Chi-Town

A few weeks ago, we headed up to Chicago for the weekend. There was an air show over the lake and we wanted to go check it out. It's just a 2 1/2 hour drive from here, so it's the perfect distance for a little getaway. Neither Jason nor I had ever driven to Chicago so that was a brand new experience for us. Typically, I (Megan) am the family driver on long-distance trips because I battle some pretty violent motion sickness. On this trip, I had Jason drive because I did not want to make an attempt at driving in the big city. The drive to Chicago was beautiful and we pulled into the city at night with the city lights aglow. Jaxon slept the entire way, and woke up just as we got into the city. He looked out his window and straight up at the tall buildings and said, "Wow!" This was his first experience in a big city and his reaction was absolutely priceless.




THE HOTEL:

After a horrible experience with Priceline.com, we booked a room through hotwire and ended up at the James Hotel. I often wonder what the staff at such a nice hotel thinks when a family such as ours pulls up in the 1998 Toyota Camry carrying a Reebok duffel bag from Jason's college days over our shoulder... "Here comes another family that booked a four-star hotel at a two-star price."

Anyway, the hotel staff treated us like royalty during our entire stay. As I mentioned before, neither of us had ever driven to Chicago and had always used city transportation (the El, city bus or taxi), so we had never even thought about the parking situation before now. We pulled right up to our hotel and a valet was waiting to park our car. I mean what's $50 a day anyway?!? The cool thing about valet was, they would bring our car up anytime we wanted. And we used this service daily. Valet, can we get our strollers out of our car? Valet, can we get our car to put our strollers back in? Valet, I think we left a sippy cup of milk in our car that we need to get out ASAP.


I couldn't resist these pictures of our hotel room. The bathroom sinks were sitting on a marble countertop and the shower tile was made of slate. My favorite part of staying in nice hotels, is the free bathroom products provided. Of course, the more you pay for a room, the nicer the product. The James happens to provide their guests with products made by Kiehl's. Oh sweet luxury!



Beautifully made bed on a platform bed frame. Feels as amazing as it looks. However, watch the platform frame when you get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. It will leave an indention and bruise on your shin. Jason and I can both speak from experience on this one. They tended our room twice a day. In the morning they cleaned and at night they had a turn-down service, which included little chocolates on our pillow.



One of the doormen enjoyed Jaxon a lot and when we got to our room that night, he had placed a pair of Paul Frank monkey PJ's in our room for Jaxon. They were a size 3T, which is still a bit big, but Jax insisted on wearing his monkey PJ's that night.


Here's Jaxon the first night. He was so amazed by the city noises and city lights. He stood in the windowsill for quite awhile, counting "Ninny Cars" (police cars) and Austin's fire trucks.


Here was our view the next morning from our room on the 14th floor.





LINCOLN PARK ZOO:

Our first morning in Chicago (Friday), we found a cute place to grab some breakfast, then we headed up the Magnificent Mile for a little shopping. We shopped a few stores and checked out the Water Tower Mall (where I introduced Dakota to American Girl Dolls and told her all about my dreams for her playing with them some day). Then we hailed a cab and headed up to Lincoln Park. The zoo in Lincoln Park is free to everyone and we were extremely impressed with it. It was very clean, had a lot of shade, and there were some great exhibits to see.


Jaxon's first taxi ride. I mean, who throws their two year old in a taxi, on their daddy's lap? Parenting at its best.


Dakota and I were waiting at the top of a hill while Jaxon and his daddy watched the sea lions swim. I just had to capture this moment of Daddy and son hanging out together.



I asked them to look at the camera and say, "Cheese." Jaxon thought he also needed to lift his shirt. Oh well.



These pictures just make me so happy, sorry I put so many of them on here! Nah, I'm not sorry about that!



Can't remember the name of these monkeys, but I thought they were so cute all cuddled up, taking a nap on the tree branch.



This "rhinanocurus" (as Jax calls it) was just standing there posing for pictures. It's such a cool-looking animal.



Jax and I outside the zoo. We were starting to hear airplanes overhead, which meant one thing: practice for the next day's air show had begun. We decided it was time to leave the zoo and go find a spot to watch the practice. Nevermind that we would be watching the entire show the next day.



Daddy and his kiddos watching the air show practice. There was another picture with Jaxon's eyes open, but I thought this captures his personality!



Mama and her kiddos.







CHICAGO AIR AND WATER SHOW:






The Blue Angels: (need I say more?)






We had a little spot right on Lake Michigan where we set up camp to watch the show. This was our first air show that was completely over water. We didn't get to see any ground shows or take-offs and landings. It was really quite beautiful to watch the airplanes glide over the water. I begged Jason to rent us a boat for the weekend, so we could watch the show from the water. But he said something about a few thousand dollars we didn't have or something like that.



Sis was very content watching from her stroller. She was parked perfectly in some shade and had the best seat of any of us.


She even fell asleep for part of it.



A beautiful C-17 did a few fly-overs. Never could make out the tail wing to see where it was from.



Tried taking a picture with my son and the skyscraper buildings in the background, but as you can see, he is completely distracted by the fire truck driving by.


There we go.

A nice couple stopped and asked if we wanted a family picture together. Love this - except that Dakota is not in it. She was sleeping away in her stroller and I didn't want to wake her.



Three Black Hawks hovering over the lake.






CHICAGO PIZZA:

Although my husband is not a huge pizza fan, he agreed to pizza one night for dinner, so I could get my fix. I love me some Chicago-style pizza! I was so hungry, that I dove right in and didn't even take time to snap pictures of the deliciousness. Big regret. But the pizza was amazing. You can always go their website to view some delicious pictures or order yourself one (they ship anywhere in the US). Ugh, now I'm really hungry for pizza. Good thing I always keep some in my freezer!



Giordano's Famous Chicago Style Pizza:

Waiting on a table. It was a 45 minute wait at 5:00PM. Can you imagine the wait come 6:00 or 7:00? They have you order your pizza as soon as you get there, so it's ready the minute you sit down to a table!


Me and my sweet girl.