Trip to the **not so** Windy City

Me, my husband, son and mother-in-law all went to Chicago.  The reason for the trip was to see my brother-in-law, Dustin, graduate from Navy boot camp.  We decided it would be a waste of time and energy to just travel all the way to Chicago for 1 day, so we made a 5 day trip of the event.  We were hoping to get to "see" Chicago and take in some sights.


**Side Note**  I find humor in the title of this post for this reason:  Anyone who has ever visited Oklahoma City and Chicago...the term "Windy City" for Chicago is a joke.  I have lived in Oklahoma for a total of 9 years.  WIND is what one will find in Oklahoma year round.  There is almost no point in fixing one's hair as it is sure to be destroyed by wind at some point during the day.  A BREEZE is what one will find in Chicago.  It was humid like much of the mid-west, but windy.....not so much.


Anyhooo....we left Sacramento Airport on Wednesday afternoon.  Luke was NOT a happy traveler.  He was whiny, fidgety, and just painfully unpleasant for most of the plane ride.  It made me understand why some parents give sedatives to their children when they go on long plane rides.  Noe that I would do it myself, but I CERTAINLY understand why some do!!

We arrived in Chicago Wednesday night (taking into account the 2 hour time difference).  We rented a car, and good thinking on Darren's part that we did.  When traveling with a 2 1/2 year old...the term *luggage* takes on a WHOLE NEW MEANING.  Darren and I could have had one piece of luggage each for the entire trip.  2 pieces total.  While traveling with my mother-in-law and son, we had a total of 7 pieces of luggage.  Yep SEVEN!  No way were we going to lug all that luggage onto the subway.  So Darren saved the day with the car rental to get us to the hotel.


Thursday morning, we got up and traveled downtown to visit the Children's Museum, go on an Architecture boat ride of the city and then to Legoland.  We had lots of fun!  The most interesting part of the day, I think, for my son was all the means of transportation it took to travel to these locations.  We rode on a plane and in a car the day before.  And to get downtown from our hotel we took the subway and a bus.  He was THRILLED!  


Friday we traveled to Great Lakes, IL to see the Navy boot camp graduation.  We were told by the hotel staff it would take us 2 hours (with traffic) to get there.  We had to be "in our seats" by 8:30 am so we left the hotel at 6:00am.  We were in Great Lakes by a little after 7:00am.  WHAT TO DO FOR OVER AN HOUR?  We piddled around, got some coffee, ate breakfast and got to the graduation very early.  This was a mistake.  The graduation did not commence until 9:00am and by then Luke was tired of sitting.  He would have NOTHING to do with sitting still during the ceremony.  Luke and I spent the majority of the ceremony in the women's bathroom.  I did my best to stifle screams of defiance.  So much fun!!!  


When the graduation was over Luke was very happy to see Dustin and the rest of the day was relatively uneventful.  We got to spend some time with Dustin and he had the whole weekend off so he came back with us to the hotel after dinner.


The next day we had planned on seeing a couple of sights such as the Aquarium, the Zoo and something else I cannot recall just now.  Due to some technical difficulties with lack of appropriate garb for Dustin's uniform, we were unable to begin our sight seeing until the afternoon and only got to go to the Aquarium.  It was PACKED!  I would say it was well worth it though.  It was beautiful and much fun to see.


Sunday morning we had a flight out at 8:00 am so we were up and at 'em really early.  The plane ride back to Sacramento was MUCH more pleasant as Luke slept most of the way.  The rest of the time when he wasn't sleeping, we were able to feed him snacks which kept him happy.


All in all Chicago is NOT a place I would like to live but was fun to visit.  Next time, I would definitely consider going "adults only".