Chicago Days 4-7, Brewer’s Game, Home Alone House, Architectural Boat Tour, Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, White Sox Game, Museums, Chicago Temple, Beach

Things at our house have been pretty hectic the past few weeks so I am finally getting around to posting more of our trip to Chicago.  These are days 4-7.  It has been a goal of mine for a while to visit all 50 states.  We were so close to Wisconsin that we decided to take a day trip to Milwaukee. The drive from Chicago to Milwaukee was pretty crazy since there was an intense rain storm going on during the drive.  When we got there Aaron had already scoped out a cheese store and a sausage store he wanted to visit.  It was fun looking at all the different flavors of cheese.  Josh even tried on a cheese hat:

Here is some of the interesting flavors.  I couldn’t get past the chocolate cheese flavor....ewww!  I was too chicken to try that one.

We got two packages of cheese curds and the kids all got a different flavor of cream soda unique to that store. We tried the orange cream, maple rootbeer and salted caramel flavors.  They were pretty good.

Next we went over to the sausage store.  The kids weren’t too interested in going in so it was just Aaron and I while they waited for us outside.

Aaron picked up a few flavored sausage sticks we all tried.  It wasn’t bad.

Next we went to visit the North Point Lighthouse.  There was a quick hike around it that we did.  It was really pretty.

The lighthouse itself was closed so we just got to walk around the outside of it.

Here’s the view of Lake Michigan from the backyard of the lighthouse:

We didn’t spend too much time there because we had tickets to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.  Also on the way to the game our rental van was doing some weird things when the check engine light went on---DOH!!  We called the rental car agency and we needed to exchange vehicles since the van was going to be questionable whether it would be able to get us back to Chicago.  That was an unexpected detour.  We first went to the game at American Family Field, though:

Here’s our view of the semi indoor field from our seats:

After watching most of the game we had to leave a bit early because we then had to drive to the Milwaukee airport to exchange our van before they closed.  That was not ideal, but what can you do?!  After exchanging the van for a different one that DID NOT have the check engine light on we headed into downtown Milwaukee to explore.  We stopped by to get a picture by the Fonz.  The kids had no idea what the show Happy Days even was, but we still got the picture.

We walked around the River Walk and it was pretty cool.  We got to see a vertical lift bridge lift up to let a boat underneath.  That was cool to watch.  However, around this time we needed to start thinking about heading back to Chicago.  Aaron had a friend from work whose daughter served her mission in Milwaukee.  She highly recommended we stop by the Kopps Custard restaurant for some custard.  The kids all loved it.  We also stopped for some fried cheese curds at Culver’s.  

Then we headed back to Chicago and I could now cross off Wisconsin off my states to visit list.  Wahoo!! There wasn’t a state sign for Wisconsin, but we did get a picture of the state sign coming back into Illinois.

 

Driving back to Chicago we hit a few areas where Josh served the beginning of his mission.  He wanted to show us around.  Here’s one of the apartments Josh lived in:

Here’s the church building by his apartment he attended as well:

When we got back to the hotel we played some games the rest of the evening.  It was a fun day minus the car problems.

The next morning we got up early and had breakfast.  Daniel tried to chat with his girlfriend in the morning since we weren’t doing too much.

After breakfast we all got in the van and made the 60 minute drive into town.  We parked at the Clark Street church building and road the subway over to the Architectural Boat tour.  Now in researching things to do in Chicago this activity did not sound too appealing, but in reading the reviews everyone raved about it.  It was part of our Chicago City Pass so we decided to try it out.  It turned out being really cool.  We all got on the boat and waited for departure.

The tour was really cool.  Not only did they discuss the different buildings architectural styles, it also went through a detailed history about the city.  It was really interesting.  I am glad I didn’t write it off in the beginning.  It was really worth going on this tour.  Here’s a cool picture of the city line as we were turning around.  Our host really knew his stuff.

After the Architectural Boat Tour dropped us off we were right by the Chicago Tribune Building.  On the outside of the the building they have different pieces of important places throughout history built into the stone.  They had pieces from the pyramids, the Berlin Wall, Pennsylvania Independence Hall, Great Wall of China, but amazingly enough they had a piece of the Salt Lake Temple.  That was really cool to see!

Next we wandered over to Navy Pier to check it out.  It was fun to walk around the pier.

However, it was REALLY HOT.  By the time we got around the pier we were definitely sweaty.  So sweaty our transit cards stuck to our foreheads.  It was quite hot and humid that day.

We then rode the bus over to the Magnificent Mile and walked around that for a bit.

Aaron wanted to try out the Billy Goat Tavern on Michigan Avenue.  It is a cool hamburger place that has been featured in some Early Saturday Nigh Live Skits and is famous for its curse with the Chicago Cubs.  

It was under the main road so you had to walk down a subway like staircase to find it.

It was a fun and rather inexpensive place for lunch which was a minority in the city of Chicago.  After lunch we had to head back to our hotel because we needed to change rooms and couldn’t until after check out time.  The air conditioner in our room stopped working two nights before.  It was so sweltering hot none of us slept.  The next day we changed rooms, but that rooms air conditioner didn’t work either. They were going to give us another room, but we had to be there in person to check in.  So we made the hour drive back to the hotel, checked into our awesomely cold room (this air conditioner worked YAY!) and then drove the hour back into town to do some more things.  We came back and walked along the river walk.  It was really pretty!

Then we took the subway over to the Guaranteed Rate Field to watch a White Sox baseball game.

Here’s our seats.

Our view:

Every time they scored a home run they did some fireworks:

On the way out of the stadium there was a beautiful night view of the city line:

As we were leaving the game we noticed we were all pretty sunburned after the Architectural Boat tour that morning as you can see by Josh’s neck:

We rode the subway back to our stop by the Clark Street church building.  There were some...um.. interesting people in our subway car that ride.  It made for a bit of an uncomfortable, but memorable ride back into the city--haha!

Anyway, we made it back to the hotel and were greeted by a very welcome FREEZING room which we loved after trying to sleep the previous two nights in the hot, sticky rooms.  The kids woke up the next morning complaining of being cold.  I LOVED it!!

The next day we got up early and headed into the city to check out the Museum of Science and Industry.  In reading about this museum we found out it is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere and I believe it.  This place was MASSIVE!!  It was really fun, though.  They had so many interactive exhibits.

You could hear your pulse rate:

The kids all liked seeing where the veins in their hands were:

You had to relax your mind more than the other person to get the ball to move.  I lost every round....

A life size version of Newton’s Cradle:

Daniel was trying to shock any of us that happened to walk by within touching distance.  What a punk!

You could experience hurricane gusts in this small tube:

It didn’t work quite as well when you shoved four people in it, though--haha!

A HUGE ice block you could try and melt with your bare hands:

A whisper gallery where you could whisper into a curved dish the person clear on the other side of the room could hear the quietest voice.  It was pretty cool:

A mirror maze.  This was a little trippy trying to get through this without running into the walls.

Then we made it to the basement and looked around.  There was a mock milking station you could try out.

We stayed at this museum until closing.  Then we drove over to have dinner with someone Josh was able to help baptize.  His name was Frank.  We went to an authentic Mexican restaurant and it was pretty yummy.  It was fun to meet Frank and get to know him.

When we finished with dinner we went back to the hotel to do a load of laundry and to play some games.  It was a fun day!

The next day, Day 7 which was Saturday July 29, we got up early and headed over to the Chicago Temple to do some Baptism for our ancestors.  It was pretty cool.  There were only four other patrons in the baptistry.  As soon as we got there we were pulled in all directions.  They asked me and Noah to be witnesses.  They pulled Josh in to help with Confirmations, they told Daniel to go and get his baptism jumpsuit on.  Sarah had misplaced her recommend so Aaron was at the front desk with Sarah so they could look up her recommend status.  It was crazy they put us all to work as soon as we walked in.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Then it was our family’s turn for baptisms.  It was really neat to be in the temple with most of us there.  We did miss Matthew, though.

Afterward we walked around the temple grounds for a few minutes.  This temple is a very similar design to the Dallas temple so Aaron thought that was great.

After that we quickly changed into our street clothes and then drove over to see the Home Alone House.  It is in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  Sarah, Noah and Daniel didn’t really care to see it close up so they stayed in the car.  Aaron, Josh and I wanted to see it so we parked and walked over to look at it just to say that we have been there.

After that we drove over to the Field Museum.  This place was massive as well.  We spent the majority of the day here and still didn’t get to see everything.  We stayed until it closed. We got to see some cool things, though.

We got to see the lions that the movie The Ghost and the Darkness was made about.  The kids didn’t appreciate them, but Aaron and I did.

By this time our brains were on museum overload because we had seen and read so much the past few days, but it was fun.

Right outside the museum there was a Special Olympics Eternal Flame of Hope 50th Anniversary monument.  We took a picture to show Matthew. 

Then we walked over to the beach.

Lake Michigan is so big it has waves and acts like the ocean.  It was really cool to check out.  The water was pretty chilly, though.

After hanging out at the beach for a bit we were hungry and wanted some dinner.  Josh took us to a food truck run by a family that always fed the missionaries when Josh was serving in that area.  The area wasn’t in the best part of town so Aaron and I were a bit sketched walking over to it, but it was really worth it.  There was no parking available by the food truck so we had to park a ways away and walk.  They tried to give us the food for free, but we insisted on paying.  I am sure they have lost so much money in feeding all he missionaries for free that I at least wanted to actually pay for our food so they didn’t lose any more money!  The food was really delicious!! We were glad Josh was with us because they didn’t speak English, but were super friendly!  It was fun meeting them!  I am so grateful for anyone and everyone that helped the missionaries in any way!