Chicago Trip 2011 -- Wednesday

As is becoming tradition for our family, we packed up and headed out for a long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July…last year our excuse was taking Benny to Chicago for his first Cubs game; this year we had a wedding to attend in Wisconsin on July 2 so we decided to make a little vacation of it and head up a few days early to spend some time in Chicago.

We headed out on Wednesday morning and arrived in Chicago shortly after noon. Our first destination was Shedd Aquarium. It was awesome. The line to get in was pretty long and the boys did a great job patiently waiting to enter. They immediately plopped down in front of a giant 360 degree aquarium that housed sting rays, sharks, a giant turtle, and even a scuba diver who was feeding animals and answering questions from the audience. I think the boys (and I) could have sat there for hours; it was really cool. In typical Ben fashion, he bravely raised his hand to ask a question (“do the sharks ever attack any of the animals in the aquarium?”). Joey was then intent on asking a question as well, but his pretty much consisted of looking cute and saying “um…um…um…um…um….” Until the tour guide person took pitty on this stuttering little ball of sweetness in front of him and said “do you want to know how much the turtle weighs?” and Joey nodded and was informed that she weighed 120 pounds. Excellent.

The boys really enjoyed looking at all the exhibits, though they did get tired and complained of sore feet. We managed to spend a couple of hours wandering around, though, which is pretty good for my guys. Joey liked the sharks and the seal best and Benny liked the dolphins. Both boys agree, however, that the absolute best part was the 4D movie, Happy Feet, that we watched at the very end of the visit.

We stopped by our hotel, the Doubletree Downtown, and checked in before meeting up with Angela (one of my college roommates). The five of us walked to Navy Pier where we met up with Holly (another college roommate) and her husband Mark for dinner at Harry Carey’s (another Chicago tradition). The boys were not on their best behavior as they were completely exhausted at this point but it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the company at least. We headed back to the hotel and were asleep nice and early after a long day of traveling.