I think I've finally settled into a summer routine -

Sleeping in, knowing I should get something accomplished but preferring to sit outside and read a magazine, staying up late and eating too much. Yep, I've got it down...


Actually, I did go through a few days of laziness but I've finally unpacked and put away everything from our trip, weeded the garden (The weeds were more abundant than the food producing plants!), taken the kids to the lake and went to see Wall E. Cute movie by the way - good lesson about taking care of ourselves and the earth! I do tend to sleep later than I'd like but we sure have a comfy bed!


Steve was in Pullman all weekend with the soccer team so I took the kids to Shawn and Kendal's cabin on Lake Chelan yesterday. They have a cute place right on the lake. It's about 15 miles from the town of Chelan so away from the bulk of the crowds. I enjoyed sitting on the dock while the kids swam and fished. Shawn took us for a ride in the boat and then fixed us some yummy chicken on the barby! Needless to say, we were all exhausted last night!


So, back to Chicago - if I remember right, I left you all with me yearning over Johnny Depp. Well, we spent the next morning at the Museum of Science and Industry. My dad told us that he has fond memories of visitng this museum as a kid so we had to go see what he was talking about. The coal mine exhibit was the reason he became a mining engineer. This was a great museum! Huge! We saw everything from career inspiring coal mines to real submarines to corn fields and cars. There was even a miniature doll house exhibit. I recommend this museum to everyone!


So, after the museum we decided to leave our car in its free parking spot and take the bus to Navy Pier (remember this snippet...). On the bus we met a nice couple who were originally from Chicago and were back there on vacation. They told us to get off the bus at Marshall Fields department store. They said to walk in and just look up. Here is what we saw....



Holy canoli! The building was 12 or 13 stories high and this flag went the total height. Very impressive! Our detour had us walking further than we had planned and Lyndsi really struggled but we made it to Navy Pier! Thank heavens for public fountains that you can run through! Dylan and Lyndsi loved this one! They didn't even mind being wet through dinner.

There were several statues at the entrance to the Pier. This one caught our eyes. What a sweet sentiment - kids playing that game where they run around in a chain and try to whip the kids off the end. My own children didn't quite see the sweetness of the sentiment but they sure enjoyed climbing over the poor kids!

And then we ran into this ugly little sweet thing right on the pier. His friendly owners let us take his picture! Nope he will never get any hair! I think he was a Hairless Chihuahua.

Lyndsi rode this carrousel while Dylan played a squirting boat game. Then both kids and I rode the ferris wheel. Steve wasn't too keen on this so he stayed on the ground!

Check out the view from the ferris wheel! The wheel went around slowly so I could take in the sights.

And then there's even a picture of Steve and I together! Wow! Navy Pier was a fun break from the walking around town and we had fun just goofing off.

So, remember when I told you to remember the snippet about leaving our car in its free spot? Well, as it turns out, we were too late to catch our bus back to the museum. Apparently, that bus only runs during daylight hours and we were trying to catch it at about 9:00. So our free spot turned into a $25.00 cab ride!

Our Chicago adventure didn't end there! Once we got to our dark and abandoned car, we then had to figure out how to get out of town so we could get to our hotel. There was a bit of a miscommunication between Steve and I and we went straight on a road that we should have gotten off of! We ended up in South Chicago, which is not where you want to be at nearly 11:00. Especially if you are a white family riding in a minivan with WA plates. You get the picture. If I hadn't been so uptight, I think I would have liked to have gawked a little more than I did! I was amazed at the number of small children who were out and about. Actually, there were more people out and about than there had been earlier in the day, the first time we got lost! We even tried following a policeman until he got a call and took off on us! All I could think of was taking a wrong turn and ending up as a tragedy on the national news! At one point, I heard what sounded like gunshots. When I said as much to Steve, he, rather tersley, pointed out the shooter! Yikes!

Fortunately, our adventure has a happy ending and we made it back to our hotel safe and sound. And while I do not like to be put into those unsafe situations without warning, I was intriqued by the tenemants and the lifestyle surrounding them. Somewhere along the trip we passed an elementary school and I couldn't help but wonder about the lives of the students who attended.