Chicago Part 2

Being tourists at “the Bean”!
familybean.jpg
beanreflectme.jpgsiennabean.jpgbeanreflectinside.jpgbeanreflect.jpgsiennablocks.jpg
At the Target sponsored Family tent. There were a few giant fans in there and being the hot and humid day that it was, it was a bit of a relief (although not much!)
waterfountainthing.jpg
At the Crown Fountain. If only I wore the right shoes, I’d be in there with her!

We went to lunch at Hamburger Mary’s in Andersonville where I got a delicious chicken salad sandwich (with cranberries in it! yum!), yes, I know, I did not get a hamburger at Hamburger Mary’s! Then we stopped by this cute shopping gallery, the name I did not catch. It was 3 levels of a bunch of little stalls on each floor with handcrafted items for sale. It felt like Etsy in 3D! It was really cool and I enjoyed looking at everything. Most stalls did not have an actual person in it but there were 3 woman that worked there that could help you. I ended up getting a pair of pretty blue earrings.
wwmosaic.jpg
Sienna and I both liked this WW mosaic.
catwoman.jpg
I thought the Catwoman was really cool. Sienna didn’t like it but only because it was Catwoman.
wwimage.jpg
An interesting WW hubcap art!

Theresa then wanted to check out a shoe store, a real shoe store with salesclerks that measure your feet! I ended up buying another pair of awesome Dansko sandals, Yves bought some Keen sandals and we got Sienna a size 12 sneaker (she’d been walking around in a size 10! Yikes!). Rich also bought a pair of Keen sandals and the only person to not buy a pair of shoes? Theresa! The one who wanted to go into the shoe store in the first place! Ha!
dexkiss.jpg

We really didn’t do much touristy stuff this trip but the main reason was really to hang out with Rich and Theresa. Plus the weather was just too energy sucking (hot and humid) to do much. I did manage to take Sienna to a playground that was 3 blocks away from the house!

On our last day, we decided to go out for breakfast and we went to Walker Bros pancake house. Huge omelets and lots of pancakes! Needless to say, we were stuffed!
walkerbrospancakes.jpgwalkertrio.jpg

Chicago Part 1

We took a long overdue trip to Chicago, we haven’t been there since Rich and Theresa got married and Sienna was a baby. Airfare was outrageous so we decided to drive there. Sienna is a very good traveller (as evident from the Myrtle Beach drive) so we weren’t worried. Google maps said it would take 13.5 hours to get to Rich’s house so we decided to do it in 2 days. No documenting of the hotel but it was a Hampton Inn (our preferred hotel!) somewhere in PA. There was delays on the I80 due to road work so we didn’t get as far on the first day as we had hoped. On Friday (15th), the 2nd day was really long because we were making up time from the first day plus by the time we reached Chicago, it was rush hour. That was torture as it took 2 hours to get through it!! We finally made it! Yay! Our main goal was to just relax and hang out with Rich and Theresa. They got a new dog named Dexter and Sienna really enjoyed playing with him.
dexter.jpgdextersiennataunt.jpgdexsiennarun.jpgyvesdexter.jpgrichelvisbbq.jpgsiennaelvis.jpg
Saturday we had lunch at Superdawg, a place I wanted to check out. It’s one of those drive in places where you place your order through the intercom by your car and then they bring it out for you. Even though I ended up eating outside the car standing up because it was so hot, I enjoyed experiencing that concept.
superdawg.jpgsuperdawgbench.jpgsuperdawgcouple.jpgsuperdawgwaiting.jpgsuperdawgdog.jpg
you can’t even see my hot dog because of the pickle. It was very yummy!
We wanted to see Rich’s parents, Bob and Martha while we were there so they came over for dinner. Rich made pizzas on the grill. Last time Sienna saw Bob, she cracked up whenever he looked at her! He didn’t even do anything. I’m glad to say that he still makes her crack up. Sienna had a great time with him playing ball. He’s got great energy for someone in his 70’s! (BTW, last time Sienna saw Rich, she cried every time he tried to hold her. Glad to say that that did not hold up!)
bobballplaying1.jpgbobballplaying2.jpgbobdexter.jpg

Atta’ Boy! from Lisa on Vimeo.

grilledpizza.jpg
One of the many grilled pizzas Rich made. Very delicious!
richyveseat.jpgdogsmartha.jpgdexelviswindow.jpg
More Chicago to come!