For several months, Matt had a surprise trip planned for us the first weekend in November. It was on the calendar but I didn't know what was going on. And then someone spilled the beans on part of it but I didn't mention it to Matt until a couple of weeks before we left.
I had figured out we were going to at least Chicago, then based on the spilled beans I found out we were going to Milwaukee for a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.... swweeeet! The whole thing was in celebration of our ten year anniversary.
So the plan was- we left on Wednesday night (Halloween) and drove down to Chicago to spend most of Thursday there; drive that afternoon up to Milwaukee (only a couple of hours) for the concert that night; go back to Chicago the next morning to spend the day at a museum. We had looked online at a couple of things and decided on the Shed Aquarium.
We HATED Chicago. Everything about it. It was terrible. The people were extremely rude and unhelpful; seriously the only people who were NOT like that were the homeless people. The gas prices were insane and there were toll booths every few miles. I did forewarn you that this will be filled with griping.
Time for LOTS of pictures-
Halloween- someone loaned us a really cute dinosaur costume. Caelan put it on VERY briefly. Not even long enough to get any pics besides this one.
Danielle and crew were appropriately dressed up in their Star Wars costumes- Princess Leia with Darth Vader and Cameron (a little further down) in a Storm Trooper costume.
Matt giving the full effect of the dinosaur costume- ROAR!
There is Cameron! There wasn't any trick or treating going on really due to rain, we just hung out at Danielle's for a bit and she had food and goody bags for the kids.
The dinosaur rode in the back window of the car :)
Happy passenger number 1
and
Happy passenger number 2!
These were taken on that Thursday- we were leaving the hotel to go to the first museum.
* oh yeah- side note but I MUST acknowledge one other nice person in Chicago. It was pretty late as we arrived in the city and we had to get gas before we continued to the hotel. We asked one of the toll workers where to do that and we knew we were in the big city when she prefaced her directions with "the SAFEST place" as opposed to "the easiest/closest place". So we took her advice and were still very nervous about where we were. Then we couldn't get back on the interstate. The onramp was closed and GPS kept sending us in circles in bad areas. So we pulled back into the gas station and there sits a police car! Yay! He was soooo nice and went out of his way to have us follow him to a different location in order to get back (safely and unshot or mugged) on the interstate! So YAY mr police officer!
Moving on....
We stayed in a pretty nice hotel (thanks to some passes from someone) in a little town called Green something. And right across the street from it was Kohl's Children Museum. So we thought we would check it out. That place was AWESOME! It was less than $10 each to get in and you could spend all day there with no problem. We spent most of our time in just a few sections because Caelan's interests are different than a lot of kids. There was an entire mini-city inside of it on a kids level- a grocery store, a deli, car garage, vet, children's hospital, a nursery, and a library (I feel like I am missing something). All of those places were kid sized and they were able to pretend play in any part they wanted- from grocery shopping to working the cash registers to wearing lab coats while looking at x-rays to taking care of babies or animals to....you name it! And that is the tip of the ice berg, that was just the imagination area. There was a water zone, music area, science areas, nature, all about me section, and art room. The place wasn't overwhelmingly huge either- well planned out. Can you tell we LOVED it? We actually wish we had gone back there on that Friday than to the Shed Aquarium. If you are ever in that area and you have kids GO THERE!
A few pictures of that- Caelan liked the cars, trains, water room and a few hands on things more than anything.
pushing buttons would blow air into the giant fabric tubes- the longer you hold the button the higher it goes.
Four people can work on this- pushing a button to launch balls into the bucket in the middle- when it hits a certain weight it pops up and the balls fly everywhere.
This little contraption was reaaally cool! It had balls in it that constantly go up to the top via different pulleys and lifts and such- then as they come down they hit different things to make sounds/music. Or just spiral in neat ways. And you can turn the gears to make the balls switch routes. He really liked this!
Then we went into the Water Works area- another favorite for him.
Water cannons- each thing you hit makes a different sound
Caelan has pretty good aim!
More cool water stuff- pumping a lever, causing air pressure which makes the ball go up and then through a channel of tubes above you over to the other side
Below- water shoots out to make the pinwheels spin
Spinning faster and faster to make the water push the ball up (and something about the plunger but I don't remember!)
More neat contraptions using water and simple tools/machines
on to the music room! He likes the banging parts!
Spent a lot of time in the car garage (not sure why there isn't more photos)
Trains
Back to the ball contraption!
Art room- painting with corn cobs and husks
and back to the water area! That's a 'jellyfish' above that moves up when you push air bubbles into it
Go here!!
So we went up to Milwaukee and some life long friends of Matt's parents kindly babysat Caelan while we went to the concert. A really neat story- we were standing in line to get into the concert and this couple standing off to the side asked us where our seats were located. We weren't real sure what they wanted and then he said, "We have two second row seats that are going to go to waste- do you want them?" We still weren't sure what to think about this- what's the catch, right? Apparently he gets tickets through his job or something and had some extras that weren't being used. He said we looked like "nice people" and so they chose us out of the whole line to give the tickets to! That's a 500 dollar value in tickets. SECOND ROW!! We were BEYOND thrilled!! It was soooo amazing! RHCP does a great concert anyway but to be right there, feet from them. was just.... wow! We gave lots of hugs to the couple who gave us the tickets- they were even happier to know that we were celebrating our 10th anniversary, they said that just made their choice even better! Our original tickets were waaaay in the back. We didn't take pictures at the concert because we didn't realize we could take the camera in. But it's etched in my memory!
So the next day we went back to Chicago-
I will give them credit that there was a really cool jelly fish exhibit going on-
we took a lot of pictures of the jellyfish actually- but these are just a couple of really pretty ones
I LOVED these little guys- they were quite fascinating! Very, very tiny and clear- so almost invisible. But so cute and graceful. The one below- had an electric current/ light that would turn on and off in the middle.
We didn't watch the dolphin show (that would have been in addition to the $80 we already spent; yes, seriously) but did get this neat picture of the dolphins swimming- the arena is back dropped by Lake Michigan.
We were quietly cheering him on from afar!
Caelan has come to LOVE trains so Matt thought it would be a really fun thing for him to ride the "EL" in Chicago. This is another area we started running into problems with unhelpful people. We couldn't get a straight answer from anyone on the best way to go about this. Where to get on, what to do, etc. Even the EMPLOYEES were unhelpful. Again... homeless folks are great. I was so frustrated- I looked at one guy and said, "Look, I have a four year old little boy who simply wants to ride the train. Can't you just help us out here and tell us the best option for that?" He was unhappy that I interrupted him during his personal conversation. And by this point we had walked MANY blocks to get to the open station. In the cold. AND I was running a 100+ fever and aching as my second bout with strep throat was coming on.
Sooo... we FINALLY got some tickets and got on the public train system of Chicago!
that's a "slobber kiss" for Mommy as he calls it
All in all he enjoyed it, which in the end is what matters.
So that was our experience with Chicago. Which Matt and I have aptly dubbed "Shitcago" and have no desire to go back! Although we have had several people tell us that Chicago is a great place, you just have to know where to go. And I will say that if any friends or family ever come to that area- we would drive the five hours (easy trip to make) to go to see them and go back to the Kohl's Museum! :)
One last photo..... Matt couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign. We thought it was funny.
Grip post.... complete.
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