We love Chicago! This was my second marathon and the perfect excuse to visit the Windy City! Our little "Audubon Running Club" took 10 people to Chicago. The kids love the city and although it wasn't the ideal time to be a tourist in Chicago, it still was a lot of fun!
We drove up Friday morning and got the the expo by about 10am, before it was too crowded. There was a lot to see and do at the expo. They give out a lot of freebies and there are booths to shop around at. Already by the time we left it was getting pretty crowded!
Then we took a little picnic lunch to a park as we waited to check into our hotel at 3pm. It had beautiful views of the city.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker...a beautiful hotel. They were also very accommodating. We checked in a little early and I had apparently reserved a room with 1 King bed. The lady looked at the party of 6 standing behind me (Kyle, my mom and 4 kids!) and right away offered to change our room to 2 queens with a view of river! (Very nice since technically our room had a max occupancy of 4!) Then I asked her for a late checkout, since I'd be running the marathon, and she offered to move that back until 2, which gave me plenty of time to come back and take a shower! Not only that, but the room was super roomy and clean. We couldn't have asked for a better hotel!
The view from our hotel room and Zach on the bridge.
On the first day we walked around magnificent mile with the kids. We visited the Lego and American Girl stores for the kids and enjoyed people watching on the crowded streets! We had dinner reservations with our friends for that night at an Italian Restaurant called Bella Bacinos which was walking distance from our hotel.
The second day we walked the streets of Chicago again. We visited Navy Pier in the morning and rode the carousel. As excited as Isabella was to ride the carousel, she was a nervous wreck when we got to the top!
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=92829
The boys having a silly good time!
This next pic was when we took our 1.5 hour/$12 bus ride around the streets of Chicago. We attempted to go to the field museum/planetarium on Saturday afternoon. However, due to all of the road closings for the marathon, the bus routes were all jacked up! The bus driver couldn't figure out how to get to the museum campus and had to essentially do two circles of his route. When we finally got there at 5pm the planetarium was closed. We also realized it was the end of the route...which meant we had to get off of the bus and then pay to get back on. That was disappointing! At least we got a semi-cheap tour of the city and experienced riding the bus with some true Chicago folk.
Pic from "the end" of the bus route...museum campus. At least it had some great views of Chicago, but the kids were worn out. We had walked about 2 miles in the morning...rode the bus for an hour and didn't get to go to the museums. :( Plus another 6 bucks to get back on the bus...so I wasn't happy either.
No comments:
Post a Comment