Our Family Summer Vacation To Chi-Town!!! June 2011

Hello all, 
Well...whew.... I just got back from Chicago! My little family and I went on a short 3 days and 2 night vacation  in the "Windy City" and we had a wonderful  time being together, eating, shopping and checking out the street performers and the Parks after dark! It started out with Amy driving her "Cube" and we were the passengers!She wanted to do it and with Craig as her co-pilot, she got us to Chicago safely and we had a wonderfully long drive together listening all the while to Amy's Ipod songs!!  Craig  enjoyed being in the back seat. I enjoyed the extra space in the front seat for my pain /legs /feet . I think Amy just enjoyed being "in charge" of the driving as far as she wanted to go. She ended up driving the whole time and all the way there and most of the way home too!
      We met up with my Cousin and his wife who live there and all had dinner the first night at "Bubba Gumps". It was good, but not quite as yummy as we had remembered from the last time we went there to eat when we visited Chicago. They had wanted  us to go the "Taste of Chicago" which was also going on in  Grant park during our visit; but we just had our heart set on "Bubba Gumps". I think we disappointed my cousin by not wanting to go, but we are just not "well-travelled" eaters and we don't enjoy "outdoor, carnival style type food courts". We'd had our plans and really just wanted to do what we'd decided as a family that we just wanted to do.
     Well, first we arrived and it was a wonderful drive with Amy at the wheel. The longest part of the drive seemed to be when we got near Chicago. The roads clogged up and it seemed to really take a long time to get to our destination. 
      We finally arrived first at Millenium Park and took Amy to see the "Bean". The big large statue of a "Bean" is made from Molton Mercury and has become a big attraction site in Chicago and people come from all over the world to see this "Bean".  The fun part is looking up into the middle of it and seeing how very far it seems to go on ...like forever! You can see yourself in it and you are all distorted. There's a restaurant there and it's just something fun to do. I  think everyone should see it at least once in their lifetime, as it's a great photo opportunity and conversation piece.
     Next, we headed on over to our hotel on Rush St.,  which was just around the corner from the "Magnificant Mile", the shopping district. I had tried to bring my motorized scooter, as I have for all trips since our car accident in 2002, in which I was permanently disabled due to a driver running a red light and hitting our van and "totaling" it. 
     The hotel was wonderful, just as we remembered it from last time we visited. Everything was the same but some parts were even better! We brought a big air mattress for Amy and Craig and I had a King sized bed...we all watched movies /tv at night time and that was nice to be all together too! 
    We had breakfast one day at a great little well known place there in Chi-town called "Egg-sperience" and we had to wait a long time and the service was pretty slow, but the food was phenomenal! YUMMY chocolate chip pancakes for Amy and ...and....Umm... well I cannot remember what I had, but I'm sure it was yummy too....and Craig??? Well, he'll eat anything so it could have been any number of breakfast foods for him! LOL...The 2nd morning we found a "Panera" bread /coffee and sat outdoors and had our lovely coffee and a strawberry scone and it was blissful!
     We got on our way and went to the Magnificent Mile the 2nd morning after breakfast. It was a day full of shopping and fun filled experiences together as a family once again! I loved it and it seems as though Craig spent most of his time out on the street sitting with other guys waiting for their girls to shop til they drop!! LOL...Amy and I are "seasoned shoppers" and well....we took our time and she got some sandals and a few tops and I got a few things too!! All in all we had a great time and even got to see a few of the street performers pretending to be statues and/or playing instruments on the street corner or even being a  "balloon maker" was one young man's "extra job"... to help put him through college!
    We had a great dinner and of course we sat outdoors as we always try to do especially when on vacation! The weather stayed pretty well sunny and warm for us and we really enjoyed ourselves! The very last day we headed up to the Navy Pier and checked out the waterfront and some of the scenery and little shops up there, took some pictures and then headed home! It was time to leave our mini vacation but we had a wonderful time there and a fun and great car ride getting to and from Chicago also! I should add that technology sure has helped those long car rides become seemingly shorter! I love my Iphone and my Ipod and guess I don't know what I would do without them AND my computer now!! LOL
   Thanks for sharing my Chicago Vacation with me and I hope you'll stop back again soon! Mostly because after we returned from Chicago; I barely got time to let my extra pain *(from doing so much more than usual), have time to settle down a bit before they wanted to take me on another adventure!!!!!!! Stop by soon and check out where we went for our Fourth of July day trip! It was really fun and we had a blast there also! I love my little family and we all get along so well and I don't know what I'd do without these 2 in my life! Thanks all...have a blessed day....Suzanne

the three of us at dinner in Chicago!

Me and my hubby living the good life!

Mom and daughter having fun on the Navy Pier in Chi-town!

Having fun in Chicago 2011