Chicago Trip- Days 3, 4, 5, & 6

We are back from Chicago! It was a great trip! Chicago is a great city with some of the nicest people I have ever met. Everyone wanted to help and get to know us. I didn't get a chance to update very much while we were in Chicago, because our second hotel charged almost 15 dollars a day for Internet. Here are the recaps of our trip.

Day 3:
Thursday turned out to be a very beautiful day. Brayden and I got ready to go to the outdoor pool. Again, he loved being in the water. I attached a shade that came with his floatie so he wouldn't get burned. He kicked and talked the whole time we were out there. A lady and her grandson ended up coming over and talking to us. Her grandson was adorable! He was 18 months old. His mom was in the same training as Justin so his grandma was taking care of him. We talked and played with them for a while, and then went inside to rest. We were supposed to go to the Rainforest Cafe the night before but the rain messed those plans up so we went this night. The restaurant was in the mall so we looked around at the mall for a little bit. It was huge and very nice. The Rainforest Cafe was great! They had great food, and Brayden loved looking at all of the animals and fish. He was very entertained to say the least. His favorite part of the restaurant was the fish tank. After we ate, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for some dessert. Justin got the Tuxedo Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake (he loves chocolate) and I got the Original Cheesecake (I am plain Jane when it comes to cheesecake). I packed when we got back to the hotel.

Day 4:
Friday was very crazy! Justin's training didn't end until 5 pm, but we had to be out of our hotel room by 1 pm. Instead of waiting at the hotel all day, Brayden and I left without Justin to go to the new hotel. We called a cab and met the nicest cab driver. Thankfully she was nice because it took forever to get downtown. President Obama was in Chicago and Lollapalooza was there as well so traffic was even more crazy than usual. It was so exciting being downtown! There is so much to do and see. Brayden and I checked in and relaxed until Justin arrived. He didn't get downtown until around 6:30 so by then we were starving. We walked around and decided to go eat at Weber Grill. The wait was crazy, but it was a great place to eat. It was late by the time we finished eating so we didn't walk around the city for too long. We went to Jewel Osco to get some snacks and water for Brayden, and then went back to the hotel.

Day 5:
Saturday was the best day of our whole trip! We started the day off walking the Magnificent Mile and site seeing. For lunch we stopped at Gino's East for deep dish pizza. It was very good! We walked around a little bit more, and then went to the bus stop to head to Shedd Aquarium. It was a nice aquarium. It was Justin's first time going to an aquarium and of course it was Brayden's first time as well. After the aquarium, we walked to Soldier Field where the Bears play then we headed back to the hotel. Our friends Ryan and Bekah visit Chicago quite often. We were craving sushi so I called Bekah to find out if they knew of a good sushi place. She told us about Ra. Bekah said it was walking distance from our hotel, but when we asked our concierge about it, she told us that we would need to take the bus or cab to it. We called Ra to find out if we needed to take the bus and they said the same thing. We didn't want to get back on the bus so we decided to walk to it despite what the locals were saying. It was pretty far from our hotel, but the walk was not bad at all. We enjoyed being out in the city....walking allowed us to see much more than if we caught a ride. We got to Ra and ordered one of the specialty popular rolls and the Shrimp Tempura roll (we asked for them to make it spicy). Both rolls were amazing! We even ended up asking them to make another Shrimp Tempura roll. Everyone was so nice there and the atmosphere was great! All of the waitresses went crazy over Brayden. One even asked if she could take him home with her...I told her no...of course. We walked back to our hotel just in time to catch the fireworks at the Navy Pier. They were beautiful! There is so much more we wanted to do in Chicago but time just got the best of us. We want to come back when Justin isn't in training.

Day 6:
Sunday was an early day for us. We left the hotel by 7 am to get to the airport. We were so thankful that we did this because the lines were ridiculous at the airport. Our flight wasn't until 9:30...we got to the airport around 7:30 and didn't get to our gate until 8:45. Brayden ended up doing #2 while we were in the security line. I felt so bad for the people around us. One child asked his daddy why the security line smelled so bad...the dad just shooshed the child. Brayden did great on the plane, again. He fell fast asleep as soon as we got in the air and didn't wake until we landed. Now we are home and back to reality. I have washed clothes and sanitized everything of Brayden's since we have been home. The city was dirty and his toys and stroller and carseat touched all of that filth....I couldn't wait to get to cleaning. Well, that is our trip...I hope everyone has a great week!