Day 4 ~ Willis Tower (or so we thought) & Wisconsin

One thing we realized pretty quickly is being in Chicago in the summer is very different than being there in December. Everything is at a premium in the summer. Everything is busier in the summer. There are a lot more people out and about in the summer. I'm sure most people are having a "No Kidding!" type of a response but honestly it kind of took me by surprise.

Friday we were going to go into the city and do the Sears (Now called Willis) Tower. After that we were going to drive to Wisconsin for the day. I wanted to go all the way to Milwaukee but that didn't happen.

We got into the city and found out there was a lot of construction and the roads we had planned on taking weren't an option. We couldn't get to the parking garage we wanted that was a little less expensive. We were having all sorts of issues getting around. I took this picture while we were stuck behind a truck trying to make a U-Turn.

Finally we sucked it up and parked in the Tower Garage. It was going to cost a fortune if we stayed more than an hour.

We got to the Sky Deck elevator and got off to find another line a mile long. This was just to get through security! They didn't have the Fast Pass/City Pass lane open. We could have easily been there for 2-3 hours.

After some discussion and much disappointment we decided to cut our losses and leave. We got out of the garage in less than 20 minutes so we only had to pay $5. Whew! We were off to Wisconsin

but not before a stop at On the Border in Vernon Hills.

We re-fueled with chips, salsa, guac, pina coladas and yummy Mexican food. (Thanks Mere for the gift card for Paul's birthday. We were able to use it and save some $$$)

Guess what. Andrew didn't like the food and once again didn't eat the meal we bought him. At least he had the little gum-ball dude to keep him busy while he wasn't eating.

This was a major sore spot with us the ENTIRE trip. When Andrew doesn't eat things go very bad.  We hoped he had eaten enough and hit the road.

Our number one goal in Wisconsin was to tour the Jelly Belly factory.

Jelly Belly has played a huge role in our lives. We used to live right by the one in California and would go all. the. time. Every holiday, just for lunch, for fun, for treats, seriously all. the. time. We loved it there.

This factory is just for shipping but it didn't disappoint. We had a great time. No one really wanted to go up to Milwaukee so I didn't push it.

After we were done there we went to some outlets. We got the kids some shoes and I got some junk jewelry. On our way back we decided to stop at an Oasis.

The kids thought it was pretty cool to eat over a freeway. It was starting to rain. I guess it's good we didn't go further north.

We drove by the temple but it is closed for maintenance. We sat by the gates in the car for a while eating jelly belly's.

We got back to the hotel earlier than usual. We watched a magnificent lightning storm from the window in our room. It rained all night... (this will create a lot of problems for us on Saturday!)