Across the Miles: Millennium Park

We left Camp Forest Springs after breakfast on Saturday morning and headed back into Chicago. Since Wisconsin is known for its cheese production, we saw numerous billboards and signs to this effect on the trip. A couple in particular really made us laugh. The door to one gas station we stopped at boasted: "Squeaky fresh cheese curds inside". Other signs advertised heavenly places such as "Cheese Dreams" (or "Dreamy Cheeses" - I can't remember which), and "Naughty Novelties and Bakery". (The "and Bakery" was what cracked us up. Was it naughty, too?)

We made much better time on the return trip, and arrived at our hotel by 4:00 PM. The kiddos were excited to discover we would be staying in a room on the 12th floor! This too was an answer to prayer; Danny was able to find a suite for a very reasonable price, so we actually got our own bedroom. There was exactly enough room to put 2 munchkins on the fold-out love seat, set Malachi's pac-n-play up in the corner, and put the love seat cushions together right next to it for the other munchkin. We had to go get extra sheet sets, pillows and towels several times, and they must have thought we were a little nuts, but it worked out great. And how did we take advantage of the benefits of having our own room? We crashed almost as soon as the kiddos went to bed!


For dinner, since I'd packed all of our breakfasts and lunches for the trip, we decided to splurge for one meal and hit the Rainforest Cafe in the Schaumburg mall. We'd been there once before, in San Francisco, about 8 years ago, but it was so much more fun to go with kids. With its aquariums, life-sized jungle animals hanging off the walls and from the ceiling, and simulated thunderstorms, they thought it was the best thing since the invention of the mini-farm.

After dinner, we walked the mall, which has 3 levels and is, I believe, the 2nd largest mall in America (next to the Mall of America). Of course, we had to visit the Disney store for the kiddos, and the Apple store for Danny (the one place he likes to window shop!)

The next morning, we were up and out of the hotel by 8:30, and Danny had a surprise planned: a trip to Millennium Park in Chicago! This was a special treat, since I absolutely love the city, and whenever we travel up to Wisconsin every couple of years, we don't normally have time to go in and enjoy it, mostly because we've always said we wanted to wait until the kids were a little older and could enjoy it more.

It was a wonderful morning. The famous "Taste of Chicago" festival was being set up for the day, and since it was only 9:30 on a Sunday morning, we got to walk around it before all the crowds arrived. And Millennium Park was amazing. We walked to Cloud Gate, a huge aluminum bubble is the only way I can describe it. It was a really hot day, so afterward we headed to Crown Fountain, a large concrete (?) slab with 2 structures made of glass brick on either end. Water cascades down, creating a little pool for kids to play in. On these structures are digital video faces of Chicago residents, and every so often a fountain squirts out of their mouths. I think I must have taken about 6 pictures of these faces, because it was just hilarious.

We found a huge swing made of metal and went past a lot of beautiful gardens, all of which had names I don't remember. We walked around the loop area some more and then headed back to the van.



Cloud Gate


Crown Fountain
Spewing from Crown Fountain
The beginning of Route 66! ("It winds from Chicago to LA")

I feel the need to mention that on this trip, I had some of the worst coffee experiences of my life. On the way up to Wisconsin, I was craving an iced cappucino, so we stopped at McD's since that seemed to be our only option. Danny got me the LARGEST size - I mean, I never even knew a cup this large existed. And it was nasty. I do not recommend McD's cappucinos! But we were thrilled to discover that the hotel we stayed in both on the way up and on the way back through Chicago, had a Starbucks. Our joy turned to a grimace, however, as soon as we tasted our long-awaited beverages. It was nothing but sludge. I even got another the second time we stayed there, thinking "Come on, this is Starbucks - it has to be better than this on a normal day." But no deal - the drinks were just as bad the second time around. I only mention this because, of course, coffee is such an important part of life.

The only other noteworthy experience on the trip back was our time in Gary, IN. We intensely hoped that we wouldn't HAVE any time in this really scary city, but that was not to be. We had just made it out of the Chicago area, when we found we were nearly out of gas, and every one of the kiddos had to use the bathroom (except for Malachi, who went as soon as we got back into the van).

It was like we had entered a sort of twilight zone. The gas station we stopped at had a glass wall between the customers and the cashier, who wouldn't even look up or answer me until I'd asked him for the third time if there was a bathroom. He mumbled a barely audible word that sort of sounded like a "no". A lady in the gas station informed me that there was a "K Market" across the street with a bathroom. We entered, and again, couldn't get anyone to look at us or answer us, until one employee muttered that there was a bathroom in the back of the store. I dragged the 3 kiddos into a back storage room off of another back room, where a table full of people were smoking and glaring at us. I half expected to see someone on their knees with a gun aimed at their head. Needless to say, I encouraged the kiddos to do their business very quickly and we high-tailed it out of there. The whole place smelled of cigarette smoke, alcohol and unwashed bodies.

But, as soon as we were safely back on the highway, the trip flew by. I ended up sitting in the back with the kiddos, who were pretty tired of traveling by that time, and spent a full 30 minutes laughing with Malachi. We made it home around 8:30 that night - our beautiful home!! It's nice to get away for a while, and it's nice to come back home. I'm so grateful for God's provision and for the time we had as a family.