We all woke up roughly around the same time. We looked at eating downstairs for the continental breakfast, but the slight fee for extras
. DH decided to go to
instead. I was thankful, they are so yummy.
After packing, getting dressed, and eating we were ready to start the day. On our drive, we passed some pretty expensive housed on main roads. I couldn't believe that million dollar looking houses were facing busy streets. I read in one of the tour books that there was a Frank Lloyd Wright house nearby. Its from his Prairie collection. As old as the house was, we were all amazed how modern it looked for its time. I thought it would be some thing we could go in and visit. Once we drove by, there would be no way we could see it b/c some one lives in it. So, we got to drive around it and see it the best we could. Where was this house located? On a main road facing the street
.
According to Garmeanie, we were close to Lake MI. So, we kept driving toward the water. We found a park. The kids were more than overjoyed to see it too. We let them play a bit and dh found steps, a lot of them.
The steps lead down to the water. Well, this water girl was anxious to see it, so as TJ slept and Grandma stayed behind, the rest of us went to see the water. We talked about the tide and how waves become waves. We couldn't stay long since we had things to do. Well, dh counted the steps and there were about 100 of them. After reaching the top, I realized how out of shape I am
. At the park we saw chipmunks (Chip and Dale) and squirrels too. One squirrel was greedy enough to get our bag of trash out of the tall trash can. I noticed the bag laying near the fir tree. I didn't think MIL put it there. We tried to see if they'd try and take it out again, however, we had things to do and places to go. After leaving the park, we were on our way to downtown Chicago.
We arrived downtown and circled around and around a couple times. You'd think that the Hershey store would be on the main road, it wasn't. It was along another main road perpendicular to the one we were on so, we passed it a couple times. We finally decided to park and the building we happened to park in... the John Hancock building. We parked on the 10th floor. Well, after getting back to city level, we walked, and walked, and walked the rest of the day. We still needed to find the
store. We walked north, we walked south, and still didn't find it. DH is pretty good about directions, but since we're in foreign territory, none of us had a clue. I broke down and approached some one with a badge on their sleeve. Lucky for me it was a police officer. I asked her where the Hershey store was and she was glad to tell me along with other touristy tid bits. I had a great sigh of relief as we finally walked into the Hershey store. It was neat smelling the chocolate fragrance pumped through the store.
There wasn't too much in the store that you can't get in any other store chocolate wise. When you walk in there's a display of mega Hershey bars.... Needless to say, that was an item we walked away with. What' s funny, across the street was
(This isn't my image.)
there are iron tables and chairs out front. DH bought a hot cappuccino. The sample for the day was chocolate with a peanut butter center. It was yummy.
After eating our samples, we started walking again, but this time toward the water. We decided to check out the Navy Pier. We walked a good ways and the kids did very well until we reached the Navy Pier. OH, I forgot lunch! We went inside the information station (which the police officer told me about) and I asked about things to do. We all started getting hungry by the time we got to the info table, so we asked about getting hotdogs. She advised not to get our lunch from the Navy Pier, but to go two blocks over from where we were. We found the hotdog place and ate outside listening to the city. There was one or multiple ambulances going up and down the street. The kids couldn't get over the noise and how many people they saw. We went there for hotdogs ,but there were other good foods on the menu. There was some Mexican food I wouldn't mind going back for. But, again, we had to leave.
O.k, back to Navy Pier.
We walked the pier and saw multiple dinner cruise ships. There was one tall ship we saw as we made our way back up from the pier. When we got the end of the pier the kids asked, is this it?! We talked about the lighthouse and the pavilion behind us. I spotted Navy sailors, but I leaned over and asked dh, pssst, where's the ships? There were no ships in sight... really. We talked about going on the ferris wheel for a very brief moment.
Here's a photo I took at the end of the pier, looking back toward the city.
As we started our walk back up the pier, we made it mid way and heard a BIG bang. It was the tall ship coming back from its voyage. It fired a blank and freaked the kids out good, myself included. The sails weren't up, but the kids thought it was still neat to see.
look I hijacked another photo
We caught the trolley back to town. My feet were grateful. The kids loved sitting up front with the driver. When we got on, there weren’t a lot of people, but by this time it was after 5pm and people were ready to leave the pier. Our next stop, we picked up a trolley load of people.
Remember the nice information lady I told you all about? Well, she also said we could go to the observation floor of the John Hancock tower. What a cowinkedink~ we were parked there already!
We walked our way back to the JH tower passing stores I'll probably never step foot in. After entering the JH tower, I asked, how we should get to the Observation floor. The security guy acted like he had a secret to tell us. He said, go to the bar/restaurant on the 96th floor, order a drink, and be sure to visit the ladies restroom. He said price wise it'd be cheaper. So, as the sun just started to set, we went up to the 96th floor.
(borrowed image)
The sun was setting as we received our drinks. The girls got Shirley Temples, ds got a Sprite, DH got a soda, and mom and I had an adult beverage. I knew I should've gotten a Godiva Chocolate Martini. MIL and I went to visit the restroom and the view was breathtaking. The stalls are along the wall, but the wall outside the stalls were huge floor to ceiling plate glass. I could see the Navy Pier and the route we walked.
After the sun went down, we took the elevator back down to the 10th floor where our journey began that day. We all loaded back into the van and headed home ending our two day journey in Chicago.
Side note: There is no beautiful view of the city from the men's room. DH said support beams must be there (since the building is mostly glass).
he is a bad boy tonight I'm glad that your keys are in your purse
Yes, DH sure is a bad boy tonight. 
I understand about your computer. Mine's been acting like that too.
I don't know how long I will stay it is driving me crazy
Soon I hope we can chat moreThat'd be quite a drive to the Disney Store, bummer.
and for H to be 
We already have to pooh costume that E wore a couple of years ago. H looks so cute in it.
