there is so much traffic! I loved the “Magnificent Mile” although I didn’t venture into any of the really big name stores. I’m too poor for that. HA HA We only went into a couple more down-to-earth stores nearby and then we had an appointment at “American Girl.” My girls had been waiting the whole trip for this. They worked really hard at home before we left to earn some money to buy a doll. That store is huge! Bigger than I imagined. The girls wandered around until they found directions to the room they wanted with the “Bitty Twins” inside. They each decided to get one of these dolls and save a little money by getting a set. So their dolls are twins with each other and they think that is fun.

We had an appointment to eat at the American Girl Café at 11 am. We got a window seat that looked out onto the street of downtown Chicago and that was so great. The café is done all in style. Lots of pink, black, and white. They give you a little highchair that hooks onto your table for your new doll to sit in and eat lunch with you. Then they come by and give your dolls little plates and cups. My girls wished they could have kept these! But they did get to keep some scunchies that were around the napkins and a daisy that was in the chocolate mousse at the end of the meal. It’s a great meal with lots of courses yet very kid and family friendly food (like tic tac toe pizza, chicken fingers, hot dog, etc.)

After lunch we worked our way down to Navy Pier. We’d had to park down there earlier because we had a pack-a-sport on our rig and most lots in Chicago seem to be parkades. We were so thankful to find a small outdoor public lot because we were too tall for most of these parkades. So we dropped our stuff off at the car and proceeded on to Navy Pier. What a fun place. It is off of LakeMichigan which is so huge that it looks like the ocean. And all of the seagulls add to that atmosphere. There is a ferris wheel, a swinger ride, miniature golf, and a ferrris wheel. They have shops, an IMAX theater (that was sold out until Tuesday), restaurants and boats.

Just as we were entering the pier we decided to take a boat ride on the river through Chicago. It was an architectural ride which meant they pointed out buildngs to us and told us interesting tidbits about how they were made, why, etc. It was interesting but there was no shade and we literally melted in the hot afternoon sun. My poor daughter looked miserable. If we could do it again we’d go in the evening when it’s cooler. But it was interesting.

We walked around the pier for awhile. Looked at a few shops, saw an interesting contortionist show (he fit himself in an empty tennis racket hoop and a box) and called it a day.

On our way back to our motel we had to pass Chicago Midway Airport. We were very close to it. We were sitting in traffic looking at how low the Southwest planes come over the cars to land at the airport right next to the road. As we inched up, we all looked at one come in and we all yelled at the same time. It feels like they will land right on top of you! We were definitely “holy cowing” it. :

All in all – Chicago was an eye opening adventure for me. There were areas we just didn’t have time to go that I would have liked to have ventured into. Like down by the lake. They had tons of volleyball nets and people playing everywhere. Also what looked to be like a small beach. It was cool. It’s an exciting place with people walking everywhere, cars racing to and fro (literally r-a-c-I-n-g) and eye popping buildings and cool restaurants and stores. Yet the traffic and big cityness of it was the same thing that overwhelmed us northwesterners. Ambulances were whailing all the time and going by you. Homeless people were very prominent and it broke my heart. And toll roads drained us of our spare change.

I’m glad we visited even if it was a brief stint. I won’t soon forget this big city or it’s personality.