We headed north a little ways and crossed into Illinois to visit Chicago for a few days. I have memories of this city from early college, and it surpassed my high expectations. The activities we chose to do were perfect for our family and we had a blast.
First up, happy hour at the hotel!
Next up, Chicago style deep dish pizza. 
Our hotel was in the perfect location! It was one of the cheapest downtown venues AND had happy hour (2 drinks each) and a delicious made-to-order breakfast. Embassy Suites Magnificent Mile.
These kids were impressed by the city.
I was impressed by the cleanliness of the city AND the amount of gorgeous, totally unnecessary flowers that lined every street and available space. We saw -maybe- 2 homeless people the entire time, as well.
Friday started out with an architectural tour of on the river. Kyle, mostly, was totally impressed with Donald's building on the river. It was his (biased) favorite. 2nd tallest in Chicago.
Selfie shot with the river view
This next batch of pictures will be of the different buildings that stuck out on the tour. Skip if ya wanna!
We were all very impressed with the tour, not only the architectural part but the history of Chicago in general. Great way to start the day.
Sears Tower (Willis Building) is the black one. It is actually 9 different rectangles put together to form one building. Tallest in Chicago.
This one is new in the past few years - look at the teeny tiny bottom! This huge skyscraper with a super narrow base - architectural masterpiece!
Look closely - Boeing. Reid said he was going to work at this office in 15 years. :)
Skinny bottom building up close
The greenish building with the gold tip was designed to look like a champagne bottle as a jab to prohibition during the time it was built.
This is the newest on the building - 2021 - the highest skyscraper to be designed by a woman. It's really pretty shades of green and blue glass.
On our way back after the boat ride we saw the Tribune Tower which has a lot of various rocks from around the world built in to the sides - our history buff really liked to spot the WWII locations.
Off to Navy Pier after eating leftover pizza in the hotel...
The weather was overcast most of the day, but we had a lot of moments where the clouds broke and we had a blue sky. It misted on us for about 5 minutes after the boat ride, and then for maybe 5 minutes that night. Otherwise, the weather was spectacular and felt like fall! (regardless of the fact that Kyle looks frozen in all of these pictures)
Three different pictures and filters of the same scene just to show the difference a fancy phone can make now! Plus, I didn't know which I liked best. :)
Reid and his flags and naval monument.
I think I'll keep him! Getting older and loving him more every day!
We travel well together!
Reid, even though he was warned to not get his shoes wet as he'd be cold when the sun went down, decided to run through this fountain. He ALMOST made it through the maze of sprays before getting doused. We told him not to complain he was cold (he said it was totally worth it!).
Bobby's Bike Hike - recommended to us and SO glad we did it. We biked a little over 10 miles and spent 4 hours with a tour guide and family from St. Petersburg, FL, with 15 and 16 year old boys.
We started at 4:30 so it was sunny and great. When we ended at 8:30, the night lights were gorgeous. It was just a great memory and we were able to see many more sights.
The tour included 3 stops - first for deep dish pizza and beer, next for hot dogs (with tomatoes - very good and refreshing, and that's coming from a non-hotdog lover).
The last stop was for gelato and more beer. They didn't go together very well.
One of the stops was in Millennium Park, which was completed in 2004 (4 years late), and was 350 MILLION over budget. Outdoor amphitheater.
The Midwest's most photographed tourist site - the Bean. It is 168 different pieces put together and then smoothed out - not one piece. Pretty cool.
We are SO strong!
I just love all of this next batch. At 8:00, the fountain plays to music and sprays up high. Our guide got us there at 7:55 so we could see it both ways!
#HaveDreams
Since we have Jason in the family, we had to stop for more sugar in the form of cupcakes, which was funny bc it was next door to the only dentist office we saw downtown.
Getting in 20 minutes of swim time for Reid before the hotel pool closed.
Saturday was a "you guys tell us what you want to do" day. Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bulls were chosen so off to Wrigley and the United Center we went!
Driving home, we saw the St. Louis arch. Reid really wanted to stop since "he'd never been" so I pulled out my handy dandy notebook (no, wait, that was from Blues Clues!!) - handy dandy family blog site and gave him this link so he could see that yes, he has been there! Picture from the road for memory sake.
Another successful trip in the books for the Walker fam!
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