Catching Kate

Last week we went to Chicago to visit my sister, Kate, and her family and play tourist for a few days. Having grown up only 4 hours away from the Windy City, it's a little embarrassing that I hadn't gone to see the sights before now. Fortunately, Kate hooked us up and was a fabulous tour guide for us! *Thanks again, Kate!*

I had only two requests for our trip to the city - the bean and the beach - and they did not disappoint. But first we took a walk to a nearby park where we met an ICE CREAM TRUCK!

Yes. This is a big deal. I could not remember ever getting ice cream from an ice cream truck before, and I have now officially checked "Visit an ice cream truck" off my bucket list. Yay!

Day 2 was a trip into the city. We needed to see the bean, which apparently is called Cloud Gate. Who knew, right? Along the way we saw Buckingham Fountain, and the Crown Fountains, I ate a Chicago Dog (and my very unadventurous children had plain, old, nothing-on-them hot dogs), and went to the bean.

Chicago Hot Dog! What else could you possibly put on a hot dog? It was startling at first with so many flavors, but it was good.

Buckingham Fountain was beautiful. We walked up while the fountain was shooting a geyser into the air. Like, a you-can-see-it-from-the-other-side-of the-park geyser. Very impressive. It stopped before we walked around to the other side, but that's ok. We got this fabulous family picture.

However, Buckingham Fountain is definitely the see it and go kind of attraction and so we snapped some pictures and moved on.

Chicago is a very interesting city. I have lived near Los Angeles (where this blog was so pitifully started, thus the name SoCal) and near Salt Lake City, but Chicago is a very different creature. They manage to blend nature and art in with the hustle and bustle of one of the biggest cities in the country so seamlessly. On the walk from one spectacular fountain to the next, there were tons of little fountains and sculptures. The park was full of gorgeous gardens, the streets downtown actually had large leafy trees. It was pretty. I could probably do a whole post with just pictures of the art around town. This one was Chelsea's favorite, though. Most of them were not particularly interesting to her, but Chelsea stopped and asked for a picture of this.

Crown Fountains were super cool. They are two miniature skyscrapers covered in subway tiles with water pouring all over the place and they are set up like a splash pad with benches all around so we stopped and had lunch, took off our shoes, and went a-splashin'. The kids had a blast and it was fun to see the faces that are projected on the two sides facing each other. The faces cycle through a variety of expressions and then spit water at you. Watch out!

Another short walk away was the BEAN! The iconic reflective sculpture of Chicago. The masses were insane, but it was worth it. I saw tons of pictures on the internet of Cloud Gate all showing it with the skyscrapers in the background (here let me add another ^^^), but I didn't see a single picture of the inside. It was amazing. Kate suggested there may be a hole up the middle of the bean and that may explain the crazy reflections on the inside. So many curves and stretching reflections in directions you don't expect. Does anybody know? Why does the inside of the bean look like it does?

A stop for ice cream after getting off the train made for some happy kids and cute pictures. A refreshing end to a fun day.

Day 3 was the beach. We went in the morning to a beach on Lake Michigan. It was an overcast Friday morning and we got the beach entirely to ourselves! The lake was clean and quiet and coooold. Also, very different from an ocean beach. (Who'd-a thought?!) The sand was hard and rocky, except a strip about 6 feet wide all the way down the beach. I'm actually not a huge fan of the ocean - too many times almost drowning and could that smell be any worse? - so the tiny waves breaking, the light color, and the fact that I could actually see the bottom 15 feet away from the shore all made that lake pretty much perfect. I'd go swimming in there in the summer.

All in all, we had a wonderful time visiting family and touring Chicago. There is still so much to see and do so we'll have to go again sometime!