Day 14: Chicago Day 2

Last night was tough for me, I definitely didn't sleep well.  I woke up fitfully feeling as though it was 25 degrees in here with my skin hurting.  Eric was kind enough to get me water, help me fix the blankets, and get me back to sleep.  This morning was much better, but the trouble wasn't over yet.  You see, I am hard on cameras and have broken my last 4 within a year of purchase via dropping them.  Last week I bought a "tough" camera, that is drop resistant up to 5 feet, and water resistant up to 15 feet, BUT it won't be in until after we get home from Chicago.  So I borrowed my mom's Canon Powershot for vacation pictures - as of this morning the flash has died, making clear pictures near impossible.

We finally left the hotel, now confident with our ability to navigate the L.  We took the red line past the loop and went to catch our first bus of the trip.  After about 2 miles, we realized that we got on the right bus, but we got on the west loop of it instead of the east and were heading away from our destination.  We proceeded to get off the bus at the next exit and waited 15 minutes for an eastbound bus.  Success!

We made it to the Field Museum and were greeted by Sue, pretty impressive.  We went to the special exhibit and were shrunk down to less than an inch tall!  Then we explored life in the dirt, fun fun!  And if you'll believe it, we had lunch at McDonald's.  In our defense, it was IN the Field Museum and we didn't eat breakfast!

We're scared of Sue!

Yep, McDonald's!

Eric wants these in the living room.

This is the line that we got to cut!

These guys were holding tails!

It was fuzzy, like algae.  There was another one that I pet
that was hard and rocky feeling.

Next we went to the Shedd Aquarium and our Go Chicago cards let us skip to the Will Call line, bypassing at least 100 people in line.  Now, this "skip the line" bonus led us to a 40 minute wait in the Will Call line, lame.  We saw some pretty cool fish and turtles, I got to pet some startfish, we watched an Addy-like penguin play with a basketball, and witnessed dolphins peeing in the water.

When we were done there we trotted over to the Adler Planetarium.  There we had a lot of fun with a huge microscope zooming in on the details of our wedding rings, a cut of Eric's, a scar of mine, and some of my many moles - it was crazy!  Eric also flew a rocket simulator before we went off to our 2 star shows.  The first one was about constellations, and the second was about the formation and history of the stars and universe.

My blue topaz

            

          My ruby

 My diamond

 

Eric's ring

 Eric flying

We then, skillfully, bussed over to Navy Pier and caught an Architecture River Tour Cruise and learned lots about Chicago.  There is a building that looks like a flask, there is a fountain that shoots across the river for 10 minutes at the start of every hour.  Many buildings were built under an ordinance that only 1/4 of the building can be the full height and the rest must be below a certain height, in order to allow "sunlight and air to reach the city streets."  That ordinance is no longer in effect though.  Also, many of the buildings have tributes to the city through things such as green windows to reflect the river, curves to imitate the curve of the river, and circle vents that look like boat portholes.  Chicago houses the largest building in the world, the merchandise market, which is 2 city blocks big.  They also have the most moveable bridges in one city - they once had over 50 and now have 36 operational.  We also learned that the rivers water is very polluted and that they reversed the flow of the river so it wouldn't pollute Lake Michigan, instead it heads to St. Louis!  Recently it has improved from "toxic" to "very hazardous."  Last year the Willis company bought 3% of the office space in the Sears tower, and this entitled them to change the name to the Willis tower, and Chicago in turn hates them for it.

The flask building

Our cruise ship

Mirrors on the pier

Kiss on the end of the pier

This is my imitation of the grumpy face!

A place for boats to dock looks like a grumpy face...

When we got off of the tour, we walked Navy Pier for awhile and then bussed, trained, walked, trained, and walked some more in search for Chinese food - but everything closes at 7pm!  We ended up at Gino's and had some amazing toasted ravioli and barbecue chicken pizza.

Now, once again, off to sleep before another adventurous day!

Day 13: Chicago!

We made it safe and sound today!  There was a lot of stress and worry getting into town, but everything went smoothly.  Our hotel has free parking, but only 24 spots for 71 rooms.  This trip was relying on us being able to park at the hotel, so we planned on arriving by 10am [check out is at noon, check in is at 3].  Getting here that early meant that we could wait in the parking lot for hours to get a spot from someone leaving.  We pulled in at EXACTLY 10am, after an uneventful 10 hour drive [and dinner at IHOP], and pulled right into an empty parking spot.  Success!

Eric sleeping in the car, eyes part open.

 I took a picture while driving, you can tell that we 

drove through the night - sooooooo tired!

 Eric did drive half of the time, I swear!  

We weren't using the map, but I had him 

open it to downtown so it would be ready.

We stopped in Romeoville to change 
drivers.

 Our first view of the city!

Then we changed into some fancy clothes to hit up Vivo for an 11:30 lunch.  We walked to the red line and bought 3 day passes for the Chicago CTA [public transit in the form of subways and buses].  After about 5 minutes of looking at maps and asking for help, we were on our way!  We had to walk about 10 blocks to Vivo and found a destroyed car and some pants on the ground, but this restaurant was NICE!  It has an open storefront with no wall and tables that go out onto the sidewalk, the walls inside are lined with wine bottles and there is an elevator shaft with a private table in the upper back corner.  We asked for the shaft table and had a great meal with fantastic service.  We will be bragging about our honeymoon all weekend, it got us a round of free OJ with San Pellegrino [sparkling water].  I had mista [green salad with balsamic vinaigrette] and penne con pollo e mozzarella [penne with chicken, mushrooms, and mozzarella, in a basil tomato sauce], and Eric had creamy asparagus soup and farfalle con salmone affumicato [bowtie pasta with smoked salmon in a vodka cream sauce].  All during lunch, this place had rockin' music, and they played "Jessica" within 5 minutes of us sitting down!  The same song we played on Guitar Hero at the wedding reception.

We can handle public transportation!

An interesting sign, haha

Yikes!

Some funny graffiti

  Yum!

 Jessica's meal

Eric's meal

 Various shots of Vivo, the decor, and our elevator shaft!

After Vivo we had our picture taken on Green St., went to Macy's to pick up our Go Chicago Cards, and visited Millennium Park before heading back to the hotel to check in.  We promptly fell asleep until 8pm and now we're off to dinner at Ed Debevic's, a dinner who's specialty is to be rude to you!

Green Street

 Pants on the ground (pants on the ground, looking like a fool with your pants on the ground)!

 For Ashley!

A subway shot

Millennium Park, we asked someone to take our picture and he zoomed in on our faces!  WTH?

We took a picture of ourselves!

At Ed Debevic's we ordered waters to start and our waitress replied "boooooring!"  We then ordered an Oreo shake and when she brought it back in one glass with 2 straws, we let her know we were here on our honeymoon.  We shared the Route 66 burger for dinner, a bacon cheeseburger with guacamole.  Then she brought us a "World's Smallest Sundae" with 2 tiny spoons and a souvenir shot glass and sang a 45 second freestyle honeymoon song to us.  Very cool!

We're in Chicago!  On our honeymoon!  Woo!

 On the wall outside Ed Debevic's

 Dancing on the bar

Our Oreo shake and World's Smallest Sundae

This SmartCar had it's rear bumper perfectly lined up with the tow line, and his front bumper was touching the car in front of it.  Talk about a perfect fit!

 Finally, check out how much we are saving for 4 days [84 hours] of parking!

Now we're in for the night to watch some free cable, rest our weary feet, and prepare for tomorrow!

Day 12: Money, Money, Money!

Blah!  Even when we actually have money, I hate to spend it.  We're leaving for our honeymoon tonight and we'll be driving in my car.  The sticker in my car says it should have been serviced at 42,000 miles...I'm at 44,600, oops!  So I planned on getting it changed this afternoon - this was $25 at Jiffy Lube, upped to a total of $100 when they told me that I was 15k miles overdue on a radiator service.  They also pointed out giant cracks in one of my tires and said that 3/4 tires had these problems.

My new Jiffy Lube tag recommends an oil change at 47,621 miles, and for me to smile regularly.

The ripple under the H on the tire is the tire cracking - they said I was at major risk for a blowout.

Eric hopped on the phone and found me a deal for tires and installation for $388 - and the service lady was incredibly rude to me when I brought the car in.  THEN THEY tell me that my back two wheels are bent and need to be replaced ASAP.

I went to Wal-Mart to blow time while they were installing the new tires and found these patriotic shirts... Hecho en Guatemala [Made in ...]  Nice.

On top of spending $500 on my car, I got Eric some new clothes and spent another $45.  Luckily, as emotional as it is to spend all of this money, we got through it without putting a thing on credit.  Eric and I are cash only spenders and we only pay interest on our stupid mistakes from the past.  For instance, when I reviewed the information about my car purchase a year and a half ago, I found that I spent $1600 on a service package with a $100 deductible.  STUPID - the only thing a new car should need in the 72 months that this is valid is oil changes.

While Mystic likes to glare at her Mommy.

P.S. Addy likes to cuddle with her Daddy's clothes.