Chi Town!

Okay so I think only people who DON'T live in Chicago call it Chi Town to feel like we're cool and in-the-know.  So I'm convincing myself that since I've now been to Chicago 3 times I am a total expert and can pretty much be considered a local.

Anywho, we took Little Monster to Chicago for her birthday.  Yes, LM is 6.  I can't believe the day has come.  She is 6, missing two teeth, and starting 1st grade in a MONTH.  Omg.  I think I'm hyperventilating.  Oh, and to top it all off, she was asked to join the competitive gymnastics team.  She practices 12 hours a week.  Yeah, she's hardcore.

So we took the train up to Chi Town (see? It just flows out of my mouth so naturally) with my parents to stay for a couple days.

The plight of the short person.  My feet don't reach the foot rest (sigh....):

Guess who I met while up there???

Yep!  It's Michael De Gesu from In Time...!  He heard we were coming up and we decided we just HAD to meet.  I'm so glad I did because he's so much fun!  And a sweetheart to top it all off!  Of course we had a little mishap with meeting and it was like some kind of comedy show where we kept showing up where the other had just been, texting each other and going "I'm at this place" "Oh, I was just there, I'm coming to you" "Oh, I just left to come to you" "Meet me at this place" "Where is that?"  "Dude, just stay put. I'm coming to you".  This went on for like, a half an hour.  Seriously.

The next day we went to the Shedd Aquarium and Little Monster simply LOVED it.  We saw the dolphin show and spent like, 7 HOURS there.  Her favorite was the Sea Horses.

This was my favorite:

Tee hee.  Had to do it.

No, actually my favorite were the jellyfish.

No, the dolphins.  Or the seahorses.  No, wait, the spider crab.  Look how freaking huge this guy was:

This next guy kept staring Little Monster down.  Every time she'd move away, he'd kinda drift off.  But as soon as she came close he'd go up to the glass and get all moody with her.  Hilarious.

Then we ate some classic Chicago style pizza at Ginos.  Yum!  The 2 hour wait was totally worth it (but will probably never be done again.  Good thing I don't have a toddler.  Yeesh.)

Next up: The Field Museum! My absolute favorite (as was LM's) was the evolution exhibit with the dinosaurs.  I'm a huge sucker for evolution and dinosaur bones.  I was going to be a paleontologist (as well as an astronaut, archaeologist, zoologist and a dolphin trainer) when I was young.

I also loved the Egyptian exhibit.  Especially now that I know the aliens helped them build the pyramids.  I mean seriously, what human could pull a gajillion ton brick without some kind of machinery?

And we topped off the trip with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe with the poor little crazy fish next to us (he kept swimming back and forth, back and forth...reminded me of the fish in the tank from Nemo) and the volcano dessert!

We had a lovely trip and I'm so glad we took the train and didn't have to walk like these people did.  They walked all the way from Poland and had to eat their torsos to stay alive.  That may or may not be speculation on my part.

And that concludes the slide presentation of my trip to Chicago.  Ha, aren't you glad this isn't the 70's and you have to come over and sit in my dark basement feeling all awkward and look at all 200 slides of my trip?