Spring Break: CHICAGO

Anyone who knows what Dave does for a living knows that Spring Break is anything but a break for him. This leaves the girls and I with the choice of 1)going on vacation without him, which usually means a visit to family or 2)not going anywhere at all. This year we tried to get a little creative and came up with, in my opinion, a pretty good compromise. If Dave, can't go on Spring Break, we would bring Spring Break to him. The girls and I booked a hotel in downtown Chicago and spent a few days enjoying the city, where Dave could meet us for lunch, and we would get to see him early in the morning and later in the evening because he didn't have to commute all the way home. The following is a travel log of our trip, Ashley helped me write some parts:

Can you believe how old my girls are?! Here they are "commuting" into the city. We took the train in. Ashley is relaxed and reading, while Paige is jamming with the IPod. I didn't expect them to be so self-entertaining, with no one to talk to I am the one who ended up looking out the window the whole time!



When we got to the city, Dave met us at Union Station and took us to lunch at a restaurant in the Sear's Tower. It was called Augustino's Rock and Roll Cafe. I feel bad I didn't get a picture of the life size Elvis and Beatles figures. The girls shared a juicy cheeseburger and Dave and I shared a huge Cobb salad. This is a cute picture of Ashley and Dave after we finished eating.

After lunch, the girls and I went to the hotel to check-in. Here they are relaxing on the bed. We stayed at the Marriott Downtown-Magnificent Mile. The location was perfect, I couldn't have been happier. The hotel also has a pool, which was a very big plus for the girls. Little surprise, the first thing we did after checking-in was to go swimming. Here is what Ashley had to say about the hotel and swimming:

The revolving doors!

On the days at my hotel and at dads work there is a revolving door. Now your thinking why would Ashley talk about a revolving door? So here’s why. On the way to my dad’s work (a couple of years ago) for the first time they had glass revolving doors. When I thought that it was time to get out I was wrong so that made me bonk my head hard. This is a terrible memory for me on the first day at my dad’s work. So guess what? At my hotel building they had revolving doors! I’m like oh man I don’t want to bonk my head again! But when I got closer I noticed that they were big and automatic!!!! YAY!!!! So now every time that I go to the hotel building I don’t have to worry about bonking my head!

The swimming pool!!

During the spring break in Chicago mom, Paige, and me often went to the pool to play. We always made friends young and old. For example, I once played with a 13 year old! I also once played with a 6 year old. All of the grown ups were very nice to Paige and me. Someone said that I was so good of a swimmer. That was kind. Anyway, I love to swim. The only thing that I hate about swimming is taking a shower! I don’t know why that I don’t like taking showers!! It’s probably because I have to use special shampoo and let it soak in my hair. I sure love to swim!!!

Paige wants to add: "I like swimming with my floaties because I can go in 3 feet, 4 feet, and 5 feet!"

After swimming, we had to get cleaned up and ready to go to the theater to see the musical Mary Poppins. This was our big treat for the trip. The girls had never been to a live show like this. They were very excited. A private car from the hotel took us to the theater and the girls where pretty impressed with the huge crowd, red carpet, TV cameras (no idea what for), and lights outside. This is a horrible picture of me, but it's all I got!

Here are the girls inside the Cadillac Palace Theater. We had balcony seats but the view was great! And the show did not disappoint--lots of exciting lighting, Mary Poppins was flying around, chimney sweeps were walking on the ceiling, and great dance numbers. My favorite number was a tap dance by the chimney sweeps.

We were out pretty late that night, but that didn't stop us from keeping busy the next day. We started out with shopping on Michigan Avenue. As you can see the girls had a great time playing at the Lego Store.

After walking around for a while, we met Dave for lunch at a Brazilian Steakhouse, called Fogo de Chao. It has been at least five years since I have done this and it was another first for the girls. I am going to let Ashley tell about this one:

Fogo De Chao!!!

On March 26,2009 my whole family went to have lunch at Fogo De Chao. Now this isn’t an ordinary restaurant where you sit down and order something. When I sat down somebody pulled a chair for me. Right then I knew that this place is fancy. Then you have a circular little thing that on one side it says yes please! And it’s the color green. On the other side it says no thanks! And it’s red. Now they have this because when you flip it to green people come over with meat and they ask if you want this kind of meat. Don’t worry they tell you what kind of meat it is. Then you tell them if you want it medium rare or something else. Next you use your tongs and pick up the meat that they cut for you. Last you eat and flip it over to the no thanks! Side. Let me tell you it’s very good. My dad told me about a place like this in Utah. It’s just called something else.

We also spent a few hours at Navy Pier. These are a couple of pictures from the Children's Museum there. It was pretty crowded but the girls had a lot fun playing on all the exhibits while mom, immensely enjoyed herself, as the official coat holder.

Okay, now for my confession. Across the street from the hotel was a Bucco de Beppo restaurant to which I had a gift certificate. So one night, instead of dinner, we order the Dolci Platter to-go and took it back to our room. We spread it out on the bed and ate it while watching NCAA Basketball games.

As you can see, Paige is my true partner in crime when it comes to dessert. The Dolci Platter is just a fancy way of saying, "a giant piece of every decadent dessert on our menu, feeds 6." We were adrift in fudge sauce, dark chocolate, hazelnuts, carmel, cheesecake, etc., etc. And since it feeds six, guess what we had for breakfast?

(In my defense, I got up the next morning at 7am and pounded out the guilt on the elliptical!)

The last thing we did before going home was to run up to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We hadn't been here since the summer we lived downtown, six years ago. This meant that Paige had never visited. The weather was pretty brisk, but the animals seemed to love it. They were all out and about, so we were able to see all the animals. I love the picture of the girls with the lions in the background.

Here is Ashley's take on the zoo:

In the zoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On March 27,2009 on the way back home my mom, Paige, and I decided to go to the zoo. Guess what? I’ll let you in on a secret. My mom couldn’t find the parking lot for the zoo. I totally understand though. I couldn’t see it either! But we had to drive around and around. We got a sweet parking space though. My family saw many animals like monkey’s, apes, gorillas, wolves, bears, geckoes, bats, zebras, spiders, snakes, frogs, leopards, lions, and much more exotic species. Oh did you know that one of the monkeys peed all over the glass!!! That was funny and gross!!! We sure had to walk around a lot. Now I’m tired!