Blogs from Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America - page 79

We weren’t looking forward to the nightmare that is US customs and immigration, but we discovered at check-in that these are actually cleared in Canada, so you then effectively fly domestically. We were hence spared the usual queues from hell when we got to Chicago. Our arrival in Chicago wasn't without some grief, however, as the traffic from the airport was horrendous and it took us about two hours to get to our hotel. We took an airport bus, which we initially thought was a mistake, however it was a fixed price so it saved us from the stress of watching the meter clocking up in a taxi whilst we crawled along. After only a couple of hours walking in Chicago we also realised how psychotic their taxi drivers are. Red lights definitely don’t apply to ... read more

Since the main purpose of this blog is to show my relatives (who rarely take vacations), and those of you like them, that it is possible to vacation affordably with the family, my Chicago entries wouldn't be complete without a spending wrap-up. Knowing we'd already gone away this summer, I didn't allocate a large budget for this getaway. I wanted to spend no more than $500. The good news is, we didn't overspend. Our total for 5 nights was $481.98. Here's how it breaks down: Lodging: free (gotta love staying with the relatives!) Groceries: $50.80 (Super Wal-Mart; we packed lunches each day. Any other meals not detailed below were eaten at home) Eating out: $73.29 Details: McDonalds on the road going: $13.23 McDonalds at Navy Pier: $13.00 Coffee and donuts on the road $9.52 Chicago Style ... read more

Oklahoma After Amarillo we drove through Texas to see the leaning tower of Texas and the u drop inn where they had a really old filling station , that was very art deco. Further along in Oklahoma we went to the route 66 museum there which was really good. We spent the evening in the brickhouse area of Oklahoma city which is where all the bars and restaurants are by the side of the canal, it felt a bit like Manchester! In the morning we went to the cowboy & western heritage museum, lots of John Wayne everywhere, we learned a lot about rodeo though! Jon went into an old Jail cell, basically a metal cage in a room! The bomb memorial in Oklahoma was quite chilling, 168 people died there in the bomb of 1995- ... read more

There was no way on earth that I would be able to drag the in laws to another museum today...by now, even their children were balking at the idea. So we had to split up a little and go our seperate ways. I really wanted to get down to see the Field Museum (www.fieldmuseum.org) which is right next to the Shedd Aquarium. We were too exhausted yesterday to see it. The cousins wanted to play baseball at the park and my own kids wanted to join them. So, my husband drove me into the city and dropped me off and then took the kids out to have fun. Seeing the Field Museum by myself really worked out well. My husband's family had warned me that this museum had bored their children in the past and I ... read more

On our first day of vacation we slept in and the boys got to play with their cousins. We hung out at the house and enjoyed our down time. The next day was Sunday and we decided to head down to the Navy Pier (www.navypier.com). We had a lot of people going so we had to take two cars. That limited us when it came to parking. It is possible to find a spot on the street on a Sunday in metered spaces, but unlikely to find two metered spaces together. We ended up parking in the Navy Pier garage for $23. That was more than I was hoping to spend, but on the positive side, it was very convenient. We took a cooler lunch (I've been crowned the cold cut sandwich queen by my husband's ... read more