Today we walked to Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast and took the long-ish drive home from Chicago. Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day and I finally went through pictures to get them in order.

The night we got into Chicago, we went out for a walk and it turns out we were right next to the Chicago Water Tower. We also went by a huge building – the third largest in Chicago – and inside was a fantastic art installation that represented all the stars seen by the naked eye in the northern hemisphere: It was a beautiful night for a walk; we took full advantage of the time.

Yesterday, we walked everywhere. We started by eating breakfast at a beautiful patio with this fountain: It was just the first of many fountains all over near where we were staying.

Afterwards, we walked down the road and stopped at a few fun stores before getting to Millennium Park. We took the obligatory “Cloud City” (cool bean) pictures: We also went to the fountain nearby where we could take our shoes off and play in the water.

With our feet refreshed and ready to walk some more, we went through some of the gardens and hung out at the park. We wended up over by the Buckingham fountain finally before catching the subway back over to the other side of downtown for supper.

This was Annika’s first ride on a subway and she was a little nervous about it. It saved a couple miles of walking though.

We ate at a classic Chicago pizza place, after which Anders wanted to just go back to the hotel. After we dropped him off, Dak, Annika, and I ventured down to Navy Pier, taking a free trolley to once again save a mile of walking, and as a bonus, we got to see more of the city. At Navy Pier, we checked out the Crystal Gardens, which had fascinating fountains that looked like they were leaping (those were hard to get a picture of). We ended the day by going on a speedboat ride on Lake Michigan to see the city right at sunset. I’ve never seen a speedboat like this before – it could probably seat 75 people: We sat about halfway to the front, but I bet it would have been more fun right up front. It was still pretty amazing: We learned a lot about the city and Navy Pier from the ride. When we got back to the dock, we checked out the rest of the pier and walked all the way around it before catching the trolley back into the city so we could walk to the hotel. Here are a couple pictures of the pier and walk back:

We stayed in a historical hotel called the Whitehall Hotel. It was more luxurious than our other stays on our trip; we had to be very clear with the kids about NOT touching any of the snacks or drinks in the minibar, so they learned what that is. There was also a phone not only on the nightstand, but in the bathroom as well: This is when we realized that Anders had never lived with a land line: he had the receiver off the phone for too long and that beeping noise that warns you that your phone is off the hook came on. He jumped: “whoa! This is beeping – what is happening!?” Dak was really helpful: “that means it’s gonna blow up.” I explained it to him finally, and we realized he’d never heard that warning tone before. It’s been years since I’ve heard it myself. Super flashback.

It’s late again tonight and I have more thoughts, but I need to sleep on them. The kids were amazing travelers and generally kind to each other and us. I feel truly blessed as I go to sleep tonight. ❤️