Chicago

It's hard to believe that trip to Krape Park was an entire week ago already. The very next day, we all had super-yummy cinnamon roll breakfast. Then we headed out to check out some tornado damage at a farm down the road. Hey, it's Woodbine folks. This is top notch entertainment. And really, it was pretty fascinating!As soon as we got back, we took a few final photos...and packed into the car for the long drive into Chicago. Daddy and I have been through O'Hare lots of times, but neither of us had really been to Chicago before. It seemed like something we should do. So this time, I booked a hotel in downtown Chicago for a few nights. I probably should have known that going from Woodbine to downtown Chicago would result in whiplash.

We didn't bother renting a car in the middle of the city, but that meant we had to quickly figure out both the public transportation system (which is great) and how to maximize the walking abilities of two small children.

After saying goodbye to our fantastic Woodbine family, we set out to see what we could see around the city...on foot. Fortunately, we quickly found the river and a boat going on an "architecture tour". It sounds kind of dull, but the weather was beautiful and it was actually pretty interesting...unless you were Mam. She fell asleep about halfway through the cruise.Although there are tons of impressive structures in Chicago, I think my favorite is the Chicago Tribune tower. It was built in the 1920s as the United States' entry into an international most-beautiful-building contest. It won. It's not hard to see how. In addition to the kinda cool architecture, the outer walls of the building are studded with stones (and a few other items) from notable historic sites all over the world. Pretty neat stuff...There was a stone from the Great Pyramid in Giza, Edinburgh Castle, California's Petrified Forest, even one from the moon...