A Shanghai Reunion in Chicago was set for this summer. We had five families (minus the Dads) meeting in Chicago.
Our five families were:
* Mary, Kelly and Erin were coming from Michigan.
* Hilary, Jack and Michael were coming from Seattle.
* Jennifer, Sean and Sophie were coming from North Carolina.
* Faith, Avery and Riley were coming from Kentucky.
Mary and Hilary had moved back to America last summer. It would be a fun weekend to see everyone and I have never been to Chicago.
Day One: All Day Travel
We left SF at 10am, but didn’t arrive until 4:30pm with the time change. The traffic was long from the airport to the hotel. We were the last ones to arrive Saturday early evening. We met in Hilary’s room for a drink before heading out for dinner. The kids met in Faith’s room…it sounded like a party in room 3917! We ate at Gino East Pizza, a famous pizza place. It was close to our hotel which was good as getting enough taxis for 15 people will be a challenge. The kids sat at one table and the Moms sat at another – a perfect dinner!
Day Two: The City
We had a 10am meeting time in the lobby. We didn’t make a plan the night before, but as we discussed the options, we decided to go to the Field Museum of National History. We determined we could walk to Millennium Park and maybe see about a taxi after getting there depending on Emersyn. Emersyn said she was good to walk.
At Millennium Park is the Cloud Gate sculpture more known as “The Bean” since is looks like a bean.
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed “The Bean” because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).
Said to have been inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture’s surface reflects and distorts the city’s skyline. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the “omphalos” (Greek for “navel”), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor’s artistic themes, and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties.
We had fun with the reflective properties of the bean!
Since we were half way to the Museum, we continued to walk. It took us about an hour to walk and have fun at the Bean. Once we arrived, some children wanted to go to the Shedd Aquarium next door. It was decided to split up…a very good decision with this many people. The older crew of 7th graders chose the History Museum while the younger crew of 5th graders plus Eleri wanted to go to the aquarium. Hilary, Jennifer and I took the Emersyn, Sean, Kelly, Avery, Jack and Michael to the Field History Museum. Mary and Faith took Eleri, Erin, Riley and Sophie to the Shedd Aquarium.
Upon entering the Field Museum of National History, it looks like the movie, “Night at the Museum” with a big open entrance to the Museum.
The first exhibit in the main hall is Sue, the T-Rex.
On May 17, 2000, the Field Museum unveiled Sue, the most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil yet discovered. Sue is 42 feet (13 m) long, stands 13 feet (4 m) high at the hips and is 67 million years old. The fossil was named after Sue Hendrickson, the paleontologist who found it, and is commonly referred to as female, though the fossil’s actual gender is unknown. The original skull, located elsewhere in the museum, was not mounted to the body due to the difficulties in examining the specimen 13 feet off the ground, and for nominal aesthetic reasons (the replica doesn’t require a steel support under the mandible). An examination of the bones revealed that Sue died at age 28, a record for the fossilized remains of a T-rex.
Our first exhibit hall was Extreme Mammals, a temporary exhibit at the Museum. The exhibit explores the surprising and sometimes bizarre world of Extreme Mammals – the biggest, smallest, and most amazing mammals of all time. The kids were loving this exhibit. We had to rush them along as we had tickets to the Mummies, 3D movie at 12:20. Hilary had tickets to Dinosaurs, 3D at 1:00 as the tickets sold out fast. Hilary and the boys grabbed lunch during our film. Our move was interesting as it talked about the Valley of the Kings, a place we did see on our Egypt adventure.
Lunch was our next stop at a bakery on the main floor which had very good food. After a long lunch, we went to the basement for the exhibit, “Underground Adventure”. The kids had fun reading and playing with the interactive games.
After the Underground Exhibit, we walked through “Inside Ancient Egypt” exhibit. The day was getting away from us, as expected. Our next exhibit was Genghis Khan. This is a temporary exhibit at the Museum. This was my favorite and I could have spent twice as long in this exhibit. It was very interesting and I found myself reading all the information. Now, Mongolia is on my list for Asia!!
Hilary and the boys went back to the hotel after the Genghis Khan exhibit to swim in the pool. More than one day is needed to see all the exhibits at this Museum. We went upstairs to the Dinosaur Hall.
We left the Museum around 4:30pm. It was a fun day learning on our trip to the Museum.
The kids wanted to walk back through the park as they wanted to buy shaved ice…again that makes it easier than trying to get a couple of taxis. Emersyn was tired by the time we reached the hotel walking around in the boot.
I have no photos of Eleri at the Shedd Aquarium. We have one of the best aquariums in the world at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Terri and Andy take the girls to Aquarium at least twice a year. I asked Eleri how the Shedd Aquarium compared. She said not as good, but they had a better kids’ play area. Hum, I guess we never really take Eleri to the Kids Zone at the Monterey Aquarium. We are always in the touch zone room. Eleri is forced to grown up faster to be with Emersyn.
Back at the hotel, all the kids went swimming but Emersyn. She needed the “holes” to heal more before swimming. We ordered take-out food for the kids to be eaten at the pool. Once the gang of kids were fed, showered and happy, the Moms left for an adult dinner at Ralph Lauren. The kids were put in two rooms, one for the older group and one for the younger group. They were loving the fact we were leaving them at the hotel. We figured they are old enough and enough of them to be safe!
We had an 8pm reservation for a lovely adult meal. Faith treated the ladies to a champagne toast. I had the best roasted lamb ever!! It was a fun evening enjoyed with good friends.
We walked back to the hotel to arrive around 10:30pm. The older kids had just ordered the movie, The Hungry Games ($20 a movie). Emersyn was a bit concerned to watch the movie as she doesn’t do well with scary movies. She has read the book series of three books twice so I told her she knows what to expect. Emersyn and Kelly decided to have a sleepover to watch the movie. I took Riley back to my room for a sleepover as the movie is not age appropriate for her.
Day Three: A Girls Day
Today, Jennifer’s family was meeting her Aunt and Hilary’s family was meeting a sister for lunch. Mary, Faith and I were taking the kids to the American Girl Store…another reason the two families with boys decided today was a good family day.
We started off our girl day with a stop at the Disney Store. Eleri had been asking to go the store – not that we don’t have one in our mall she can go to anytime. We had time before we went to lunch so the girls had fun looking around the Disney Store. The big black bear in the store was for the new movie, Brave.
We walked to lunch at an old establish dinner from 1945, Ed Debevic’s. At Ed Debevic’s the staff dances during break for the customers. The main difference at this restaurant is that the staff is rude to you. The girls were having fun being rude back.
After lunch, we walked back to the hotel with a few quick shops along the way. Faith had made reservation for tea at 2pm. We had to go back to the hotel to get the American Girl Dolls. I had packed Eleri’s doll, Mia, from Shanghai to California to Chicago. I didn’t bring Emersyn’s doll, Nicki. I had asked her in Shanghai and she was fine not brining it. Emersyn went to the American Girl Store in New York with Terri and Andy when she turned 7. She had her American Girl experience at that time. She doesn’t play with her doll as much and bring it all the way from Shanghai was extra baggage. When we arrived at the store, I felt terrible about not having Emersyn’s doll. All the girls had their dolls, but Emersyn. They all got their dolls ears pierced which is the one thing Emersyn wanted for her doll. She was fine with it as she is Emersyn.
We went to sit down for our tea, but they wanted to serve us lunch. We just had a big lunch of burgers, fries and shakes so lunch didn’t sound good. They explained lunch is served until 4pm. We decided it would be best to wait till 4pm for tea. We would use this time to shop and some of the girls wanted to get their dolls’ hair fixed. Emersyn picked out a guitar for her doll which was perfect. Eleri and I walked all around the store several time (both levels) for her to decided what she wanted. It was fun to spend the time with Eleri as Emersyn was busy with her friends. Eleri decided on an old fashion ice cream set. I also purchased a table and chair set, but had it delivered as it was too big to drag to Nebraska. Amazing how fast two hours went by when you are shopping at the American Girl Store!
Tea consists of the following foods:
* Warm Cinnamon Buns
* Kaya’s Blueberry Scones with Devon cream
* Addy’s Fruit Kabob
* Rebecca’s Cucumber Sandwich with Boursin cheese on white bread
* Josefina’s Turkey Sandwich with sliced tomato and tomato mayonnaise on wheat bread topped with American cheese
* Julie’s Pepperoni-and-Mozzarella-Cheese Turnover
* Ivy’s Peanut-free PB&J on white bread
All the food is named after a doll in the collection.
Dessert included:
* Kit’s Linzer Cookie
* Ruthie’s Jell-O Smiles
* Molly’s Victory Garden strawberry Mousse Flowerpot.
The Jell-O smiles were jello in orange slices. The girls had fun with the smiles.
We had planned to take the kids to dinner tonight, but they all wanted take out and to stay at the hotel, again. That can be arranged! We ordered take out to feed the kids before dashing out the door to another adult dinner. They are enjoying hanging in the rooms with their friends.
Day Four: Good-byes and More Adventures
Hilary, Jennifer and Faith were leaving on afternoon flights. I had decided to stay an extra day as we would have been on an early morning departure. Mary drove from Michigan so she was staying another night, also. We all enjoyed a long breakfast at the bakery across the street. Jennifer and Hilary were the first to depart. Faith was on a later afternoon flight. We walked back to the American Girl store to deliver Avery’s doll as it needed to go to the hospital to fix a leg.
After saying our last good-byes, Mary and I decided our adventure today would be to walk down to Navy Pier. At Navy Pier, we had lunch at Bubba Gumps. We eat at Bubba Gumps when we go to Monterey, but Mary and the girls do not have one in Michigan. We enjoyed a long lunch with our friends. After lunch, the girls rode the ferris wheel and we walked around the Pier.
For dinner, we decided we would go back to Gino East for the deep dish pizza. Again, we enjoyed the time to visit with our good friends as it always seems like old times when we get together.
Mary and I enjoyed a last chat and a drink in her room while Erin and Eleri played with their American girl dolls in our room. Kelly and Emersyn had teenage talk time.
It was a fun trip enjoying good friends and seeing a new City.