Sears Tower

Well, you can't go to Chicago and not go up the Sears Tower, so on our way out of town, we stopped in to check it out. If you go, do yourselves a favor and buy your ticket on line. There's a long line, otherwise. I had planned to...but in the confusion of packing, I forgot.

Anyway, here's the view from the deck! This is looking out the north side, and you can see Lake Michigan to the right. Unfortunately it was rainy that day, so we couldn't see as far as is usually possible. Still, quite a sight! The river running through downtown.

Sears Tower just opened up these glass observation decks. They are basically glass boxes that stick out the side of the building. You can stand on the glass floor and look down. Noah thought it was great.

Brad and the ubiquitous feet shot. We have one like this from the Calgary Tower. I was pregnant at that time, so you could barely see my toes peeking out from under my belly.

Jackson spent a great deal of time crawling around on the glass floor. He seemed fascinated. He will be featured in many a family photo (other families, that is), since he refused to move out of the way.

Chicago was great!

We're already talking about going back soon!

Chicago Children's Museum

We are children's museums kind of people. The kids have been to the children's museums in Seattle, Memphis, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin (only Jackson was there for that one), as well as our science museums here in Dallas and Fort Worth. So of course we had to visit the Chicago Children's Museum. Both kids had a blast!

Architectural Tour

Brad and his step dad took an architectural cruise on the river. He said it was really interesting, and he got some great photos.

This building I saw from the car on the way to the Sears Tower. It's known locally as the Corncob Building. The upper part is high rise apartments. The lower part is parking space.
Could you imagine having to back your car into one of these spaces, with nothing but some cable to stop you from plunging off? And all the cars we saw were backed in, too!

The tall, black building is the Sears Tower.

Here's a closeup of the Sears Tower Sky Deck. Those glass boxes are the new observation areas known as The Ledge Experience. I remember the Calgary Tower had glass floors, but of course that wasn't nearly has high up as these are.

Chicago!

After our reunion, we headed to the Windy City! We rented an awesome condo in the Lakeview neighborhood, a few blocks from Wrigley Field.

First we went to Navy Pier, on Lake Michigan. This was my first sighting of a great lake. I was duly impressed. It's huge! It really is hard to believe it's a lake and not the ocean.

Here the boys check out some local pirates with Grandma and Paw Paw.
More sights from the pier.

In the background behind us is the Tall Ship Windy. They were flying the Jolly Roger, so that means it's a pirate ship!

Of course we had to climb up on the big anchor. You can only see the bottom of it in the picture. It was huge!

Inside one of the buildings was an amazing stained glass museum (wish I'd gotten some pictures, but I was too busy chasing the kids) and a Chicago Police Dept. museum. Here Tracy poses with his fellow boys in blue.

Carolyn preferred the bad guys, though. Go figure.

Then we set sail! The boys loved being pirates.

Noah preferred sitting up the top deck.

Jackson mostly stayed below...

though he did come see me, briefly.

Here you can see the Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan. Beautiful!

And here's the view of Navy Pier as we head back to port.

We also spent time walking around our neighborhood. It was beautiful, all lined with lovely houses and condos. A few blocks over was a great street lined with shops and restaurants. Brad and I got to walk over each evening on our own to browse and eat on the patios of some great cafes. We are already talking about going back someday. Brad wants to check out a Cubs game!