4/2 - Day 1 Chicago - part One - Getting there!

5:18am - Awake in Lafayette - wishing I was still asleep.  Surprised yesterday to find that I have no idea where the printed reservations are from AAA - Hotel & Mafia Bus Tour.  I found the tour in an email, but for the life of me I can't find the hotel reservation.  I never have this problem when I reserve online.... By myself.... I think you can see where this is going.  Anyway - I checked the costs of rooms & still reasonable from what I'd seen originally - not sure what I was seeing yesterday when I was considering going to Chicago a day early & was $300 a night, but maybe there was a special event?  I'm trusting the reservation is there ... Correctly.... And never handing this over to a travel agent again - unless it's someone like the New Zealand tour guide.

Kids: WHY is there a big mirror behind the bed?

official answer:  To make the room look bigger....

THEY BOUGHT IT!

BUT....

now how do we explain this red finger smear of blood.... By the window... But apparently the perpetrator was Bob Ross.

So we got ourselves some Coffee, I ate an apple out of my packed foods, then we got Gas & the kids got Donus from the nearby Grocery Store.  Trying to play it economically.

We didn’t get on the road until about 9:30 am, with a 2 hour drive to Chicago.  What could possibly go wrong, right?!

TURNS OUT!    Absolutely nothing!

It was a perfect drive.  Started with more Corn Fields… 

THEN!.... WIND TURBINES!

Anika is having so much fun getting unexpected nuggets for her Environmental Science project (she’s not excited about having “work” over Spring Break, but when the “work” just drops in her lap, that’s a joy!)

We also got her a FABULOUS example of URBAN SPRAWL as we passed Gary, Indiana (the apocalypse of Industrialization and Carbon emissions…. Maybe that’s the wrong word…. No… no… Apocalypse is probably right….)

THEN!  CHICAGO! (10:30 central)

OMG - This is the MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY IN THE WORLD.  Ok fine… there are *prettier* cities, I’m sure.  But this is just the most BEAUTIFUL example of CITY.  The high towers, the architectural variety, the sparkle, the easy integration of driving through downtown, the whole area being available for driving, walking, public transportation - ALL easily integrated with SO many activities - positive, healthy, enriching ways to expose yourself to knowledge, art, sports, and healthy living!  You’ll see…. We’ve got 5 days of this…. 

The kids are already absolutely in love 🥰

LAKE MICHIGAN

NEW SOLDIER FIELD

CLASSIC SOLDIER FIELD (more tomorrow)

We got parked and went over to the hotel (Versey Days - Marriott). 

So, turns out when I reserved the rooms over at AAA it was supposed to be for 5 nights starting Sunday night so we would have 4 full days, but we made a mistake and the first night was for Monday.  The hostess was absolutely wonderful - she just added Sunday night to our reservation at the same rate and got us RIGHT into our room.  At 10:30 in the morning - no waiting until 2pm or 4pm or anything like that… she checked us right in and gave us active key cards so we could bring our bags in right away.

Also bizarrely excited that we have a refrigerator in our room because that wasn’t explicit on the website for every room and when I’m going to a big City with limited space I often expect small bedrooms and restricted amenities.  Especially at the competitive rate I’m getting - But this is every bit what I would expect at a regular Marriott anywhere out in the big wide expanses of middle America.

We LOVE Chicago  - AND THIS LITTLE GIFT ACROSS FROM OUR HOTEL!

And Extra buildings the kids have seen and LOVED as we were entering the city!