Flipside of Lake Michigan

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Geo: 41.8861, -87.6364

Weather: 78*
Location: Chicago
Highlights: No tire issues, funny monkeys
Lowlights: Some tired feet grumpies
#of Swearwords: 0
People we met: Angel (waiter), Bill and Lucy Hogan
Activities: Sheds Aquarium, LIncoln Park Zoo, Habatchi dinner with Hogans, walk, walk, walk
Hotel: Courtyard Marriott Downtown/River
Funnies: Sake Shooters
Helpful hint: Buy Aquarium tickets online ahead of time. Use ParkWhiz online to find cheap
parking and reserve a spot.
Restaurants: Chango Loco (navy pier), Todoroki Japanese (Evanston)

Wow, what a day! One thing the Windy City offers (or any big city for that matter) is walking, walking and more walking and some whining (and I don't mean the wining I'm hoping for.) And a bleeding wallet. Food cost money. Parking cost money. Attractions cost money. Kids cost money. Money cost money (literally). But with all that comes a lot of fun and memories.

When we arrived, we checked-in to our hotel and headed down to Navy Pier for dinner. We ate at a mexican restaurant, Chango Loco, on the pier. Honestly, every one of us really enjoyed the meal. Our deal is that no one orders from the kid menu or ordinary dishes. We ordered a table full of fish, chicken and beef tacos, carne asada, some kind of mexican sliders (delish) and so on. Oh and margaritas. Our waiter, Angel from Mexico was fun and kindly chatted with us in Spanish (for practice). He photobombed us as well.

We meandered back to our hotel for an evening swim and hit the hay.

To start, the weather was unbelievable today. 78 degree, clear skies and gorgeous Our first stop was Shed's Aquarium. What a great place. The kids absolutely loved it. Paul and I had been there before without the kids. We got there early (9:30 AM). We had purchased our tickets online for the aquarium, the 4D show and the Sea Life Show ahead of time to save time. No wait. We hadn't eaten breakfast so we stopped at the cafe on the lower level and had a continental type breakfast. Worked out great. We pet stingrays. We saw a dolphin show. You have to get to the show early for seating and sit on either side of the rocks in the middle. Animals perform near those seats. They have coral reefs, beluga whales and many hands on exhibits where you can touch the fish. A little icky but cool.

After the aquarium we headed off to Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a really nice zoo and its free. How can the Detroit Zoo nearly close on multiple occasions and this one is completely free. It's the parking that is outrageous near the zoo. We used ParkWhiz to find and reserve a parking spot near the zoo and our hotel. Worked great. We were probably at the end of our walking by the time we left the zoo. Honestly, our parking was a 10-15 minute walk but it was the difference of $12 and $35. The kids were troopers. Matthew had a few words of discontent under his breath (but that started at 10AM). We forget he's only 8. He gets tired faster than the rest of us and let's us know loud and clear. Well, grumble and mumble.

We ended the evening with dinner at a Hibachi restaurant similar to Benihana in Evanston where our friends, the Hogans, live...lived. They are moving to Australia tomorrow for two years. What an adventure. Moving 4 kids across the world. Exciting.

We had dinner with Bill and his daughter Lucy. This hibachi restaurant has a couple neat things going on. One for kids and one for adults. They have a Japanese soda, Ramune ("Marble Soda"😉 that I've never seen before. You can't drink it unless you burst it open and knock a marble out of the top of the bottle. Pretty neat. Its the carbonation that makes the marble seal the bottle from the inside. Lucy introduced us to it.

Then there are Sake shooters. No not shots of Sake. The chef literally shoots sake out of a catchup bottle across the table into your mouth...and all over your face and down your shirt and on your iphone. Maybe that just happens to me. I should have stopped after the first one. The sushi and water brought me back to a more reasonable parenting state. Paul opted out due to the drive to the next hotel tonight. It was a fun night. Always great to see the Hogans.

Off to Madison, Wisconsin tonight to sleep and on the Dells tomorrow for some water fun! Check back tomorrow. Please excuse any spelling errors, incomplete sentences or just pure nonsense throughout this blog. I am either writing on the road, in bed after a long day or after a couple vinos...or sockies....sakes.

See you tomorrow.

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