Elizabeth and I were appalled upon hearing that Jo had NEVER been to Chicago. Never. Ever. Never ever. Growing up in Northern Indiana, this fact was hard for me to comprehend. It felt like i went to Chicago all the time. It's my favorite city in the whole world (Not that I have seen or been around the whole world as of yet so right now I guess Chicago doesn't have much competition but honestly that's not the point. I mean the girl has NEVER been to Chicago.), plus my boys of summer aka The Chicago Cubs = ) are there! Unable to accept that Jo had never been to Chicago before, Elizabeth suggested that we go to Chicago. And, we did. = )
Spontaneous road trips are always adventurous. Elizabeth, Jo, Cherry, and I all left for Chicago Thursday night. Elizabeth drove as always while Jo sat in the front seat. Cherry and I sat in the back of Elizabeth's white Jeep Liberty. With the help of Alley (Jo's GPS), we set off for the north western suburbs of Chicago. We were staying at Cherry's mom's apartment that night, and we would rise early in order to achieve maximum Chicago time on Friday. The ride was a long one. We left around 10:45 Lafayette time and arrived at 12:30 Chicago time. Music, singing, snapping, stories, White Castle ( I personally hate White Castle, but Elizabeth and Cherry LOVE it and Jo thinks it's pretty okay.), and Jo obnoxiously asking Elizabeth over and over "Are we there yet?" helped the time fly by. Approximately 20 miles north of West Lafayette on 65, we were surrounded by bean fields. Above these beans fields were flashing red lights. "What are those?" Jo asked.
"They are the windmills!" I responded, "All the windmills have to have those flashing red lights, so planes can see them." As we drove farther down the road, we approached some windmills built closer to the road. It's incredible to be close to them. You don't realize just how huge they are.
"I forget who I was talking to, but they said something about how the main post of the windmill is the length of four school buses," stated Cherry as Jo stared wide eyed at the giants (Every time I pass these windmills, which is more often then one would think, I ALWAYS think of Don Quixote and how he fought the windmills because he thought they were actual giants.)
"On our way back home you'll see them during the day," I said. "You know, in their own way, I really do think the windmills are beautiful."
As we got closer to our destination, we stopped at a gas station. I had been wearing a Hawaiian leis Elizabeth kept in her jeep the entire trip. A short man named Theo was working the counter. Super happy and chatty, we conversed while he checked out my items (which were actually Cherry's) and he proceeded to ask me if it was my birthday because I was wearing the lei and a constant grin. Of course it wasn't, but we all got a real kick out of him asking. When we arrived at Cherry's mom's, she greeted Cherry with a hug and a smile. The two hadn't seen each other in quite sometime. I myself hadn't seen her in roughly five years. It was late, and we were tired, but Cherry went to wake up her little three old sister. I hadn't seen her since she was a wee little baby, and now she was three! She was the sweetest little thing! She kept kissing all of us girls and telling Cherry how much she missed her. Our visit was short lived due to our early leave to get to Chicago, but I'm really glad we were able to stop there. I think Cherry needed some family time, and they needed to see her too.
The hardest thing in the world to do in Chicago is find somewhere to park. We drove around downtown for an hour looking for somewhere to park that would cost less than $50. Eventually we found parking on Van Buren for $21. Really the best parking deals are the valet parking that restaurants do. The only catch is that you have to eat at their restaurant in order to get the good deal parking of $12 - $16. Once we parked, the four of us began our walking journey. We walked to Grant Park where we saw the beautiful giant fountain (pictured at the top). After taking pictures, and Jo jokingly pretending to jump into the fountain in order to "see how deep it is" we continued to walk toward north along Lake Michigan to Navy Pier (also pictured at the top...forgive me...I'm still trying to figure out this whole posting pictures in my blog exactly where I want them to go thing). There is a bunch to do at Navy Pier. They have fair rides, such as the giant ferris wheel which Navy Pier is famous for. Water taxis offered rides to Navy Pier all along the beach. Any kind of food you could want can be found country corn, funnel cake, elephant ears, Bubba Gump Shrimp, and Billy Goat Tavern are just a few of the places/food items that you can enjoy while you are there. I have a particular interest in the Billy Goat Tavern because of it's connection with the Chicago Cubs' Billy Goat Curse, but I will save that for another blog entry.
While we were at Navy Pier we went into the Amazing Chicago Fun House Maze. It was definitely an old maze. I could tell because Scott (our video tour guide man) was wearing some clothes straight from the 90s and he referred to the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) as the tallest building in the world. The premise of the maze was to learn the history of Chicago. Facts about Chicago are written throughout the maze. First we journeyed through the underground tunnels of Chicago. This part of the maze was pretty challenging. There were a bunch of mirrors and laser lights we had to navigate through and several times we got completely turned around because it was so dark. Elizabeth being the jokester that she is even pretended to run into one of the mirrors. After the mirrors we were squished into a tight wall made from the material of those large bounce houses. from there we helped the fire department put out the infamous Chicago Fire. We ran through punching bags painted like fire and had to find the bag which would sound the fire alarm. Then we went into a room to stomp out the fire. After we saved the city, we went into a tunnel. Bare with me on this description. We walked out onto a stationary metal platform with rails;however, the platform was surrounding by a spinning tunnel lit with glow and the dark stars. As the tunnel and stars spun around you, even though you yourself were stationary, it felt like you were moving. We must have looked completely ridiculous, but the tunnel completely throws off your sense of balance. We dawdled in there from quite sometime; it was for sure my favorite part of the maze.
I'm not sure what was going on in Chicago that day, but Kraft Mac-N-Cheese was EVERYWHERE! We got free already made samples, and they were passing out free packages on the street. The new Transformers movie is also being shot in Chicago, so several streets have been blocked off due to the filming. Unfortunately, we were unable to find and capture Shia LaBeouf. = / = (
From Navy Pier, we continued our walking adventure to find Michigan Ave. Most of the good shopping is on this street and Gino's East is right off Michigan Ave on Superior. Gino's is by far my favorite pizza place in Chicago. Their deep dish is to die for. The four of us split a large crumbled sausage and cheese deep dish pizza. Splitting the large allowed each of us to have two pieces, which is more than plenty when you are eating a deep dish, making each of us pay roughly $8.50 for dinner including the tip (this is assuming you eat, I mean drink, water with your meal and do not get an appetizer. All and all it's a pretty good deal for a dinner in Chicago.) We didn't do much shopping though we did explore the Garmin, Apple, and Disney stores for awhile. By this time of day though, we were all totally exhausted and completely unsure of exactly where the Jeep Liberty was. We used the GPS on Cherry's Iphone all day in order to help us navigate Chicago; however, there is serious lag time and it was confusing to figure out exactly how to hold the GPS in order to figure out which direction to go.
As we walked to find Van Buren and the white Jeep Liberty, we stumbled across the bean. The bean is made of stainless steel and is the focal point in Chicago's Millennium Park. The reflective bean takes the classic 'MySpace Mirror Pic' to a whole new level. After taking several pictures in and underneath the bean, we continued our search for the car. Gray clouds had started rolling across the city, and beating the rain was going to be tough. Luckily for us, Michigan Ave and Van Buren run right into each other! We quickly dragged our exhausted bodies into the vehicle and headed for my grandparents house to rest for the night.
Cherry fell asleep on the drive to my grandparents house. I kept chatting and warning the others about my grandparents and their specific habits. "If we are lucky, there will be pie. The casinos give away apple pies a lot. Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie go quite a bit, so if we are lucky, there will be pie."
When we arrived to my grandparents house, no one was home. As we settled in, Cherry started talking about how hungry she was -- hungry for desert. "Where is the pie?" Cherry exclaimed, "You said there would be pie!"
"What?! I never said there would be pie. I said if we are lucky there will be pie. Big difference. Apparently we just aren't that lucky."
"That's not what I heard," countered Cherry with her little sassy attitude.
"You were asleep! How the heck do you even know what I said?"
"I woke up for a second and you said 'I can't wait to get to grandma's because there will be pie' and then I fell asleep and got all excited about this pie and now there isn't any."
Cherry never did get her pie. When Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie arrived they were ready to sit and chat with us girls. We talked to them for roughly two and a half hours before they went downstairs to watch Evan Bayh on Sean Hannity. Elizabeth and I tucked Jo into bed on the couch that night. We worked really really hard to completely tuck and snuggle her in, but that crazy girl just had to get up and use the restroom right after we had finished tucking her in. We had to leave early the next morning in order to get plates for Cherry's new car. When we arose, Grandma and Auntie had started making breakfast. Cubbie Bear pancakes, omelets, peppers, milk, juice, cereal, and a variety of fruit was all laid out and ready for us to consume. No one can cook quite like Auntie and Grandma. Everything they make is always beyond delicious. Once everyone was forced to eat more than their stomachs could actually hold, we had to bid my grandparents and auntie adieu and head back to West Lafayette. Sorry for this abrupt ending folks, but I'm pretty tired and still have a minimum of two other events to blog about from this weekend.
All my Love,
Koya = )
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