
gather round friends, its story time

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Thursday, Sept. 18th-
We got going about 11ish not aware of any detouring we'd have to take. So, the usual 3 hour drive took 4 almost 4.5 hour drive instead. Even our navigator wanted to take us back to the highway, but we couldn't b/c there'd been flooding. So, imagine all the dinging saying "recalculating"- ding recalculating...

The kids then started started calling Garmin- Garmeanie, her true name. We followed some semis and wern't sure how far west or North they'd be going, but we knew instinctively that we'd get to Chicago one way or another. The drive was beautiful! It was very pleasant, the skies were blue with some clouds, the roads we took wern't too windy. The noise and the whine in the back however was abundant.
The kids know not to ask, "are we there yet?", so, they'll ask, how far is it were going or what time are we supposed to be there instead. Grandma ended up sitting in the back bench seat between two booster seats b/c all three older kids couldn't handle being in the same space. Poor Grandma.
Once we saw the Chicago skyline that's when traffic stopped. We didn't get to the outer edges until 4ish, their time. We didn't want to go downtown due to lack of time. Instead we went to the Botanical gardens.
The kids were anxious and I was glad to be out of the van. Admittance was free, but the parking and the train section were not.
We walked in the gardens and I felt like I was in a movie. It was beautiful. The lighting for taking pictures was fantastic! It was breath taking seeing various plants and vegetation.
There was a lot to see. The kids were able to run around and get their sillies out while we adults got to enjoy nature. The Botanical Garden received rains from Hurricane Ike and there in sections of the park you could see high water, brown spots (mud) on low lying plants, and flooding. There were a couple low spots where you could walk and look out on to the water, well, those walks were covered with water. We walked some more saw asian plants- the area with a zen feel.
There was a european themed section and near it was the train area. Even the girls got excited to see Thomas the Train running on a track. That's where we shelled out cash to see the trains and I'm glad we did.
Can you see the trolly?
I don't know much about trains, but the ones they used were "G" sized G for gi-normous-lol. G scale trains are larger. The tains run on copper lines since they don't pull up the trains during the winter (or part of it any way). The train area is themed so we saw Wriggley field, Lombard Street from San Francisco, the White House, the Statue of Liberty and some other landmarks such as Mount Rushmore and Mt. Saint Helen.
By the time we got back to the entrance we were so ready to get to the hotel. We were bushed. We unpacked and went back and forth between the two rooms at least 10 times comparing basically the same room. LOL. We searched Garmeanie for a pizza place and the first one it came up with was so not where we wanted to be. It didn't look authentic enough. The second one we found (insert name here) was good. It didn't have a butter crust, but it was still good.
After dinner every one but grandma and TJ went to the pool. DH and I had a great time swimming and playing with the kids. We even made a friend. He was a young man who had one drink or more. I kinda kept my eye on him. He and the kids eventually made waves by cannonballing into the pool at the same time. I think the young guy was just lonely and wanted some company. The kids warmed up to him, but again, I kept a very close eye on the kids too.
By the time bath time was done after swimming, it was time for bed. We didn't set an alarm for the next day.
End of day one.