The Josephs clan ventured into the big city of Chicago for the weekend of August 21-23!
Andrew kept telling me that this would be Nathan's first time in Chicago - I didn't think it was possible! We had to have been back to visit in the five years since he was born, right? Nope, I can't find record of Nathan ever being in Chicago!! (Mads, however, has been there twice! In 2008 & 2009!)
Nate LOVED watching all of the planes flying in to the airports while stuck in traffic, which was helpful! :) When we got to the hotel room he was excited to see all of the activity on the street below:
Our awesome friends, The Tertins, met us for the weekend. Once they made it to the hotel we got together and headed out for dinner. Since we were a party of 8 there were crazy wait times for a table at any of the sit down restaurants we tried, so we ended up stumbling upon Steak Shack. We gave it a try. It was OK - more expensive than Culver's but really not much better. I will say, though, that my coffee flavored milk shake was quite tasty.
Then it was on to Michigan Avenue for some sight seeing!
We stopped into the Disney Store and Andrew found this fun poster - can we get it for the office? :)
Nathan is now Olaf, and he likes warm hugs!
We continued down Michigan Ave and found Dylan's Candy Bar in the Tribune Tower! I had heard about this awesome store - but never thought I'd see one!!
This is what we saw when we walked in the door - giant lollipops and candy everywhere!
The Tertins were able to stop finding goodies long enough to smile for a pic!
We went up to the SECOND FLOOR - yes there are TWO floors of CANDY!
Check out all of these gigantic lollipops!
Mads and Nate each chose a container to fill with their favorite candies. Mads chose a cupcake and filled it with orange slices, candy dots, Frootie Tootsie Rolls, Starbursts, and gumballs.
Nathan chose a soda can and filled it mostly with various gummies -bears, dinos, etc as well as a few Starbursts.
Standing amid the tall buildings with a beautiful moon in the sky:
Along the Chicago River:
Trump Tower - now the 3rd tallest building in the US
Saturday was our busy day. Since we didn't know what time we would all be in the city on Friday we didn't want to make plans, so we scheduled all of our activities for Saturday. But first, breakfast and hipster coffee from our hotel! :) Does your coffee have a mustache and wear a bowtie?
We started out by walking down State Street from our hotel, towards Millennium Park. We had to take a picture by the Chicago Theater!
And yes, our kids are AWESOME!! :)
The kids found a bull in front of the Chicago Cultural Center!
We made it to our first stop, Millennium Park, and let the kids play in the Crown Fountain. They had a blast running through the super shallow water!
Addie, Mads & Gracie running through the water:
Kicking up a splash!
Nathan running below the faces on the 50 feet tall LED towers:
Crazy, happy kids!
The girls won't slow down!
Hey! He's spitting on the kiddos! :)
Jumping
and splashing!
Always fun to get wet!
Next stop was The Bean! (Officially Cloud Gate - but who calls it that anyway!)
Josephs group pic in front of the Bean:
and again! :)
Official Bean selfie with Mads, Nate and Addie!
On our way from Millenium Park, headed to the Field Museum we found Monroe Street and the kids were excited!
We took a stroll through Grant Park and stopped at the Buckingham Fountain, which happened to be doing it's best geyser impression at the time!
A beautiful fountain with a fantastic skyline in the distance - and some cute kids too!
We made it to the Field Museum! Such a breathtaking building - absolutely huge in scale!
Nathan was so excited to see Sue the T-Rex!
Run away!
We even went to the 3D movie, Waking the T-Rex: The Story of Sue, which was super informative and I'm pretty sure blew Nathan's mind!
After leaving the movie theater we did some wandering on the lower level and came across a few Mold-A-Ramas featuring different dinosaurs!!
Nate chose a triceratops,
and Mads chose a stegosaurus.
SCORE!
Mads requested we go through the gem exhibit and look what we found - a rose made of barite!
The it was on to Evolving Planet and more dino fun there were lots more fossils to see!
After wandering through the rest of the Evolving Planet exhibit and the gift shop (lol) it was time to move on to lunch. We didn't buy the all inclusive ticket to the Field, fully knowing we just didn't have the time to dedicate to all of the exhibits. But, we saw the exhibits that Nate absolutely LOVED! :)
We made our way toward the train as the kids were begging to ride the train somewhere. We weren't sure where we were going to eat and we came upon a Potbelly! Perfect!
After lunch we cruised across the street for a Mommy Starbucks stop - then up the platform to the train! We took the Orange Line to our next planned stop, Sears Tower.
Buuuut.... when we got to the Sears Tower we found out it was going to be a 2 hour wait. The tiny kiddos weren't going to be able to wait that long, so we turned around and started back towards the hotel. A few detours to Target for new sandals for Gracie (hers broke while we were walking!), and TJ Max/Marshall's for swim suits and we made it back to the hotel.
We took advantage of a little extra time before supper and hit the pool & hot tub.
Mads and Daddy in the hot tub:
Nate and Addie with some toasty toes in the hot tub:
Mads and Nate floating together in the pool:
Mads and Gracie had a cannonball contest!
Mads just floating around:
and Nate goofing with Dad:
More floating!
Mads trying to give her brother a ride on her back, which didn't work very well!
Dinner was at the Grand Lux Cafe - a favorite from our Chicago living years!
Fun with the Wikki Stix that came with the kids menu! (Like pipecleaners - but sticky!)
We made our last stop of the evening a very fun one - Navy Pier! After a bit of a wait to hitch a ride on the free Navy Pier trolley (super convenient way to get to the Pier, however totally random trolley schedule!) we made it and headed to the Ferris Wheel first!
150 feet high - this is one big Ferris Wheel!
Daddy and the kiddos with some of the southern skyline:
Mommy and the kiddos, with the John Hancock building in the skyline
Ferris Wheel selfie:
What a view! (John Hancock building is the building with the two antennas to the far right)
The Sears Tower is hidden behind some of the other buildings slightly left of center:
The Tertin's "enjoying" their ride? :)
A beautiful moon on a clear night above the skyline:
Daddy and the kiddos in front of the Ferris Wheel:
We took a walk down the pier, to the very end and found Bob Newhart! He was in downtown Chicago last time we saw him! :)
Josephs group pic - you can see the antenna of the Trump Tower above Andrew's head!
We headed back to the Trolley stop and while we were waiting Nate zonked out, right on the bench. I guess ten miles is a lot for one 5 year old to walk in one day! :)
No rest for the wicked - we were up and at 'em bright and early Sunday morning. Nate was checking out his muscles in the mirror before we left.
Since we weren't able to go up the Sears Tower on Saturday it was our first stop on Sunday.
We decided to take the train to speed up our travel time so we could be there right around opening at 9AM.
We found the Red Line, again the kids were excited!
Addie found the Addison stop! :)
Our kids are GRAND! :)
SHENANIGANS!
"Next Stop is Grand, doors open on the left at Grand"
We made it back to the Sears Tower - this time a much more manageable wait time!
A Sears Tower made entirely of Legos!
We made it to the top and found a view of...
a cloud. Boo. Rain clouds were rolling in and we couldn't see a darn thing.
But this picture is still pretty neat - the kids out on the Skydeck, literally hanging out in a cloud!
No worries, we're just in the cloud! :)
Thumbs down to a severe lack of a view!
Sorry Nate, no luck today!
What do you do when you're at the top of the Sears Tower and can't see a darn thing? Park it and wait for the clouds to pass! The kids played some counting games, we walked laps around the Skydeck, and an hour later - still no luck. So we called it a day and headed back down.
We made it to the 103rd floor - one of the best views in Chicago and we missed it. ;)
We had fun in the gift shop, though! Check out these sweet pizza and hot dog hats!
We headed back to the hotel to load up the van and head out - but we had promised the kids a stop at 7-eleven for Slurpees (They got a taste in Florida and apparently couldn't forget about them!)
After we were loaded up we gave a round of hugs to the Tertins and headed to the south side - to the Illinois College of Optometry!
ICO gets a Thumbs Up!
2007 was a great year to graduate from ICO! :)
Future Class of 2034 (Mads) and Class of 2036 (Nate)????
Who is that graduate?
Daddy!
Andrew showed the kids around some of the school - it's changed a lot since he graduated in 2007.
One place that hasn't changed, though, is Pancho Pistola's!! We HAD to stop for lunch and a big tasty burrito - just a wonderful as we remember!
YUMMY!
Two more stops to make before we could head home... First stop Soldier Field.
A big ol' THUMBS DOWN to the Bears!! (this is the best we could do - there was a One Direction concert that night and it was busy with crazy teenage girls!)
A quick drive up Lake Shore Drive (honestly, it was - no rush hour traffic!) to swing by the old neighborhood. I wasn't able to get a picture of our apartment on Grace & Freemont because there was a Cubs game and traffic was heavy. But, it still looks the same! :) Go Cubbies!
We had such a wonderful weekend. It was so great to spend time with our friends since we haven't seen them since Easter! It was also fun to spend time in a city that we called home. I think back on our short time as Chicagoans and wish I wouldn't have wished the time away. There are so many fabulous things in the city! We will have to get back there soon!
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