Jeff

[littlesista06]

Would you mind sharing some of your plans for Chicago? I'll be there next weekend.

[Jeff]

Well most of my planning was e-mailing my uncle and this is what he recommended. Sounds like a great plan to me LOL. This may drastically change once DW gets a hold of it :-). My added comments are ***blah blah blah ***...we may do the american girl store too and take the dks to see where mom used to live and work.




The new extra large aquarium at the Shedd along with the porpoise and/or Beluga whale exhibit might be fun. The Museum of Natural History is on the same campus. The little kids might enjoy the Dinosaur display and some of the stuffed animals.

A fun thing to do the first evening you're here when it's about time to eat supper is either fix or pick up something to take to the lake and eat along Montrose beach where the water is quite shallow and the sandy beach is wide. Beaches are closed today because of the torrential rains we had, but should be okay by next week. There are also shade trees near and along the edge where the beach starts.

***he also told me that the kids can swim here***

The next morning, a train ride above ground on the brown line which will go down to and around the loop, crossing the Chicago river and passing between large buildings (that description was for DS). We can get off and walk across the Chicago river bridge and catch the free trolley out to Navy Pier. There's a 1/4 mile concrete runway to the end where you can watch the boats and see out over the lake as well as a merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, Children's Museum (not free), and of course McDonalds in the food court. We can catch the free trolley back to State street and take the underground Red line back up to Belmont.

***a neighbor told me the children's museum is supposed to be great.***

Of course, there's always the Lincoln Park Zoo. Quite a lot of it is under construction, so I'm not sure if the elephants and other large type animals or the gorillas are back yet.

[littlesista06]

That all sounds awesome! We've got a cousins reunion up there and do ya think the one who lives up there has done jack sh*t for this get together??? Uh, no. lol

I'd like to hit Navy Pier Sat. night for the fireworks myself.
Dd has begged begged begged me to stop by the American Girl Store (no, she isn't coming) so that's a must - I'd like to take her back there sometime.

We'll do lunch at Marshall Fields one afternoon as that was a special place our g'parents took all the g'kids when we were young'ins.

Where did your dw used to live? My g'parents and dad were from Highland Park.

Thanks for the tidbits and I hope ya'll have a great time!