Chicago - Day Three

We slept in a little on our last day, but felt anxious to get up and moving since we didn't have a lot of time before we'd have to board the plane home.

The night before we'd checked into changing flights and possibly staying one more day. The fee for changing was astronomical, so we decided to leave things as they were. But then we had a luggage dilemma. We'd be checked out of our hotel with our two carry-ons. We could leave them at the hotel until we were ready for them, but it was an hour round trip to retrieve them. We certainly didn't want to lug them onto the train and around Chicago! No hotels in the area of the airport would let us leave them for any amount of money and thanks to an evil band of terrorists, we couldn't leave them at the airport. Unless...

It cost us $23 dollars a bag to check our carry-ons. Skyway robbery! But we really didn't have any other options. We checked our 2 bags at the curb, entered the airport, went down to the trains and left the airport. We knew that if we asked if we could do that, we'd be in a rut, so we just left that question out.

We knew right where we wanted to go for our "Thai Food dinner turned lunch" because we'd plotted our route the night before. The biggest trick was trying to orient ourselves once we came up from the subway. Much of the Chicago train runs above ground and is elevated. Downtown, it's a subway. And when those folks get off the trains/subways, no one is strolling along. It's a push for the exit! We were chugging up the stairs out of the subway and I was sure that my legs would not survive one more lift. It didn't help that I was carrying Sarah and the diaper bag and Chad had the umbrella stroller. (How did that happen?) Oh well, I should at least be forced to exercise occasionally.

We arrived at the Thai restaurant a little before their opening time - 11AM. They welcomed us in and we were their first customers of the day. It was a beautiful restaurant and smelled heavenly! We ordered some of our standards so we could compare. It was very good, but I'm happy to say that our hometown Thai restaurant is cheaper and better tasting. :)

When we first arrived at the restaurant, we noticed a bus pulling away from a stop out front...head directly to Navy Pier...where we wanted to go next. We hadn't braved a bus ride yet, but we decided to jump on after our lunch. The buses and trains use the same pass so it was very convenient. It was a short ride and we were there.

We figured we had less than two hours before we had to start heading back. True to form, I let this hang over me, worrying that we'd underestimate our time or that there would be a problem with the transportation and we'd miss our flight. I did not enjoy myself like I should have.

The first thing we did when we got there was shop for gifts for the kids. After all, the first thing they asked us when they learned we were going somewhere was if we'd be bringing back presents. Isn't having your parents home safe and sound good enough? No, not when you're a kid.

After shopping, Sarah got her lunch in a quite corner, then we headed out to enjoy the sunshine and the pier. We were there just a couple of days before things would really get busy for the season. Bad for tourists, good for someone who doesn't enjoy throngs of people (that would be me).


When we headed back out (I probably irritated Chad with my anxiousness), we found a bus that would take us to the right train (the one headed to the airport). Like a couple of unsure tourists, we let the driver know what our intention was and he very kindly let us know which stop we should be looking for.

That was a very long bus ride and the farther we went, the more crowded it got. The more crowded it got, the hotter it got. So pleasant. It was very nice to get to the train stop and descend into the cool nether regions of Chicago's transit system.

I think Sarah was happy to be there, too. Maybe she was just happy. No wonder she caught so many admiring eyes! It was a very long plane ride home. Sarah didn't sleep as well this time and the flight was over an hour longer. I don't know how I get so lucky in my seat arrangements, but it seems like I ALWAYS get the wing. Such a great view there. We had the exact same seats going and coming.

I was a little concerned when prior to take-off in Chicago, the flight crew had to spend some extra time redistributing weight (moving luggage from below the plane, to the cabin) due to the extra fuel they had in the plane. They were carrying extra fuel because the weather in SLC was poor and there was a chance we'd be stuck in the air for a bit, waiting for a chance to land.

We landed in Salt Lake in a snow storm. My mom met us there with the kids and we headed home. That stinker snow storm followed us all the way to the border where it suddenly vanished. I was glad, too, because I was driving and it was getting tricky.

I like to go places and have new experiences, create new memories, etc. But it's really the best feeling to come home. Someday, I'll come home to a clean house. I'll need a little help from the troops before that dream becomes a reality.

Chicago - Day Two

On our 2nd day in Chicago, Chad spent the day in a steel seminar. (I know, I doesn't sound real exciting to me, either.) Because the hotel was an hour away from the city, I hung out at the hotel with Sarah.

We slept in, got dressed at a leisurely pace and enjoyed a nap. It was kind of nice to have some quiet time like that. Very low stress! Any more than one day of this luxury probably would have driven me crazy.


In order to make the best use of time, I met Chad downstairs and we boarded the 5 PM shuttle to make our trek into the city. If he had taken time to run up to the room to change or drop anything off, we would have had to wait an hour for the next shuttle. He excused himself a tiny bit prematurely as it was.

After we got seated on the train and were waiting for it to depart, we studied a map and tried to figure out what stop to ride to and where to go after that. A guy behind us noticed our obvious tourist behavior and asked us where we were headed. When we told him we wanted to go to the Willis Tower (previously known as the Sears Tower), he gave us very helpful directions. I was glad he was so nosey and skilled at eaves dropping! We found the tower without any problem.

It's 110 stories high. That's a little bit taller than the tallest building in Eastern Idaho (and I don't even know what building that would be).


Proof that Chad was there. :)


The observation deck is on the 103rd floor. It was a very fast elevator ride and my ears popped the whole way up.

We were VERY lucky to have such good weather and great views from the top. It was impressive to see Chicago from such a height. What a big, beautiful city.

There are 3 glass balconies that stick out from the building and give you a look out to the street below. Of course, you are so far up, that it doesn't even look like anything. It didn't even seem real to me since it was so unrecognizable.

Here is a shot of my foot on the glass floor.
Chad got one of Sarah and I standing in the balcony. I think Chad was a little hesitant to step inside. He knows too much about engineering, I guess. As for me, "ignorance is bliss."

This is Sarah in the glass balcony as I leaned over from behind her.

Another view of the city...from the balcony.

I remembered this sculpture from the street near where we emerged from the train/subway.
And then I found it from 103 stories up in the air (top 1/4 of the photo, center). Perspective is an amazing thing.


When we finally came back down to earth, it was time for the 2nd attempt at finding a Thai restaurant. We asked the woman in the gift shop; she had no idea. We asked the guy in the lobby of the tower. He really wanted to be helpful. He didn't know where we could find a phone book, but did we have an iphone? No. (We have 6 kids and a few farm animals. We haven't made the leap to iphones yet.) We thanked him and set off to search for ourselves.

We did a lot of walking that night. We didn't find a Thai restaurant. We wandered into a shopping complex/mall and got a table at the only eatery still open: Mity Nice Grill. Find a review of it here. I felt a little windblown and under dressed, but we survived. Sarah got more smiles and comments/questions, further confirming my suspicions that there are no cute babies in Chicago.

I have to admit that my "worry wart" gene was in overdrive and all I could think of was making sure we ate fast enough to get out of there and walk back to the subway in time to catch the train back to the airport so the shuttle driver wouldn't leave without us. What a way to enjoy myself!

My feet were sore after all of our sprinting around. I was extra grateful for the restful day I'd had before!

By now, we'd had enough shuttle rides to become more familiar with our driver. His name was Octavio. It was his birthday this day...he turned 37. We were the same age. We asked him about where he was from, talked about his kids and shocked him with a picture of ours. He couldn't believe we had that many and we were only 36. :) We left him a b-day treat on his seat that night. I thought about him for several days after we'd returned. He was a nice guy.

Incidentally, courtesy shuttle does NOT mean free. The driver does expect tips. We didn't come prepared the first time, but we made up for it later. (Maybe that's why he got friendlier!) Some things you don't learn while feeding chickens. Good thing we're quick studies.

When we got back to the hotel, we went straight to the computers and looked up WHERE the Thai restaurants were and HOW to get to one. With our route for the next day planned, we headed up to our room. Again, we slept very well.

Chicago - Day One

We had fun in Chicago recently. You may recall Chad's Valentine's Day secret message (go back to 16 Feb to read the original post) about Thai Food in Chicago. The real story is that there was a Steel seminar being given there during the week of our Spring Break. Chad presented a convincing case to his boss regarding the usefulness of attending that seminar and we started planning our trip. (There were seminars closer, but not during Spring Break when we could get away easier.)

We got my ticket out of Chad's frequent flyer miles and headed east. Actually, we headed south first. My mom watched the 5 oldest kids for us while we were gone those two nights. We flew out of Salt Lake on Monday at a decent hour (translate = I didn't have to get up early or rush out the door). It was Sarah's first plane ride.


She slept the whole way there. Sometimes her eyes opened, but she fell back to sleep before she ever fully woke up. I was actually a little surprised. The flight was 2 1/2 hours.

We arrived in Chicago about 2 PM. We didn't have to worry about collecting luggage since we packed light enough to fit everything into our carry-ons. We hurried up to wait for the shuttle to the hotel.

We booked a room at the hotel that was hosting the seminar because it just seemed like the easiest thing to do. Hindsight is a lovely thing. But it doesn't help the present. Which is what we found ourselves in at the time. The hotel was very nice, but in more of an industrial area with little to walk to or entertain a pedestrian. We were farther away from Chicago than we expected to be.

The shuttle was a twenty-minute ride one way. It left the hotel every hour on the hour, with the last departure leaving at 10 PM. In order to catch the train into the city, we had to go back to the airport. So by the time we checked in and caught a breath, we were getting on the 5 PM shuttle. The train ride into the best parts of Chicago takes at least 40 minutes. It was 6:30 by the time we bought our 3-day train passes, boarded the train and made it downtown. The shuttle driver warned us that his last pick-up at the airport was 10:30. If we weren't there, we'd have to hire a cab to get back. So of course, I have that stressful piece of information in the back of my mind the whole time.

Coming from a quiet, country life, the sky scrapers in Chicago were impressive. These were some shots we got our first night there.

It's not that I've never been in a big city before, but it's not a common thing for me. I really do prefer a little more sky line and less steel and glass. But still, it's impressive.

Now that we'd FINALLY made it to Chicago, we had a goal to find a Thai restaurant. Isn't that really the reason we'd come? wink, wink

The phone book listed TONS of Thai restaurants. It was a little deceiving. We expected to be able to walk down the street and find one. As it turned out, we couldn't even find anyone that knew what Thai food was! We were in Walgreens (there are as many Walgreens in Chicago as there are LDS churches in Salt Lake City) to buy the diapers I didn't want to pack and asked the clerk if she knew where a Thai food restaurant was.

She asked if that was like Asian food. I assured her that it was, and she gave us directions to a Panda Express, assuring me that it was delicious food. Once she said Panda Express, I stopped listening. I just thanked her. I wondered if she noticed that we went the opposite way of the directions she gave?

Eventually, we had to pick a place to eat so that we could get back to the airport in time. We found a little Italian place under the train tracks. It was quiet and only one homeless man came in while we were there. It seemed he was a regular.

They had free bread as an appetizer. I had some...as you can probably see.

The waitress was really nice. She was 20-something. She definitely seemed Italian and spoke like the typical stereotype. She gave Sarah plenty of attention. She said she had a niece that was chubby too, although she used much more colorful language.

It was a cold night and we had Sarah bundled up as well as we could...considering we were traveling light.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped by Dunkin' Donuts to take a dozen back to the hotel room. There wasn't any free breakfast at this hotel. They have almost as many Dunkin' Donuts as they do Walgreens. 7-11 seemed pretty popular, too. These are all things we just don't see much of around home.

The trains were loud, but much cleaner than I'd feared. Most people kept to themselves. We probably were screaming tourist, but what could we do? No one tried to mug us. Most interactions we had with people were because of Sarah. For three days, Sarah was the highlight: old people, young people, men, women. You'd think they don't have babies in Chicago. I never saw anyone under 5-ish on the trains the whole 3 days. Of course, Sarah is especially cute so I can see how they would be caught in her spell.

We made it back to the airport in time for the 9:30 shuttle. We slept good that first night!