After the marathon, we spent the next three days seeing all the sights. Of course, one of our favorite parts of any big city adventure is…
The subway, metro, underground…or, in this case, the L.
The kids love riding the trains, going up and down the escalators, using the ticket machines, and all things public transportation. They also love taxi rides. We’ve lived in small towns their whole lives, so these simple things are still exciting.
Our first stop was Hannah’s mecca:
Her doll, Maddalena, had an appointment at the salon. She was getting a new hairstyle and her ears pierced. Of course, when we went back to pick her up, we had to buy both girls a few things, too. 😉
We stopped at the Nike store to look at marathon apparel. I mentioned in the last post that the race expo was a let-down. While huge, with a ton of vendors, the actual Chicago Marathon race apparel shop was disappointing. Specifically, I’m talking about the availability of sizes. You see, marathon runners are generally not large people. The majority of male runners are going to wear a medium or large in shirts/jackets for example, and there was a major shortage of those sizes. Joe really wanted the official race running jacket, like the NY marathon one he got, but they sold out immediately at the expo and there was none available at the Nike store the next day as we hoped. {I also tried to surprised him and looked for 2 months on eBay to no avail.}
Oh well, at least we got the experience, if not a jacket to prove it.
We made our way up Michigan Avenue to the Riverwalk, for a late-morning architectural river tour. It was a gorgeous fall day and Chicago is such a beautiful city.
The river cruise was one of the best things we did and I highly recommend going on one. It is a great way to see the city and the variety of famous architecture. We went on one of Chicago’s First Lady boats and our tour guide was incredible. When the website says their docents are highly trained and passionate, they are not lying. So good!
From the river, we walked to Millennium Park to check out the famous Cloud Gate, or The Bean as it is more commonly called.
And it is so cool – and a super fun place to take pictures.
A short walk away and we played at the “best playground ever” – the Play Garden at Maggie Daley Park. I do not have a still photo so I just captured a frame from an Instagram story video:
It might be a nerve-racking place for parents trying to keep an eye on their kids, but my two had a ball and we enjoyed watching them play.
From there, we walked a mile or so to the Navy Pier and rode the Centennial Wheel, which gave us a great view of Chicago’s skyline and Lake Michigan.
We finished the night with dinner at one of the restaurants on the Pier. It was the kids’ first time having ribs (yes, isn’t that terrible!?), and they are fans. I feel I deprived them, Hannah especially. She now talks about them quite a bit.
On the train ride home, we assessed our steps. Joseph usually has the most, but his watch was broken. It was a long day with a lot of walking.
Our trips are rarely relaxing and our kids are really good about all the moving. So is my husband after running a marathon the day before! They love seeing and doing new things, and I’m thankful for their energy and zest for life.
The rest of our Chicago trip in the next post!
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