Chicago 2024

 I visited Chicago when I was in band I think in high school. I hated it honestly because we seemed to always be in rush hour traffic, sitting/waiting, and hurrying up to not do anything.  I do remember the fountain though (I think it was the married with children fountain), and the field museum.  Fast forward to my very first marathon, the Chicago marathon in 2015 and then again for my and their 40th birthday in 2017.  It truly is my favorite road marathon of all times and I would love it if someone would run with me one of these years.  I plan on going back in 4 years for my 50th birthday for sure, but might sneak in another run in between there.  Anyway, the whole time we were there both times my parents baby sat Andrew and we kept saying to ourselves, man Andrew would love this place.  From the varied museums to the boat tours and the L, we knew he would dig everything about Chi town.  I am happy to say that we were totally right.  We just got back (monday the 11th) from a long weekend of all the things we could fit in and not collapse from exhaustion.  I got a nice bonus at work, so I was able to buy our plane tickets, stay in the same hotel we stay in for the marathon that we dearly love, and do anything and everything we wanted to do.  Every day we slept in, picked our activity, bought the tickets online, and hopped on the bus or hoofed it to head over to wherever we wanted to go.  Here are the places we visited that we loved (and some to stay away from).

Our hotel: Staypineapple Chicago.

The rooms are small, but comfy and have lots of small touches that add up to a fun and comfy stay. 

Of course we had to get the stuffed dog to go with the one I brought back years ago.  

We love the staff as they are SO very friendly and welcoming.  They would always help us figure out where to go and how to get there.  It is at the corner of State and Washington so really in walking distance of most of the things you want to do.  I love the old feel of the building and the rooms and so did Andrew.  You feel like you are part of the history of the beautiful old building.  

Wendell Boat tours:  This is the tour Tony and I did years ago to keep me off of my feet but still get to see things.  I think originally we did the one hour but Andrew and I chose the 90 minute tour this time.  It was COLD!  

You can't beat these views and Andrew learned so much about the city and the architecture.  I know there are other tours out there, but we love this one, it never disappoints.  They did have hot chocolate and a lower deck you could go on to warm up and you could move around during the boat ride.  For Andrew's sake, I think the one hour tour would probably be more than enough next time.  His favorite type of building (and mine as well) art deco style.  

Field Museum:  An easy ride on the bus from our hotel to right in from the museum.  Okay, be well rested for this one. We walked over 6 miles and still didn't see it all.

We did buy special tickets for the blood sucker exhibit(totally worth it) and the undergrown exhibit(also totally worth it).

We probably got through 2/3 before we threw in the towel and cried uncle.  We mainly focused on the dinos and the mammal exhibits.  Also, the bird exhibit was surprisingly good.  I wanted to have some guided tours, but Andrew didn't want to.  I did hear the guide in the dino exhibit and I loved what he was telling the people, however,  the kidlet was not into it.  I loved the fact that he had just studied all about dinos and all of the periods of time and the mass extinction events.  Many of the creatures he wrote about in his reports we actually got to see the fossils of. I particularly loved the evolution of the horse and the fossils that went with that evolution.  Andrew LOVED the evolution of man as well and all of the skulls and figures they had to depict what that looked like.  I think it's a tie for me between Shedd and the field museum as to what was my favorite.  

Shedd Aquarium:  This was actually our first stop.  

Andrew has been to some small aquariums, but nothing like this. I  have been to Scripts in San Diego, but this one was unique and awesome in it's on little way.  The fact that the pools were able to be viewed from the top and the bottom underwater was amazing.  

Andrew and I spent a ton of time watching both the beluga whales and the dolphins.  We took in a show about the dolphins and learned so much.  I actually cried when they had the dolphins jumping up high, but I am a sap.  

We also bought extra tickets to the 4D theater and again, spend the money.  We saw two shows, both about 15ish minutes and both highly entertaining.  Plus. the 4D theater is so much fun and so interactive.  We learned about the types of penguins with one show and the other was about the mighty octopus.  I highly recommend going to the aquarium no matter what age you and your kids are.  There are things to do there for every age.  And you will spend ALL day, so get ready.  They have several animal encounters that you can see throughout the day so come early and scan the code so you can make sure you are at the right place at the right time.  We caught the penguin talk as well as the trainers working with the dolphins and whales.  They also have some very pricey things you can do behind the scenes but they were all sold out on that day, so book early.   

Museum of Illusions:  Okay this was a little treat we found right down from our hotel.  

The place isn't huge, but it is SO much fun!  They have staff everywhere that help you with the illusions if you get stuck with how to see what you should be seeing, as well as take pictures of you if you want doing the fun stunts.  

There is also of course a very cool gift shop at the end and a puzzle room where you can work tons of wooden and metal puzzles.  Andrew loved the puzzles, but I had to remind him we had to take all of whatever we bought home, so pump the breaks.  The tickets were very reasonable and while it took maybe an hour to go through, it was worth every penny.  We laughed and learned and had so much fun.  

Museum of Ice cream:  This place came highly recommended although we were warned about the cost.

Sadly to say, other than the amazing dove chocolate bar at the beginning, this place was horrible.  I hate to diss any place someone recommends, but seriously, either they were having a bad day or it was just that bad.  Let me set the scene.

First off, we were 30 minutes late.  We thought our tickets were for 6 and they were for 5.  We ran down Michigan to get there, about half a mile.  We were ushered into an onboarding area where two grown men with made up ice cream names hyped us up like this was the best place ever.  We were then ushered into a pink subway car and given dove bars.  I thought to myself, hmmm, this is going to be super amazing, stomach get ready.  That was the only ice cream we ended up eating.  There were several themed rooms that yes, were cute and fun, but maybe more geared towards younger children.  There was suppose to be ice cream in every room to try, which there wasn't, and in the rooms that did have ice cream, the flavors were gross.  

I mean hot dog flavored ice cream?  We tried it and threw it away promptly.  There was very little history of ice cream and several of the exhibits were just empty.  If you are tempted to go (tickets were 108 for both of us), maybe don't go right before closing.  It reminded me of one of those places you would just walk through and take tons of selfies.  In fact, there were several older teens, maybe younger 20 somethings that were doing just that, over and over again.  It was very frustrating because there would be a wall of stuff to look at and they would be blocking taking tons and tons of seductive photos with their ice cream cones.  Sigh.  I guess I am entering my get off my lawn phase of life because it really pissed me off.

You ended in a large bar area that had ice cream creations and mixed drinks.  The rub I had with it was NOTHING was free.  Your ticket explicitly says unlimited free ice cream and you reach the end and have to pay.  What??????????????  I was pretty tired and over it since at that point I knew that I had overpaid way too much for this experience, but the next room was a sprinkle pool and Andrew had to jump in.  The problem?  Tons and tons of adults just laying in the sprinkles making tik toks and taking selfies.  The kids really couldn't do much due to them being in the pool.  I feel like this should be a kid's only thing but again, get off my lawn.  Then of course you exit through a gift shop that admittedly had cute stuff, but at this point I was so pissed that I practically sprinted out.   DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!  

We went across the street to the Ghirardelli ice cream and chocolate store and got the best sundae EVER.  

The Bean:  Under construction.

Which I knew because I had done my research.  Andrew still loved seeing it, even if he couldn't be close to it.  

Okay there are the dos and don'ts.  I will try and do a post about food at some time but need to publish this for now since it's super late coming in.  Have a great week y'all!