Chi-Town

{Justin making himself at home in the hotel}

{Tribune Tower}

Last week, we went to Chicago for an orthodontic conference. It was GREAT to get out of LA and out of the normal routine of life. It was particularly great for Ryan to get out of the clinic at UCLA and just have a change of scenery for a bit. Unfortunately, we just missed the really good weather. The day we flew in, it was beautiful and warm and sunny, and the day we flew out it was a clear blue sky again. In between, it was rainy, cold, and WINDY! Luckily, I had checked the forecast and ordered the weather/rain shield for the Bob stroller, so Justin stayed warm and dry. We were also lucky in that we were able to borrow some tennis shoes and a warm coat for Justin from friends, otherwise we would have been completely unprepared.

We loved our hotel, The Allerton. It was right on Michigan Ave. in the middle of all the shopping and close to the buses and subway. It is a classic old hotel that Sinatra and people like that used to stay in, and it has been refurbished with modern touches while keeping it's "old timey" feel with the cool architecture. I found a great deal online, so we were able to have a Jr. King suite which had a separate living room from the bedroom. This was KEY to us being able to get sleep. As long as I'm not in the same room as Justin, he will sleep great, so it worked out perfectly. We were on the 24th floor and had a great view of Michigan Ave.

While we were there, I got to see one of my best life-long friends, Elizabeth. She has lived in Chicago for the past 7 years, so she was a great resource for things to do, places to eat, and how to get around the city. She actually orchestrated one of the best surprises EVER! Elizabeth has a twin sister, Clare, and the two of them, and me and my sister, Katie, had a club when we were in elementary school. The 4 of us have remained friends over the past 23 years but rarely are we all together considering Elizabeth is in Chicago, I'm in L.A., Katie is in UT, and Clare is in CT. Well, Elizabeth managed to convince both Katie and Clare to fly to Chicago for basically 24 hours so that we could all be together for a day in the city. I went with Elizabeth to the airport on Friday night, just thinking she was picking up one of her friends who I happen to know from my childhood, and when we got to the terminal, I looked out the window, and Katie and Clare were there!!!! I totally screamed and made a huge scene. It was hilarious! I was so so so surprised. We went back to Elizabeth's and stayed up making each other laugh, reading through the old club notebooks that Clare had managed to dig up and bring with her. It was great. Elizabeth made a yummy brunch for us the next morning and we spent the day hanging out downtown before Clare had to head back to the airport. Katie ended up staying for another day. (they were flying standby, so the coming and going was a little crazy, but it all worked out in the end.) Katie was an all star because not only did she come and deal with flying standby and not getting on flights, etc., but she had her 4 month old baby with her too. What a trooper.

{Clare, Me, Katie, Elizabeth}

Justin did great the whole time we were there. We managed to keep him on CA time so we were able to stay out a little bit later at night and sleep a little longer in the morning. Ryan was in meetings a lot of the time (that is why we went after all) but it was still nice to be able to go out to dinners together and go on a few walks in the rain. I took JR to the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and the Planetarium. The 3 of us had some delicious Chicago deep dish pizza at both Gino's East and another place called Giordano's. At Gino's, we wrote our names on the wall which is kinda cool. If you ever go, our names are on the front columns right went you enter the restaurant.

{walking in the rain and wind}

{The Shedd Aquarium- Very cool!}

The Field Museum was amazing. It was like the Disneyland of museums. You could honestly spend an entire day there and not see everything. In each of the major exhibits, they had a section that was designed for kids. For example, in the Ancient Americas exhibit there was a "mud" hut that was 3 rooms that had pots and things glued to the floor, beds, etc. for kids to play in to get a feel for the lifestyle. There was an entire exhibit called Underground Adventure that used mirrors at the beginning to make it look like you were shrinking to be bug sized. Then the whole thing was made to look like you were underground with root systems hanging down and the walls were 3D mud. It was so cool.

{Underground Adventure Exhibit}

{JR in a termite or something like that- so cute!}

{Ancient Americas Exhibit}

{The largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world.

Over 40 feet long and 90% complete!

The entire dinosaur exhibit they had was incredible.}

{The Alder Planetarium}

{picking the veggies in the cork sand box- also very cool that the Planetarium had a whole section for kids. Justin could have played there for hours.}

Ryan wasn't so interested in the museums, but he WAS interested in going to see where the Bulls play and where the Cubs play. So, Sunday morning Elizabeth picked Ryan up and they went to go check out the sports arenas. She has a friend that works for the Cubs, so Ryan got to go down onto the field and into the dug out. We actually had free tickets to go see the Cubs play the Giants, which would have been AWESOME, but it was rainy and windy, so we opted not to go. If we didn't have JR with us we would have gone despite the weather, but it wasn't worth it with a 14 month old!

{the flight home}

Justin did great on the plane rides. On the way there, he got a little air sick and threw up after the bumpy landing, but luckily I saw it coming and managed to catch it all in my hands! Pretty impressive, right?! The way back was nice and smooth though, so he slept and smiled the whole way home.

Unfortunately, we could't remember which shuttle we needed to get back to our car at the airport, so we ended up walking for about a mile with all of our bags. Good thing Ryan is such a great hubby! We both just laughed and said it was all part of the adventure.