Saturday, June 29, 2013

Walking the Trails


When warm weather hits we spend a good deal of time outside, though we don't usually go out until afternoon when the sun's losing or is about to lose it's intense heat. That leaves us with several hours of outdoor time almost every single day.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Art Institute of Chicago


The last thing we did on our mini-vacation last week was visit The Art Institute of Chicago. It was one of two things we went to see for our final day there, and we seriously we could have done just the visit there alone for the entire day. It was truly that fabulous (and that spacious)!


The weekend we were there, the Chicago Blackhawks were also in the hockey playoffs. The city was hopping with fans, and The Art Institute was no exception. See the hockey helmets on their lions?  Fun!!


It was absolutely gorgeous inside, and the tickets you get are good for all day, so if you leave, keep them, you might find yourself with a (good) nagging sensation to go back.

There were many things on display, and we did not get to them all (there is no doubt in my mind that one day soon we will paying the museum a return visit). Where we did spend a good amount of time was with the art.


They had the work of Claude Monet,


Pierre-Auguste Renoir,



Vincent van Gogh,



Peter Paul Rubens,


Piero di Cosimo



Georges-Pierre Seraut


And Grant Wood, which reminded me of Chuck and his wife over at Secondary Roads because that's the painting he uses for his Wordless Wednesday avatar. What a funny association to make for a world-famous painting. See, blogging really does get knit into the everyday fabric of our life doesn't it (Hi Chuck & Sylvia!)?  :)

There were so many other things to see...furniture, tapestry, sculpture, and so on and so forth...and there were several places to eat inside the museum including Terzo Piano a gourmet restaurant that won the Best of Chicago award back in 2010. I would have liked to have sampled lunch there, but we spent so much time in the art section that we didn't get around to much else (which I regret and don't regret, if that makes an ounce of sense).  Walking around The Art Institute of Chicago was in a word, 'amazing.' There is no other way I would have wanted to spend our last day in Chicago.

If you want to learn more about the museum, you can visit their website here: http://www.artic.edu/

You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or YouTube.

Admission is $23 for adults, $17 for students and/or seniors, and it's FREE for children 13 and under.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Our Visit to Willis Tower

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. It was a part of a press trip we took to the Windy City, and easily one of my most favorite stops.


WillisTower is an amazing building right in the heart of Chicago. I've been before with my second oldest, but no one else in the family has seen it up close and personal.


The feature we most wanted to see in the building was The Sky Deck. I posted before that my husband was scared to go, but he surprised us and came along. He didn't step out into the glass boxes, but he came along. :)


The building itself is pretty amazing, being 110-stories high. When you get on the (very fast moving) elevator to go to the Sky Deck (on floor #103), they flash informational screens that let you know just how high you are, and what famous landmarks you have surpassed in height at that particular time.






The views go all around the building, and are outstanding. There are notes to let you know exactly what it is you are looking at through each window. On a clear day you can see (4) states from the Sky Deck: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The tall building in the middle was our outside view of Willis Tower
when we were walking up to it.
Willis Tower stands 1,450 feet (443 meters) high, 1,730 feet (520 meters) if you include the twin antenna towers on the top. There are 16,100 tinted windows designed onto the building. 6 robotic window cleaners come down from the roof to clean them.

The whole box that extends from the building is made of glass,
so you can see directly below you too, which is awesome!!

All of that is impressive in itself, but when you get to the side with the ledge's glass boxes, you really start to ooh and ahh. Extended 4.3 ft. from the building are glass boxes that allow you an unrestricted view of the city in all directions, including below.  That was easily our favorite part.  Here, our photographer (ahem, not me) didn't even want us to step in the boxes, hahaa, and when we did (we had to, lol :) ), he was ready to go. ;)

My daughter hammed up some photos in one box, while I went in a box directly next to hers and snapped a couple of pics. I think it was fantastic to visit in the day, but I bet it would be quite the sight when it is nightfall as well.


If you are in Chicago any time soon, this is an awesome building to visit. It is my second favorite attraction in the whole city that we've seen (and we've seen quite a few), second only to The Bean, which I really can just never resist. :)

There are some fun facts about the building that you can read here: http://www.theskydeck.com/for-kids/fun-facts

Or you can learn more about the SkyDeck by visiting the website: http://www.theskydeck.com

You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and/or Pinterest.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Legoland Discovery Center - Chicago



Just outside of Chicago (in Schaumburg) is the Legoland Discovery Center.  We have lightly discussed going there for the last couple of years, and this time actually made the trip.  Our youngest had no clue where we were going and was pretty excited when we pulled up and it dawned on him that the big giraffe meant tons of Lego fun was in his immediate future.


Batman welcomes visitors at the front door. The whole time we were there I couldn't help but wonder just how long it took to create the items on display. Definitely a lot of time and effort went into everything they had out to see.


The tickets are reasonably priced at $21 a person (2 and under free), or $15 a person if you pre-purchase online. If you go after 3pm and have pre-paid online it's $12 per person (over age 2). Once you're in, you can stay as long as your little heart desires. Our son would have stayed forever, but we nixed that because we had other things to do. ;) We did spend a good few hours in there though, and it was a lot of fun.


The jungle tour, complete with Indiana Jones was a big hit with both of the kids.


I thought everything was great, but some of the Lego creations really struck me as being amazing, like Mr. Friendly above (the little Legoman coming up for the sneak attack behind him is being a little too brave, m'thinks).


The first floor also had a drive-through ride (Kingdom Quest) that let you competitively shoot a laser gun at things from beginning to end. Not to brag here, but I smoked everyone in the family on this ride...twice. hehehe


Upstairs there were tons of hands-on activities for the kiddos to do. There was a ride that went up and down if you pedaled it, while swinging around in a big circle. You can see the first time my two went on, the oldest was scared her brother was too small. She held his hand the whole time. Towards the end of the visit, he was riding with his hands in the air. ;)


There were stations everywhere for Lego building.  All four of us spent a good amount of time building, though my teen wasn't overly thrilled w/photos at that point, and kept turning her head. She made a great Jamaican colored castle (an idea spawned by seeing a cab driver on the freeway with a Jamaican hat). I wish she'd have acquiesced to a picture, but she didn't, so you only have my word that it was the ultimate in cool. :)


There were opportunities aplenty to burn energy too, most notably in the padded pit.


The 4-D cinema was a hit, and I think my daughter liked it more than anyone (though my son loved it). We went twice (two different movies). The movies were interactive with wind blowing on you, water sprinkling you, and things like that happening while you watched. Dad got tired waaaaaaay before any of the rest of us did and actually fell asleep during the second movie. These things happen when you get up there in the years (hehe). ;)

What a couple of scaredy cats. ;)

There are other things to do, like the learning workshop that teaches you tips and tricks to building (taught by the team who made the creations you've just seen). We didn't have time to attend, but it sounded interesting. There's a big gift shop on the way out if you're interested in taking Legos home.

We went to the Legoland Discovery Center in Chicago, but there are others: Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Kansas City, and Westchester. There is also one in Canada (Toronto), two in Germany (Berlin and Oberhausen), one in the United Kingdom (Manchester), and one in Japan (Tokyo).

The website and social media links are below if you want to check them out for yourself.

Website: http://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/chicago/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ldcchicago
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LDCChicago

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Staying in Chicago? Stay here!


If you're headed to Chicago any time soon or over the summer, and will be needing a hotel, I highly recommend the Comfort Suites on the famed Michigan Avenue.  When we go to the city, we usually stay just outside of it because parking is impossible to find or atrociously priced (both of which severely annoy my husband).  This time, we decided to give Comfort Suites a try and it made the trip so much nicer!


Situated smack dab in the  middle of the downtown area, you can literally walk to everything. Valet parking was offered at a neighboring partner just around the corner at a very nice discounted price. We had the car parked, and didn't have to think about transportation or parking for the entire rest of our trip.


The hotel itself was nice and roomy with several closet/storage spaces, a fully equipped kitchen (we're talking right down to the bottle opener and the paper towels) with a dishwasher, a bar (to do homework on if you're an egghead like my husband...and I say that lovingly), two queen-sized beds, and a work desk. It also had a washer and dryer so you didn't have to lug home dirty clothes. It was like a very reasonably priced mini-apartment.


There were also AC and USB outlets all over the place (and free WiFi), so everyone with an electronic device (and we all had them) had an outlet to use at the same time. The flat screen TV was there, as was an easy-to-work safe. The bathroom was a little small, but who cares? You're in Chicago and it had everything you needed anyway.

From our hotel window we could see the Chicago River where we took our boat tour.
The view from our hotel was of bustling Michigan Avenue, and in the left corner, if you looked down, you could see the Chicago River. We walked over there to see what was going on. I remembered some of you mentioning the river cruise, which was right there, so we decided to do it. What a great decision!! It was close to dusk so we got the best of both worlds, a view in the daytime and a view at night.


This is where my camera broke. I did manage to get four or five pictures, which made me happy. We missed out on sooo many great pictures though...especially the ones at night. But it's okay, we had the absolute best time and because I didn't have to worry about the camera getting wet, we spent the second half of the boat ride at the very front (at the kids' request). No idea why they loved that so much, but they surely did. I thought it was nice to hear the history behind the Chicago buildings and find out what it was we were looking at if I didn't already know. The kids thought it was fun to see the water splashing on the front of the boat, go figure.

Business Center at the Comfort Suites Hotel 

The next morning we had the free hot breakfast, and hubby needed to use their business center to print something (still thinking of his school work, ugh!) and we set off in the other direction to see what we could find. You can see I also got a new camera from the CVS store right down the road. The quality of photos wasn't near as good w/the new cheapie point-and-shoot, but still and the same I was glad to have it.


We walked everywhere, and came across a really great live concert outside at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion (Millennium Park), Giordano's (where we did have dinner, thank you to all who suggested it because my husband loved it), and The Bean. I know it has a different name, but we always just call it The Bean. I get far more excited about seeing it than anyone else does, in fact, my family makes fun of me because I like it so much. Whatevs. :)


I don't care. They can laugh all they want, I love The Bean. ;)  Where else can you come across kids doing backbends, adults doing handstands, and groups of people laying down underneath it together w/their feet touching in a circle to try and get a cool picture? Plus every angle offers a great view of the city.

There were a lot of great places to walk to from the hotel. Shopping on the Magnificent Mile (which we did not have time to do), Broadway shows (of which we did not have time to see), Navy Pier (which we saw only by boat ride), and tons of other places to see, visit, and eat/shop/marvel at (some of which we did have time to do). And if you're coming in or going to the airport, the Orange Line of the metro is six blocks away to take you directly to Midway International Airport, and the Blue Line is six blocks away to take you to O'Hare.

There are other things I want to blog about from the trip, but I wanted to share the hotel. The best part of the hotel besides the safe and very prime location is the price. It's really no more than what you would pay on vacation while you were visiting most any city, and it puts you right in the middle of everything. My husband likes comfort most in a hotel, and I like location: Comfort Suites - Chicago had both.

A big shout out to the staff who was very kind, and to the gal running the desk when I checked in who pretended not to notice I was stuck in the revolving door w/the fold-up stroller (never mind that story, but know it did mortify my teen which was kind of funny). If there is one negative about the hotel, it's the elevators, and that's not really a negative if you know about it and are prepared to wait. There are two of them but there always seems to be a wait to get on and off because they're stopping at 26 floors along the way.

The hotel can make or break a trip, and for us, this one made ours simply marvelous. I loved being right in the middle of absolutely everything. This is definitely a great hotel to know about, and really, there's nothing but good I can say about it, it was a remarkable stay.

I'll blog about more of our trip later this week, but I wanted to tell you all about the hotel, so that if you're going to Chicago you can put it on your list of considerations.  Now, I'm off to write a review on TripAdvisor (that won't be near as long ;) ).

The info. on the hotel, if you want to check it out yourself is below:

Comfort Suites
320 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 384-1208 Fax: (312) 204-6910



I don't know if they ever put up discounts or coupons on their Facebook or Twitter, but I'll be checking to see. If you want to follow them on either they're social media sites are below:


Twitter: @CSChicagoHotel



    Tuesday, June 18, 2013

    Wordless Wednesday - Chicago

    An interesting planter we came across in Chicago, just outside of Willis Tower.

    Friday, June 14, 2013

    Michigan's Adventure

    Disclosure: We received a family 4-pk of tickets and lunch for Blogger's Day. No other form of compensation took place. All opinions stated are sincere and completely my own.

    I admit it, I'm a creature of habit. There is one amusement park I like, no...love, and it's the one I go to every single year (and that was true even when I lived 1,200 miles away). Perhaps I like it so much because it's where I grew up? In any case, it's made me so happy that besides Disney World, it's the only amusement park I consider when the warm weather shows up.

    This year, we decided to do something different. Oh, we'll still go to the other amusement park (are you kidding me, I wouldn't miss it!), but I can honestly say I have a new park that I love, and that's Michigan's Adventure. I posted about it not long ago, & said we would like to go. Well, we did go, and everyone loved it.

    The rides were fun! And plentiful. And the best thing was NO LINES!!! Well, some had little lines, but nothing worth mentioning, really. You could ride as many times as you wanted with no worries at all. We rode Shivering Timbers several times. Look at this, I think it's the longest roller coaster I've ever seen, and it was awesome!!


    Shivering Timbers was much longer than I thought it would be, & it was awesome!


    There were other coasters there too, including one that rode under the track and went upside down.


    One of the beauties of an amusement park is that they please all ages. Michigan's Adventure was no exception. There were rides for all ages to enjoy, and some that we could all enjoy together.







    My daughter thought it would be a good idea to go on the Rip Cord. If you're not familiar with it, it's a ride that takes you high into the air and swings you on a cable.


    That's her below, that little dot way up high on the left.


    She thought it would be a good idea, even though it started to rain while she was in line. Nothing too hard, and no lightning, but a steady drizzle that got us all soaked.


    Speaking of water, and this is unheard of to me, there is also a water park (WildWater Adventure) inside of Michigan's Adventure. It's huge and admission is included in the $29.00 admission price. That's right, you get unlimited access, all day long, to the amusement park and the water park.

    It was raining so we didn't play in the water park, but I did take a couple of pictures.





    We had our lunch in the park at the Family Grill, which is an outside all-you-can-eat place, where you sit under covered picnic tables. There was a lot of seating, so that wasn't a worry. The food was good (traditional BBQ menu options) but the line was slow, so make sure you get what you want the first time around (don't do salad first and expect to go back for your main course) because you're not going to want to wait in the line more than once. They also had ice cream for the kids (adults too if they wanted it), so that was a big hit.


    After lunch we changed into dry clothes and since the rain had then stopped, we went out for more rides and amusement park fun.





    If you noticed, she's laughing uproariously in this picture, and the bumper car pictures above too. I guess she just likes running into people, lol.

    We had a great time, and I'm telling you it's changed my way of thinking. I fully intend to explore other parks now. We do have guests from time to time who we end up taking to the amusement park. I think instead of traveling to the next state over (like we've always done), we'll take them here instead.

    Like I said, I still love the other park, and probably always will, but there's something to be said for being able to actually ride the rides!  At the other park you have to pick two or three coasters and stand in line for hours to get to ride them. It's fun, but the lines aren't (maybe that's my age talking). The other thing I noticed is Michigan's Adventure employees are all friendly and kind. No one's stressed out and grouchy from too many people making too many requests (big crowds will do that to you).


    We ended up leaving a couple of hours before closing time just because the threat of rain was so imminent. It turned out to be a good choice too because it started pouring not too awful long after we got into the car.

    If you're in the area, and looking for a fun place to visit, I highly recommend Michigan's Adventure.  You can learn more about the park by reading their website here: https://www.facebook.com/miadventure

    You can also follow them on Facebook, and/or Twitter.