Chicago Days 1-3, Willis Tower Sky Deck, The Bean, Millennium Park, Surgical Museum, Chinatown, Art Museum, Shedd Aquarium

 Things have been crazy busy.  I am just now finding time to update the blog.  After Josh came home from Chicago he wanted to take us all back to show us what his mission was like.  We wanted to see it for ourselves, too.  We priced it out between driving and flying.  Amazingly enough we scored some cheaper plane tickets so flying won out this time.  We left EARLY morning on July 23.  Travel days seem to be a hard day for our family--patience seems to run short between everyone on these days.  It didn’t help that we had been up to 11 pm packing and needed to be up by 3:30 am....However, we made it to the airport with some time to spare.  

Day 1:

We flew into Chicago, Ohare airport that afternoon.  We then picked up a rental car and got on with our trip.  We made it to Chicago!!

By this time everyone was STARVING so we stopped by Portillos which is a Chicago street food staple.  It has even been featured on the Food Channel’s show ‘Diners Drive Ins and Dives’ so you know it has to be good--haha!  We ordered the dipped Italian beef sandwich and it was great.  We also got two large chocolate cake shakes so we could all sample it.  Everyone LOVED it.

Next we drove to downtown.  We drove under the Chicago Stock Exchange Building:

We then found some parking and visited the Shedd Aquarium.  As you walk in the door they have you pose in front of a green screen and then put up different backgrounds trying to entice you to buy the picture.  We didn’t buy any pictures, but here’s what the thumbnail looked like:

The actual aquarium was pretty cool to see.  Here’s just some of the things we saw while we were there:

When we were done we went outside and walked around.  The Shedd Aquarium is right up next to Lake Michigan with a sweet skyline:

Here’s the front of the Shedd Aquarium.  We had a fun time there.

Next we went and visited with Josh’s Mission President and Companion the Chases and their daughter.  It was fun getting to know them.  

Sister Chase was excited to be able to finally give Josh a hug.  While Josh was a missionary hugs from opposite sex people weren’t allowed so now he is released she was able to give him a hug.

After visiting with the Chases we went and drove by the mission office which was close by.  This is the address all his packages got sent to:

While we were there we also got to see some lightning bugs.  I was super excited about seeing them, but no one else shared my enthusiasm, though.  Oh well I still think they were pretty cool!  I even caught one to look at it:

After that we checked into our hotel and settled for the night.  

Day 2:

The next morning we woke up bright and early to make the hour drive in from our hotel to see the sites of the city.  Luckily, Josh had served a big chunk of his mission in the YSA (Young Single Adult) ward which meets in the downtown Clark Street Building.  Don’t tell anyone, but we used the coded underground garage of the Clark Street building to park every day.  It was an awesome central point and was free.  Wahoo!  After parking you join up with the lower level foyer which is street level to the city.  This is what the street view looks like of the Clark Street Building:

We walked a couple blocks to the closest subway station and started riding around:

Riding the subway was always an adventure in all the senses sight, sound, touch, smell--we never did try taste though--haha!

We stopped to see the iconic Chicago Theater sign:

We then rode over to Millennium Park and saw this cool fountain:

We then walked over and saw the Bean.  The real name for this sculpture is Cloud Gate.  It was cool to see!

This is what it looks like from underneath:

Next to the Bean was this school splash pad.  Josh had wanted to try it out, but wasn’t able to when he was a missionary.  He made sure to try it out this time.

We walked over and also saw Buckingham Fountain:

We then went to the Skydeck at the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower).  It is on the 103rd floor and is 1,353 feet tall.  My ears popped a few times riding up on the super fast elevator.  At the top they had this cool sequin sign we got to try out:

Next it was our turn to try stepping out onto one of the 6 glass pods they have that jut out over the city.  I have a fear of heights so this was really anxiety inducing for me!!  Here’s what it looked like as you stepped out:

You had 90 seconds in the glass pod before they kicked you out. However, we had gotten the Chicago City pass which let us get back in line as many times as we wanted to so we could keep trying it out.  To show you what was really scary--the glass all around you even the glass you step on is only 1.5” thick.  This is how thin it is:

Sarah and I found it terrifying.  We didn’t spend too much time on the ledge, but everyone else thought it was awesome.  This is the view straight down:

They do take a picture of you so we did get a copy of that.  What you can’t see is how terrified Sarah and I are in this picture:

Everyone tried different poses on the ledge.  Yes, it took multiple trips through the line, but it was fun:

Aaron, Josh and Noah thought it would be cool to get a jumping picture.  I had a hard time watching it unfold, but everything was fine.

Aaron sweet talked me out on the ledge for a couple picture, but that didn’t last very long until I noped right out of there--haha!

I couldn’t take it and had to get off the glass!

They tried to recreate the scene from Ferris Beuler’s Day Off:

By the time we left the SkyDeck Sarah was in tears.  She was done being up so high.  

Next we went over to the Art Institute of Chicago.  We got to see some cool famous paintings like a Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte by Seuret:

Aaron wanted to recreate this scene from Ferris Beuler’s Day Off.  Whatever--haha!

I think we could be body doubles, right?!  Haha!

Here’s some of the other cool paintings we saw including ones from Van Gogh, Grant Wood (American Gothic), Monet, etc:

Nighthawks and The Child’s Bath paintings:

Next we then rode the El train over to Chinatown. 

Josh liked visiting Chinatown when he was a missionary and wanted to show us around.  We walked around for a bit.

We then grabbed lunch at an authentic place called Joy Yee Noodles.  It was pretty good.

Walking around we all found our Chinese Zodiac sign statue.  Josh is a Ram:

Noah is a Tiger:

I am a Snake:

Sarah is a Rat:

Daniel is a Rooster:

Aaron is a Horse:

We also stopped to try some rolled ice cream.  It was cool to watch them make it:

It was fun sharing two bowls, too.  We were all pretty full from lunch so two bowls were plenty!!

Aaron had Sarah and me stop by this sign for a picture, too:

After this we headed back and visited the downtown Chicago Public Library.  For some reason I didn’t get any pictures here, but it was a very old, classic building from the outside. The inside was a bit run down, but it was still cool to see.

At this point all our feet were hurting from so much walking.  We then drove the hour back to the hotel and soaked our feet in the hot tub the rest of the evening.  It was great.

Day 3:

We got up early the next morning drove the hour in and parked at the Clark Street Church building.  We then hit public transit and visited the Surgical museum.  It was a smaller museum, but still pretty interesting.  They had an old iron lung that the kids found fascinating:

Throughout the museum they had a historical timeline of different advances in surgery.  I am so glad I am living now and not 200 years ago!!

Here’s some different spinal needle designs:

After that we took the Subway out to Wrigley Field.  Again I can say riding the subway was always an adventure--haha!

We would have loved to have seen a Cubs game, but at $70+ a ticket we settled for just seeing the outside of the stadium.

Next we went over to Lincoln Park.  They have the free Lincoln Park Zoo which was pretty cool to see.  For it being a free museum it was very nicely kept up and had quite a variety of different animals/insects/amphibians to see 

After meandering around the zoo we walked over to a cool nature walkway/boardwalk Josh showed us.  He said when he was a missionary he would try to contact people on this walkway.  It had a cool view of the skyline:

We had to kids walk over to the bridge and got a picture of them in front of the skyline. It was so far away you could hardly see them, though:

Here it is zoomed in so you can see them on the bridge:

There were some other cool things to see along the boardwalk.  We stopped to take a picture of a few of them:

This whole day Josh was trying to set up a visit with an older Spanish Sister that always fed the missionaries.  It is still crazy to hear him speak Spanish:

We were able to meet up with her at her daughter’s home.  Her name is Hermana Maria Arreguin.  She was really sweet. She wanted to make us dinner, but we had an appointment for something else later that night and couldn’t stay too long.  We did get to visit for a bit, though.  She spoke broken English, but we could understand most of it.  She was really sweet.  That was pretty cool.  I am so grateful for sisters like her that really took care of the missionaries!

After our visit with Sister Arreguin we made our way back to the Clark Street Church building.  Awesomely enough the upstairs was open because of a young single adult activity.  Usually the upstairs is locked so you can’t get anywhere higher than the street level when the church is locked.  Since they were having an activity that meant we could go and take a quick peak at the chapel, classrooms, kitchen and the outdoor patio.  It was beautiful.  It really is in downtown Chicago!  This is where Josh came to church while serving in the YSA ward.  Here’s some pictures:

After that we headed over to have dinner at Giordano’s Pizza.  We ordered two deep dish pizzas.  Since they are so thick they usually take about 45-60 minutes to make and cook.  So we were surprised when our pizzas came to our table after 30 minutes.  SWEET!  We all dug in only to find out a few minutes later that these pizzas were supposed to be for the table NEXT to ours.  The temporary fill in server had made a mistake.  Whoops!  The other table just had to watch helplessly as we ate all their pizza they had waited such a long time for.  They also had hungry little kids in their party.  DOH!!  We felt bad, but what can you do?!  They were yummy, though!

Next we headed over to 360 Chicago which is another high-rise similar to the Willis Tower.  We viewed this at night and the views were amazing.  Thankfully, they didn’t have any glass alcoves so Sarah and I were able to handle this view a lot better than the Willis Tower Sky Deck.  They had glass windows around the whole floor so you could have 360 degree views of the city.  The lights were awesome!

They did have one wall that was open air.  In place of the glass panels they were just mesh screens so you could feel the warm breezes and hear the city traffic sounds.  They also had a perspective mural painted on the floor to make it feel like the tower was collapsing.  

Here’s the mesh screens instead of the glass panels:

At this point we headed back to pick up our car from the Clark Street Church building and head back to our hotel which was anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour away no matter what time of day or night you drove it.  The Chicago traffic is real and terrible!!  I found this meme that truly sums up what driving in Chicago is like--haha: