FRIENDS, PHOTOGRAPHS, and Birthday FUN! 3/3 30 Day Photo Challenge Day 21

[-Hope-]

We are most definitely going DDP- I'll need all of my cash for drinks!

I'll have to look at the menu for Raglan Road but I'm sure it will be fine. When it comes to food I'm pretty easy to please.

 

[-Hope-]

Oooh, that looks GOOD! And I might have to indulge in that chocolate, with more chocolate thing on the dessert menu!

 

[-Hope-]

T-shirts are finished!

For our first day while traveling and at Navy Pier...

For the second day when we go to Legoland...

Kya doesn't have a shirt for Legoland. This is the same day we're going to American Girl and she has a sundress to wear instead. (Sorry, no pics. She was sleeping when I was doing this and I didn't want to go in her room to look for the dress.)

Our third day we'll go to The Field Museum of Natural History in the morning and have dinner at RFC that evening...

You may have noticed that Kya opted for tank tops instead of t-shirts. If you ever decide to use tank tops I would suggest doing the images at half-size. These turned out fine but I think they'd have looked better if the transfers were smaller.

In other news, the changes in time for our trains have given us plenty of time for the beach and a bit of shopping on Michigan Ave.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

THOSE ROCK!! I love them, I can't wait to see pics of the kids IN them IN Chicago!!!

 

[-Hope-]

Thanks! I can hardly wait either!

 

[Parla]

Can't wait to hear about the trip. We want to take a day for Adler here soon and DD would like to hit a beach. How do those work? We saw a ton from the top of John Hancock but I don't know if they are all open to the general public, costs and general rules.

 

[-Hope-]

Can't wait to hear about the trip. We want to take a day for Adler here soon and DD would like to hit a beach. How do those work? We saw a ton from the top of John Hancock but I don't know if they are all open to the general public, costs and general rules.

I'm going to try to start posting today about this trip. It was only four days but we fit AT LEAST a week's worth of fun into it. I spent most of the day yesterday just recovering, lol.

I'll give more details about our day at the beach later but I'll tell you that they are free and open to the public, rules are pretty much what you would expect at any public beach.

 

[DrMomof3]

Love the shirts!
Can't wait to hear details!!!

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

We had such a great time in Chicago that I'm still trying to recover! I usually like more laid back vacations but when you only have four days to do it all you just have to suck it up and go, go, go!

So, our first day started out very early. We had originally booked a train that left at 8:30 AM but an Amtrak rep called us a couple of weeks ago and said that due to track work they needed to change our time to 7:00 AM. We live about 2 hours from the station so we left the house at 4:15 to give us plenty of time to get there. We arrived at the train station in St. Louis at about 6:20 and went in to print out our tickets. I had an email confirmation with a bar code so I just found a kiosk and printed them out. I looked at the status of the train on the ticket and it said "Okay" and since we had no bags to check we made our way to the boarding area. As we were walking an Amtrak employee stopped us and asked to see our tickets. He looked at them and then informed us that our train had been delayed and wouldn't be arriving until at least 9:30! That's right, we'd arrived an hour and a half earlier than we'd originally booked just to wait around an extra two and a half hours.

Thankfully train stations are not as tightly secure as airports and the one in St. Louis is pretty small so our car was right outside. We had plenty of time to go get some breakfast and come back. We had no idea what was in the area so we used the GPS to look for something nearby. I like to try out local restaurants but it was early so the first two we tried were closed and we finally settled on St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera except in St. Louis). We had some coffee and pastries (first carbs of my vacation ) and read the complimentary Sunday paper.

After hanging out at Bread Co. for a while we made our way back to the station. It was still a little early but my dad had driven us up in my car and we wanted him to be able to get back home. The train station had an arcade, free wi-fi and good cell phone reception so it wasn't so bad.

We ended up leaving St. Louis at about 10:10- more than four hours late! The wait wasn't so bad but we had planned to go to Navy Pier that evening and it was looking like we might not have time to do that. I was trying really hard not to get upset, especially in front of the kids, but I was mad! I was mostly worried that because we only had a few days on this trip and this delay might mean not getting to do something we really wanted. Once we were on the train, settled in and (finally) on our way I pulled out my planning folder and tried to figure out what to do... and suddenly I had an idea.

I called RFC to see if we could get in at the last seating of the day and sure enough they had an 8:15 opening. So, we could do RFC tonight, Sunday, and push Navy Pier back until Tuesday. It was going to make Tuesday a pretty busy day but at least we didn't have to cut anything from our plans. With that taken care of I was able to enjoy the rest of the trip. It was a pretty empty train so we had room to stretch out and be comfortable. We played games, Mom and Kya watched a movie on the laptop, I read, Jace played his dsi and ipod touch and we napped to make up for our early morning.

We finally arrived in Chicago at around 5 PM. We had planned to take the eL to a stop near our hotel but Union Station in Chicago is much bigger than the station in St. Louis, more like a small airport, and we had a hard time locating the eL station. We didn't want to miss our dinner reservations so we decided to just take a cab. We found that when you have only have a few blocks to go that a cab is actually about the same price as paying for tickets on public transportation for four people so this worked out really well- and since we discovered that for us it was actually pretty economical we took cabs several other times that week when we didn't have far to go but didn't have time to walk due to a tight schedule. Since the cab ride was so quick we made it to our hotel room at about 5:45.

We were at the Essex Inn on Michigan Ave. right across from Grant Park. Our room was on the 11th floor and had wonderful views of Lake Michigan, The Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium...

As well as The Field Museum and Soldier Field...

We actually had a few minutes to relax before heading out to dinner... and that's just what we did!

ETA: These pics of the lake, museums, etc. from our hotel room are taken through tinted windows so the quality of the pics isn't that great but I wanted you to see our view.

Up next... dinner at RFC!

 

[Parla]

WTG not blowing your top with that delay!

What a beautiful view! Did you request that?

 

[-Hope-]

WTG not blowing your top with that delay!

What a beautiful view! Did you request that?

Thanks! I was pretty proud of myself for keeping it together.

I didn't request the room, we just lucked out. We even booked through Expedia at a huge discount so I wouldn't have expected anything so amazing. Completely and totally lucky!

 

[-Hope-]

Sorry I haven't updated in a couple of days, it's been so busy around here this summer! I left off as we'd arrived in Chicago, checked into our room at the Essex Inn and were ready for dinner at RFC!!

The restaurant was only a few blocks from the hotel but we were exhausted after dealing with Amtrak all day so we took a cab. Within minutes we saw this...

Our reservation was at 8:15 and we arrived at around 8:00. The theming was great! We found the check in station...

After we checked in we were seated almost immediately (hurray for calling ahead from the train). On the way to our table we saw that Cha Cha was in the gift shop but didn't go over to meet him- but we didn't see him again later so I wish we'd taken the time to let the kids meet him.

We were given a great table in the corner right in front of the waterfall...

The hostess gave us two adult and two kids menus. The kids also got crayons with theirs. The smaller piece of paper was our reservation 'passport'. Like I said, good theming, right down to the smallest details.

It had been a long day and I wasn't driving so I ordered a white peach sangria. I sucked it down without even thinking to take a picture but it was gorgeous- and delicious!

When our waitress took our drink order I showed her that we had the Cha Cha goal calendars from the website and she didn't question us on the kids ages at all. I'd prepared the kids that they might not get to use them but since they both only wanted kids sized portions said we'd try anyway. The goal charts are a calendar where the kids set their own goal for a month and then when they meet it and bring it in they get a 99 cent kids meal (with a paid adult entree). Jace set his goal to exercise 90 minutes a week for the month of June and Kya wanted to read 7 chapter books for the month. They both met their goal and got the 99 cent meal- which included unlimited refills on their drink!

Sorry, but the food all has bites taken out because it was a long day and our first meal and I'd almost forgotten to take pics of our food!

Jace had pizza...

Kya had roast chicken with corn...

Mom decided to try the fish tacos. She said they were very good!

I had the blackened tilapia with mango salsa, coconut shrimp with sweet chili dipping sauce and grilled shrimp in cream sauce. Oh. my. goodness. This was DELICIOUS!

We had planned to get a volcano for dessert but we were all STUFFED and decided against it. The kids were okay with this because our entire meal was paid for with My Points gift cards and I told them that whatever we had left after paying for our meal they could spend in the gift shop.

After paying (mom used cash for the tip) we had enough to give the kids $30 each! They were so excited. It was a long day and I was tired so I didn't get pics of everything but my kids are good shoppers so they got a haul!

Jace got: a souvenir golf ball to add to his collection (he has one from almost every vacation we've been on) a really cool hydro clock that has batteries that only work when filled with water, a souvenir plushy top hat and... a shot glass! He was looking at them and said, "I've always wanted one of these," so I told him to go for it.

Kya found the clearance rack and made out like a bandit! She got: a t-shirt, a tank top, a hoodie and this hat...

We hopped a cab back to the hotel and collapsed into a much needed sleep! We needed our rest because the next morning we were headed to American Girl Place!

 

[DrMomof3]

What an amazing view!!!
That sounds like a really long day. You did great at Rainforest!!! I'm going to get a GC for there from mypoints, too.

Amanda

 

[Parla]

Great update!

I am so at Jace and always wanting a shot glass. He may be growing into a different souvenir collection than the golf balls. Seriously though I wish my kids would pick something and collect it. Their rooms just get full of odds and ends that I want to toss. If my son had a golf ball collection it would always be on his floor for me to trip on when I'm putting laundry away.

Love Kya's hat!

Their faces were so close together in that picture it was easy to tell they're brother and sister.

 

[-Hope-]

What an amazing view!!!
That sounds like a really long day. You did great at Rainforest!!! I'm going to get a GC for there from mypoints, too.

Amanda

Thanks Amanda! It was a long day but worth it in the end. We actually had three GC since the largest you can get is $50. We had two $50 and a $25. In hindsight we could have made due with just the two $50 and saved the other points for something else. But if we'd gotten a volcano, mom had ordered a drink, we'd used the card for the tip or not gotten the 99 cent kids meal we'd have needed it so I decided to err on the side of caution and then let the kids have fun in the gift shop.

Great update!

I am so at Jace and always wanting a shot glass. He may be growing into a different souvenir collection than the golf balls. Seriously though I wish my kids would pick something and collect it. Their rooms just get full of odds and ends that I want to toss. If my son had a golf ball collection it would always be on his floor for me to trip on when I'm putting laundry away.

Yeah, golf balls on the floor could be hazardous! My dad actually built him a shelf to hold the ball and drilled little holes in it to hold the balls in place. It works great!

Love Kya's hat!

Their faces were so close together in that picture it was easy to tell they're brother and sister.

It's always a challenge to get those pics. Kya doesn't really like PDA and even I only get kisses and hugs at bedtime. Sometimes when I say, "Pretend you like each other," she'll play along and let me get a pic of them close together- but not always!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I would have been so mad about the train delay!!!! It's like c'mon people....get your act together!!!! Did you guys like the train ride, though? I know you said everyone did their own thing.....I think I would have been facinated just looking out the window.

Your RC pics are sooo cute! I, too, love Kya's hat!!!!

 

[-Hope-]

I would have been so mad about the train delay!!!! It's like c'mon people....get your act together!!!! Did you guys like the train ride, though? I know you said everyone did their own thing.....I think I would have been facinated just looking out the window.

Your RC pics are sooo cute! I, too, love Kya's hat!!!!

We did enjoy the ride and I've since decided that if you are willing to accept the experience as part of the vacation and aren't just looking to get from point a to point b as quickly as possible then the train isn't so bad. Sometimes I just want efficiency but other times I'd be willing to endure the delays for the experience.

Thank you! RFC was lots of fun and I can't wait to go to T-Rex in KC now!

 

[-Hope-]

I was totally going to update about American Girl Place and added a table of contents to my first post instead.

I'll get to it, I promise!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Wow! Your first day certainty was a busy one! I was sorry to hear about your train delay, but that was great that you were able to change your RFC reservations. The food looked outstanding! I wish we still had RFC in my area. Oh, and the view from your room was beautiful!

 

[-Hope-]

Wow! Your first day certainty was a busy one! I was sorry to hear about your train delay, but that was great that you were able to change your RFC reservations. The food looked outstanding! I wish we still had RFC in my area. Oh, and the view from your room was beautiful!

Thanks Erin! It was a super busy day but also fun. The train wasn't so bad, it just took much longer than expected, changing the RFC ressie definitely helped. and Yes, the view was great!