American adventure part 1: Chicago

All packed up and ready to go for a 7 flight 6 part 5 rucksack 4 person 3 national park 2 country 1 wedding holiday!

We flew into Chicago late in the evening and had the next day to ourselves before heading east to meet up with the family.  So we decided to have a single day seeing the sights.  However, the sights aren't open at 4:30 in the morning when Tom decided to wake us all up, so we were ready at 6 when the hotel pool opened for our first holiday swim.  Marisca felt unhappy without armbands but with them she's a speed machine.

After our first breakfast (and a panicked pause when asked how I wanted my eggs) we set off by train to the centre of the city. With slightly tired and grumpy children we were delighted to find a park as we got off the train, with a water feature (not really a fountain) for them to play in while we sipped very red Fanta.  This then led to a bit of a wander through some sculpture stuff, ending at the bean, which was much more interesting close up than the distance picture on wikipedia suggests.

Then before lunch we took a walk through some of the architecture towards Navy Pier.  The main stopping point was the Dylan's candy store which was colo(u)rful and fun and the source of energy to get us to the pizza stop. 

We had to have pizza in Chicago, and these were the first of many throughout the holiday, particularly for Marisca and Tom.  Thinking back, this was the last point on the holiday on which I was actually hungry.  Maybe due to the size of the two 'small' pizzas that the four of us managed to eat about two thirds of.

After a bit more wandering around we took a bus tour of the city, partly to enjoy the really great architecture, and partly to let the 'tons rest after a lot of walking and a lot of travelling.  It worked on both fronts and saw us through the the end of the day.

I think that after an early night and a (less) early start the next day we swam again before picking up our car and driving off to Michiana.  I can't really remember much of it though, anbd certainly didn't take any pictures.

But earlier on I did take this picture which is lovely because it's my boy, he loves his daddy, and I didn't even make him wear that tshirt.