6 hours in Chi-Town

6 hours in Chicago is not very long. But, with a four year old and 5 hours on a train it actually makes for a very full day. The weather was amazing. Quite possibly the best weather I've ever experienced in that city. Warm sunshine with a cool breeze off the lake - it was ideal.

We arrived at Union Station just before 11 and made our way over to Ed Debevic's for lunch. Waiting for a bus was new for Noah and he did a good job of identifying the numbers on each bus as it approached the stop. He had a nice conversation with a woman waiting for a bus, hers came before ours did. Then a man riding a skateboard and texting came to stop nearly in front of us as his multitasking skills were being maxed out. Noah and I (if not Ben and Andy too) were staring at him and then he looked right at Noah and said, "You'll never know if you don't try!" and off he went. Later in the weekend Noah repeated that to me several times when he wasn't listening to me...hmmmm...

We made it to Ed Debevic's and it was our best experience there yet. I loved watching Noah's confusion about this waiter who threw napkins and hats at us when we sat down. Noah looked at me with concern and confusion and I just laughed.

Andy is a wonderful uncle - he and Noah had a good time together.

At one point, Noah was jumping on the booth seat and our waiter yelled at him from behind the counter, "Stop jumping! I don't come over to your house and jump on your furniture, do I?" Noah immediately sat down with a shocked and embarrassed look on his face. We quickly explained that the man was just being silly, but that it's not a good idea to jump on furniture.

And when singing and dancing on the counter started happening right in front of us...Noah looked like this:

The whole thing just cracked me up, Noah was precious in this new/foreign/completely strange environment.

Next stop: Shedd Aquarium! The line was long, so Noah and I went to check out the lake. He liked the boats a lot.

We had a great time at Shedd. Noah was determined to find the sharks and when we did he didn't want to watch them. At the end of our visit he told me his favorite part was a snake. We saw amazing creatures and had a nice time exploring the aquarium. Noah moved pretty fast through a lot of it but enjoyed pretending he was a penguin.

We spent about 2 hours at Shedd which was enough for a 4 year old. Then we walked through Grant Park to Buckingham Fountain.

Noah was amazed once again.

From there we walked and then hopped on a bus to get ourselves back to Union Station for the ride back to grandma and grandpa's!