Family Vacation 2010 ~ Day 1 and 2

Here we go. On this trip we had three cameras and over 1700 pictures were taken. Last night while we were transferring them to my computer we experienced technical difficulties. Apparently I have too much stuff on my computer already and there was no space for all the new pictures. I went through my digital scrapbook files and threw away a bunch of old stuff. After that we were able to transfer the pictures.

Day One: We left on Tuesday afternoon. That was nice. Often we are on morning flights and it is crowded and I'm sleepy. This time we had plenty of time to sleep in and finish packing that morning. Here we are at the airport, excited to go to the big city! We found out once we got to the airport that Andrew had left his Ipod touch in the car. This was BAD. My mom was going to drive it back to us but we decided to have it mailed instead. We didn't think we could get it and get back through security in time.

The flight was uneventful. Andrew watched a movie on the laptop. Both kids did well on the flight.  

We got our car and this is when we all realized, Chicago is HOT & HUMID! I really don't care for humidity. This car turned out to be a major trial. I smelled of cigarette smoke. It was making our eyes itchy and each time we got in it after it had baked in the sun it smelled worse. We had to go back and trade it a few days later.

Day Two: We decided to take the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry. This is the first glimpse of the city for the kids. They weren't as in awe as I thought they might be.

We all LOVED this museum so much. Everything about it was cool.

They have a weather exhibit right now that was amazing. We could have spent all day just playing in there. Unfortunately we didn't get there until a little before noon and they were closing for a special members event at four. We missed some exhibits and didn't spend as much time as we could have in others.

You could send up the balloon, make the rainbows and even create a tsunami. Here are the kids deciding what kind of wave to make. This time they went for small little waves.

This machine then simulates the wave length that you choose. See the little waves back there? They liked making the tsunami a lot too.

Emma made these rainbows and they had a "tornado" just across the way.

This huge disk simulated an avalanche.

Everything was so fun to watch and play with. 

There was information on farming. 

This is how the kids followed the financial rise and falls of business, by climbing a wall! 

Giant Newton's Cradle

Can you balance a ball on air?

They were amazed by these bodies. Especially the "boy bits" that were still hanging around. 

I thought I got a picture of the central nervous system too, but I guess not. Bummer it would have gone nicely next to this digestive system! 

Part of our city pass ticket included a movie. We chose Take Flight which turned out to be a 45 minute Boeing commercial but it did dump us out by this fun photo op.

We saw a submarine and made a sub out of plastic.

We acted like clowns and played some more. This thing Emma is doing was pretty cool. If you made a shape with your shadow that could hold stuff, it would fill it up with falling shadow pieces. Hard to explain,very cool to watch.

Our time at the museum was over. We weren't ready to go but we had to. We decided to finish the day at Navy Pier.

First things first, food! Mexican Food! 

         

Emma and I wanted to ride on the Ferris Wheel, the boys didn't. We ended up not going because it cost a lot of money and it moved very slowly. We opted for a sunset boat ride/architectural tour on the river instead. Emma is still sad that she didn't get to go on it.

         

        

At the end of the tour they take you out on the lake and race around for a few minutes. The kids loved that part the best.

Here is a view of the city through the sea spray. 

When we got back we found a place to sit and waited for the fireworks. It was very crowded and Andrew was D-O-N-E done. He didn't want to watch fireworks. He's seen enough this year. We stuck it out because I wanted to see them! 

The kids got creme filled churros and that helped him a little. 

The fireworks were fun but with them came mega crowds, which meant mega traffic, so we stayed and wandered around a bit. By that time I was done. It was still almost 90 degrees, very humid and my feet HURT. We stuck it out as long as we could before heading back to our hotel. What a busy, long, day.