Chicago
April 12th, 2009
Up early and on the road we struck out for Chicago. The flatlands of Illinois lulled us for eight hours so that it was quite a shock as we tried to negotiate Michigan Avenue to our hotel. Lilly kept asking if something special was going on because of all the people, traffic, confusion, horns, and excitement. (Nope, just a big city.) The girls were amazed by our hotel room (a suite thanks to Hot Wire) and spent 15 minutes dancing around singing praises to the best and fanciest hotel ever. After a quick dip in the pool on the 30th floor, we bundled up and walked down Rush Street for dinner at Buca di Beppo’s. The girls got quite a kick out of the tour of the kitchen by a loquacious host.
First stop Sunday morning was the new American Girl Place. The girls’ giddy excitement was brought to a disappointing and dramatic halt when we discovered that AG was closed on Easter Sunday. In fact, we discovered that a great many shops on the Magnificent Mile were closed due to the holiday. Nonetheless, we had fun walking around. We had lunch at Big Bowl (sorely missed after it’s closing in Middleton) and then had a look at the Tribune building with the many foreign and historical building blocks sent into its wall. Next to a block from the Alamo, Maeve innocently asked about a nearby installation. I had to inform her that it was simply a hookup for a fire hose.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in at the Hershey store, where Lilly professed over and over that her “absolute favorite” candy was the Hershey Bar. I overheard whispered plans about sneaking back in the middle of the night to eat everything in the store. The girls had an afternoon swim and then we ordered a Giordanno’s pizza and ate in the room.