Chicago: Day 2

Thursday was a full day for us.  It was over 100 degrees outside and we sweat our way through the day.  

Otto, Andy's dog, provided entertainment and distraction for everyone.  Clearly, he has no awareness of personal space, but he's a sweet and well-behaved dog.  Otto's playfulness was too much for Levi at first, but eventually Otto won Levi over and they quickly became buddies.

 Just like in Boston last year, the boys quickly adjusted to and figured out the public transit system.  They LOVE riding trains and buses!  Some of our rides were kind of long, so we entertained ourselves by taking pictures.

 We started Thursday by going to the park.  Sadly, the boys thought "park" meant playground. They got upset with us when Millennium Park proved to be a totally different kind of park.   We made our way to Buckingham Fountain and cooled off in its mist, and then walked towards the bean.  Lucky for us, just next to the Bean is a huge pavilion where an orchestra and choir were rehearsing.  So, we had lovely music to go along with our snack. The weather was hot, humid and zero wind.  To say the least, we were sweaty.

 A quick stop at the Bean and we had to move on.  It was hot and crowded there so we didn't stick around too long.

 Just across the street from the Bean was the old Public Library that is chalk full of amazing mosaic tile.  The colors and designs and craftsmanship were absolutely amazing. The library also gave us a nice break inside an air conditioned building - something we all needed.

 I got one more look at the Bean from inside the library.

 Then we traveled north to one of the public beaches.  It was a long, hot and hungry walk from the bus stop to the beach.  We plopped down in the shade to eat a quick picnic lunch, drank a bunch of water and then finally made our way to the water.

 The lake was perfect!  It was totally worth the long, hot and hungry walk to enjoy the cool water.  Lucky for the boys, the lake was shallow for a quite a ways out so they could brave the water without too much risk of waves knocking them over.  

 We played in the sand, jumped waves and had a fantastic time at the beach.  Rain moved in soon after we left the beach so our timing couldn't have been better. We made our way back to Andy's apartment for showers and supper.  We were so hungry, I don't think rice and beans ever tasted so good!

 That evening, we headed to Navy Pier and the Chicago Children's Museum which is free on Thursday evenings.
And a side note, see that backpack Ben is holding?  It's a Camelback and we had two of them thanks to Tim and Sue.  Each one holds 100 oz. of water and they proved to be incredibly easy to use for us as we traveled around the city.  So much better than hauling bottles of water.  Plus they had room to carry other stuff too, like snacks, sun screen, phones, etc.  Speaking of phones, Sue's iPhone proved to be invaluable to us a navigational tool.  Technology sure can be a good thing!

 The thing about going to a children's museum on the evening that it's free and it's super-hot/rainy/muggy outside is that it's super-crazy-full of people.

 We saw a small sliver of the museum, pretty much the fireman's area....

 and that took up most of our time....

 which was fine.  We had a great time and could tell that it would be a great place to return to with more time and hopefully fewer people. We had hoped to ride the Ferris wheel but the on-and-off rain  had shut the ride down for a good chunk of the evening.  By the time we came out of the Children's Museum the rain had stopped, but the line of people waiting to ride the Ferris wheel was way too long for our little guys.

We navigated the Ferris wheel disappointment by distracting the boys with the lake and boats and light houses.  It sort of worked.  Clearly, we were at the end of a long hot day and it was time to go back to Andy's for a good night of rest.