A Real Chicago Adventure

Last week Mitch was working such late hours, his boss gave him permission to go in late one morning. He thought it would be a fun idea to have the kids and I ride the train into town with him and drop him off at work. It was my first REAL Chicago adventure. 

 We live close to 2 different train stops. Mitch normally takes the "Metra". During rush hour, the Metra runs every 20 minutes or so and only has one stop between our house and downtown. It is also a much nicer train - kind of the "business class" train. We decided that with 2 toddlers tagging along, we should take the "brown line" which is one of Chicago's public transit lines. It has 16 stops between our house and downtown, but the stroller wouldn't be out of place and people would be less bothered by the kids. Ben, of course was so excited he could barely contain himself. 

The train ride into the city went fairly smoothly, but as we exited the train, we realized the downtown stations do not have elevators and the platforms are 2 flights of stairs above the ground. That became tricky with the stroller and the 2 kids. At least I had Mitch there to show off his manliness and carry the stroller with Lydia in it as I walked with Ben down the stairs. 

As we were dropping Mitch off at the door of his building, he said, "That was great! We should do this more often!" I was thinking to myself , "Easy for you to say - I still have to make it home... by myself!"

But I'm tough - I wasn't scared. In fact, I was excited! I had big plans while we were in the city. We bid our farewell to Mitch and headed towards Millennium Park! 

As I was walking down Jackson, I realized that I had no clue where I was going or how far of a walk this park actually was. I had been there once before and it didn't seem that far away - but I wasn't pushing a stroller then and it wasn't a hot, humid day either. I got a little mixed up and thought it would be a good idea to follow this tourist group on those standing scooter things. About a mile later, I ran into Buckingham Fountain. Not a bad detour.

Ben thought it was the most amazing thing EVER. By the time we got to the fountain, Lydia was out.

 Isn't she the cutest thing... but wait - let's zoom out a little...

Hmmm... isn't that fence supposed to keep people OFF the grass? That naughty little boy. His mother is so irresponsible to lose track of him like that! Wait a second... that little boy looks a lot like my son...

I was so focused on getting Lydia centered in picture, that I didn't even notice Ben. Then my attention was even more distracted when Mitch called during my photo shoot to see how we were doing. As I'm talking to Mitch, I casually look around to see if I can find Ben. I found him. He hadn't gone far - he was still in that same spot the camera caught him in, only his pants were down around his ankles and he was saying, "Mommy, I need to go potty!"

You can imagine the rest of the story. It was time for our "adventure" to move along.

I finally stopped and asked someone where to go and they pointed me to the part of Millennium Park I had intended to visit. The kids had an absolute blast!

This is the Crown Fountain. They are 2 glass brick towers that have water flowing down them and faces of Chicagoans are projected on the fronts. Between the towers is a splash pad the kids can run through.

 And we couldn't visit Millennium Park without seeing 'The Bean'. Its official name is "Cloud Gate". 

The train ride home was an adventure of its own. As I mentioned before, there is no elevator to the train platform, so I had to haul the stroller and the 2 kids (by myself) up 2 flights of stairs. We managed to make it on the train alive, but the car was packed. Standing room only. The only place I could stand was by the door. And at every stop, Ben tried to exit the train. About half way home, the train had emptied enough for us to get a bench, but then Lydia decided to SCREAM and cry through remaining 8 stops. Delightful. :) But we did have a fun day and although I may not brave the train again with my kids alone, we made some "Millennial Memories"!