Downtown Chicago

The one thing Connor was most looking forward to doing this summer was taking the train to "Cago" (Chicago).  We finally got around to doing it in mid-July!  We even convinced Grandpa Giese to come with us (a decision he might be regretting, LOL!)  We took an early express train from Aurora to Chicago. 

Then, we started walking toward the lake.  We hit Millenium Park to visit the "bean" and the fountains, then found a "family tent" with live children's music and fun activities, but Connor was SUPER crabby so we decided to start making our way north toward Gino's East Pizzeria for lunch.

 

 

He perked up quite a bit after that:)  After lunch, we walked a block over to Water Tower Place to ride the waterfall escalators and the glass elevator.  The kids were occupied for quite awhile in the Lego store (Juliana building a beautiful flower garden and Connor crawling around on the floor pushing a train....so basically what we could have been doing at home!!) 

 

 

Then we headed to the John Hancock tower.  The kids wanted to ride the "fast elevator" all the way to the top, where they actually enjoyed the view (unlike last year in the Sears tower.)

  Since it was starting to get late, we decided to skip Navy Pier and instead found a water taxi (boat) to take us back to the train station where we just barely managed to secure seats together on a very crowded train.  There's always just something about being in the city....a totally different experience:)