The trick to planning a good trip for exploring new places is not to over-plan. Depending on the length of the activity, don’t plan more than one scheduled activity per day. Also, I’ve learned the hard way not to plan for one museum to satisfy for an entire day. The kids are usually good for an hour or two at a museum, but more than two hours planned for one should be kid-driven desire for more. If *anyone* in the group is *really* done after two hours, you might be able to get in One or two more Specific Must-See’s…. But the second will be rushed.
That happened yesterday at the Museum at Science & Industry - We’d had a really GREAT time at the museum. But with the commute into town taking about 45 minutes - and lunch being an unexciting “We brought our leftover Papa John’s from Richmond” they were running out of steam & not re-engaging as strongly. Besides… Clover had the Art Museum on their agenda - and that was starting to form a strong directional trajectory in their mind.
So when they were done after “hall of mirrors” I was able to get in the Fairy Castle (which I’d been talking about before the trip) and push to see the Submarine was met with a reluctant “Ok.” Fortunately the Submarine turned out to be more interesting to them than they had expected - Thank you to the History Teachers! A little World War 2 background and the fascination of how many people die when a Sub is lost kept them for the 15 minutes or so it took us to wander through and scan through the information. Would have been more fun to have had an official tour & walked *through* the submarine - but I think we’ve done boat (if not sub) tours before.
So - TODAY’s plan - We have the Gangster Tour at 2:30, but that’s going to be a little bit of a trek on public transportation. We’ve got rain-ish this morning and don’t have an official PLAN for the am. We have wanted to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo, but the weather may be prohibitive. It’s moist out - and it rained a lot last night, but at the moment the only rain is some drizzle in the 11am region of the day. Everything else is overcast, but not spitting at us. Oh shit… nope… changed…. Rain all morning until about 11am.
OKAY! Consulted with the kids (this is another key to a successful trip - along with flexibility, which is one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of the Guided EF tours, though I do get their place and certainly you can’t consult with 20-40 people on every trip - but the large numbers and potential for meltdown among teens, another reason I’m not terribly motivated to sponsor one of these tours. Some things I’m braver about than others - but maybe one day - because there are so many places to go! and my kids will be out of the house in a couple of years.😭😀😭😀😭😀)
Back to…. Consulted with the kids…. The Creperie is sadly closed until 5pm on weekdays. Boo hiss! Checking hours is helpful when setting breakfast hopes. Looked at travel time & location for the /’lk.,Gangster tour - it's starting near Navy Pier, so we could go there this morning to explore, though lightning would have the ferris wheel shut down. Checked public transportation & bus had a change off at a Nature Center (butterflies were main draw, but there is a cost for the visit)... But that's in Lincoln Park… and if we took the bus to the Park we could at least get in an hour or two of good weather at the zoo before needing to head to the gangster tour… which would be a straight shot on the bus & a shorter trip.
This is how plans are made.
Annnddd….. Gangster movie this morning…. Kids voted Comedy…. So we’re watching one of my favorite Gangster movies…. Oscar! 😆 If you’ve never seen it…. It’s Stalone… in his most productive stage of comedy in the 90s when he & Schwarzenegger were battling out for who could be the most productive Comedic muscle man Action Movie transition guy.
11:30 am - rain stopped at least an hour ago. Finished up the movie & made wraps for lunch. Clover is on primary transit duty today. Anika is coaching. I'm just backup for decision making. Working well so far - Clover got us to a good bus stop but there was another that was supposed to pick up several minutes earlier, so opted for that. Route takes 2 minutes more, but will still get us there earlier.
Headed to the Zoo. Need to get up the map.
https://www.lpzoo.org/visit/explore-the-map/
Important Animals we saw:
Lions
POLAR BEARS VIDEO1 VIDEO2 VIDEO3 VIDEO4 VIDEO5-Laps
Zebras - VIDEO
Meer Kats
Black and White Colobus Monkey VIDEO
2-TOED SLOTH! (very unimpressive behaviors.... sleeping in the corner with his claws in the sky)
Gorillas
A Termite:
We were running late. My mistake on the schedule and the timing, but we saw the sloths....
Called to reschedule our bus for the Chicago Crime tour to 4pm, so we took the bus to the Navy Pier. We explored all the candy, popcorn, back to the candy place. We all want to go back to the Navy Pier. We had to leave too soon.
Chicago Crime Tour Notes follow (my notes, edited by Anika)
Chicago - stinky onion - 14 feet of concrete as base in some places
Flag
4 Illinois governors went to prison
4 Fs - 4 Stars (ft something, fire, worlds fair, 2nd fair 100 yr anniversary)
City of Crime
Streeter - guns runner to Honduras
First landfill = homestead act, forged presidential signature, started selling ketchup
Al Capone (NY) & John Dillinger (Indy)
Dillinger - public enemy #1 in 30s (popular with public due to 'getting back at the
banks' during the depression
Captured by Melvin Purvis of the BI(becomes FBI after this case)
St Valentine's Day Massacre - 1929 - 7 gangsters (6 killed)- car full of armed men -
1 man survived & said it was the police - but press connected Al Capone
Al Capone was favored by the public until this incident due to
creating peace between the gangs
Eventually arrested for Tax evasion - sentenced to Alkatraz - late stage syphilis -
government gave him malaria to kill the syph…. Then they injected him with mercury
7.5 years released for 'good behavior'(likely didn't want him to die in prison) -
died of stroke in Fl at 49
1982 - Paula Prince - died of Tylenol Poisoned by cyanide(7th that week) -
3 groups investigating - never found killer, between Lewis (still alive) and another man who died
McDonald's - were selling drugs through rock & roll drive through - it's been demolished -
gorgeous new store all green
HH Holmes - 1st serial killer of women (anywhere from 9-200)- MO was seducing
them in his Murder Castle and getting them to take out Life Insurance policies before
killing them - made it to Pennsylvania before being arrested
Johann Hock - married 35 women & murdered for insurance policies. He used arsenic,
which they were using for embalming also until a certain point which is when they caught him.
Jewelers building - Stratosphere Lounge - speakeasy in top dome- run by Al Capone?
Carbide and Carbon Building - only full color skyscraper (green means Go get illegal alcohol!) -
modeled after a Champagne bottle
Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti - Al Capone's killer - hired assassins - suicide
Murray 'The Camel' Humphreys- last relevant leader of the Southside Gang -
fatal heart attack for the stress while vacuuming
Dutch revival building Harry Caray Steakhouse (used to be owned by Frank Nitti)-
address book with all his contacts - blueprints from Chicago history museum -
vault with tunnel built in 1800s for coal - bootleggers used for alcohol transport
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! THE BASEBALL FROM 2003 CUBS GAME!
Bugs Maran (northside) - Johnny Toria (from Southside gangs) - southsider lost $30k on
north side, but refused to pay. Northsiders murdered the south sider - Beer Wars
began at a "flower shop" - murder twins - shoot Dean 6 times in the chest 'Chicago
Handshake' - shot with Tommy Guns - Schofield's is where Heimy Weiss was killed -
shot 10 times - assassin sent by Al Capone - maybe driver? - bullet damag on cathedral
across from building
Bugs Moran - (Bugs in your brain means you're crazy)
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