Spring Break: Chicago & More Illinois
Plz, bring me much coffee and Kleenex today. I am freshly back from Spring Break, with a full heart of great memories and a souvenir cold.
But man, oh man we had a great five-day trip.
We started in downtown Chicago–the boys’ first time. There was so much “whoa!”ing and “how many levels is that!?” oogling at the buildings surrounding us.
We ate deep dish pizza. We took photos at The Bean and raced around the fabulous Maggie Daley Park. We rode the city bus. Shopped at the Lego store. And then, we went to Medieval Times.
This is exactly what it sounds like: grown men playing as knights, riding horses & fake battling each other in a ring, while we sit around and eat rotisserie chicken and corn on the cob dinner theater style.
While this, admittedly, is not my cup of tea, it’s hard to resist the excitement of it all. The crowd was divided by six color teams, we were on the green team, and our knight WON! Which honestly, I would have paid extra for given how much the boys lost their marbles with excitement about the whole thing. Don’t worry, I still paid extra because instead I got suckered into buying two light up souvenir slushie cups.
The next day we spent hours at the aquarium (that dolphin show!!!) before driving 2 hours southwest to Starved Rock State Park.
For three days we practiced our standard family vacation success routine: morning hike, afternoon kid stuff, repeat. Each day the hike was better than the day before, culminating in the lower dells hike where we were surrounded by 100 ft of steep sandstone walls. We traversed over streams, hiked up and down the stone, and landed at an amazing 40 ft wildly flowing waterfall. BEAUTIFUL!
So many stones were skipped, treasures found, gasping at caves where giants must have slept. A kid’s imagination at a wild nature area like this is a true treasure.
Of course a lot of fun was had in the afternoon at our dated resort’s waterpark and arcade. The family hit was the lazy river. Cam/Ben spent a lot of time flying down the water slides. We got a nice night away from the resort, too, visiting nearby Ottawa, IL for their toy store, bowling and a good dinner out.
We didn’t end up back home until Sunday night, using every drop of Spring Break. We packed a lot into this trip.
But man, oh man we had a great five-day trip.
We started in downtown Chicago–the boys’ first time. There was so much “whoa!”ing and “how many levels is that!?” oogling at the buildings surrounding us.
We ate deep dish pizza. We took photos at The Bean and raced around the fabulous Maggie Daley Park. We rode the city bus. Shopped at the Lego store. And then, we went to Medieval Times.
This is exactly what it sounds like: grown men playing as knights, riding horses & fake battling each other in a ring, while we sit around and eat rotisserie chicken and corn on the cob dinner theater style.
While this, admittedly, is not my cup of tea, it’s hard to resist the excitement of it all. The crowd was divided by six color teams, we were on the green team, and our knight WON! Which honestly, I would have paid extra for given how much the boys lost their marbles with excitement about the whole thing. Don’t worry, I still paid extra because instead I got suckered into buying two light up souvenir slushie cups.
The next day we spent hours at the aquarium (that dolphin show!!!) before driving 2 hours southwest to Starved Rock State Park.
For three days we practiced our standard family vacation success routine: morning hike, afternoon kid stuff, repeat. Each day the hike was better than the day before, culminating in the lower dells hike where we were surrounded by 100 ft of steep sandstone walls. We traversed over streams, hiked up and down the stone, and landed at an amazing 40 ft wildly flowing waterfall. BEAUTIFUL!
So many stones were skipped, treasures found, gasping at caves where giants must have slept. A kid’s imagination at a wild nature area like this is a true treasure.
Of course a lot of fun was had in the afternoon at our dated resort’s waterpark and arcade. The family hit was the lazy river. Cam/Ben spent a lot of time flying down the water slides. We got a nice night away from the resort, too, visiting nearby Ottawa, IL for their toy store, bowling and a good dinner out.
We didn’t end up back home until Sunday night, using every drop of Spring Break. We packed a lot into this trip.