Wednesday - Chicago – The Windy City!
Today, Dad (Dawson) got an early start to head out on appointments in the windy city. We let him get up and out and then we dove into some math work. We then cleaned up and took Summer for a long walk before leaving her in the RV all day alone. And we headed out on our big city adventure – Chicago the 3rd largest city in the USA. First stop to meet dad at his next appointment stop. Leave his car and take him with us through the lunch hours.
We headed about 11 miles to Oak Park a nice Chicago area and we found Frank Lloyd Wright’s house. This is the house on Chicago Ave that he build with his wife Catherine Tobin and they had 6 kids while living in this house. He lived in this house 20 years and his design studios right there next to the house. His mother and sister even lived on the property. It was a very fun and informative tour and the house was amazing . The Fercho kids even enjoyed it.
We left there to get dad back for an appointment at 2 pm. Then the rest of us headed into the city limits of Chicago. We decided to go straight to Lake Michigan and find parking and then walk around the city. We planned ahead and wore tennis shoes – although Franki wore converse and paid for that when we got home with some sore feet.
Mom was on a mission to find the “bean”. She has seen photos of it and that is what she wanted to see. We first found Soldier Field and did a quick photo shot there. Then we went down by the aquarium and walked the park down there. We came out by the art institute and mom was excited because she knew the bean was close. We saw the lake which Franki and Mena debated with me and mom that it was an ocean. So we need to have a lesson on the great lakes.
We walked into Millennial Park and guess what we found – yep you guessed it – “the bean”. It was super cool how you could see the reflections of yourself and the skyline in the side of the bean. Each side had different looks…we loved going under it and taking photos in and under the bean. The bean provided awesome photos and great people watching. We all loved the silver bean and where glad that mom took us to find it.
We then headed down Michigan Avenue for a while – took a short break and pitt stop and then decide per Franki’s request to go to the top of the Sears Tower. We scouted out a walking route and took out for the building and the skydeck. We got there at about 5:30 or 6 and it stays open until 8. It was a good time to go – short lines/ not a lot of people and the sun was setting…so we got to see it in light and in dark. Very fun experience. We did the sky deck and it was sort of freaky standing out on it over the city and looking down. Weird feeling to be up 103 stories in the air in a glass deck looking out at the city below. Looking out was ok – looking down was freaky! Our ears popped more going down the elevator than up -but both ways in the elevator was also a little bit of a strange feeling.
We started our walk back to the car and mom let us stop and get some ice cream cones to eat while walking back to the car. Mena had some challenges with it melting and blowing in the wind – but they were tasty treats. Thanks MOM! When we got back to the car it was fun to drive out of the city and see all the buildings lit up and decorated for the cubs. Mom said that she would have liked to find OWN and met Oprah but doesn't even know if she is in Chicago anymore. She loves Oprah and would love to meet her someday. Mena enjoyed her visit but said Chicago was too big for her and she only liked to visit. Franki and I liked it and look forward to a return visit someday - maybe coming back this weekend if we don't decide to move "forward" like the Wisconsin state motto (something I learned last week).
We had a long but scenic city drive back to the campsite. It was even longer because of the settings mom had turned on her GPS - once she realized it about 30 minutes into our windy route back - she pulled over and changed the settings again and we finally had smooth sailing back to the RV. That wasted a lot of time but it provided alot of scenery. By the time we got back there both girls were asleep and I was almost out. We got back pretty late to the RV – and mom almost had 3 sleepers on her hands- but somehow when we pulled up to the RV – we all 3 managed to get up and stumble into the RV on our own, even though Dad forgot to leave any of the outside lights on for us. However, mom decided that the stars out in the corn fields were pretty amazing. She was amazed at how wide awake we were and sharing our adventure stories with dad.
Our low light today was that our Royals lost – they just want to go back home to win the division in KC! Here’s to Friday Night ROYALS baseball. Let’s get this done boys in blue!
All in all – it was a fun, adventurous, action packed, lots of driving….day enjoyed in Chicago!
Rolling on down the road-
Quinten & mom (Tiff)
Today, Dad (Dawson) got an early start to head out on appointments in the windy city. We let him get up and out and then we dove into some math work. We then cleaned up and took Summer for a long walk before leaving her in the RV all day alone. And we headed out on our big city adventure – Chicago the 3rd largest city in the USA. First stop to meet dad at his next appointment stop. Leave his car and take him with us through the lunch hours.
We headed about 11 miles to Oak Park a nice Chicago area and we found Frank Lloyd Wright’s house. This is the house on Chicago Ave that he build with his wife Catherine Tobin and they had 6 kids while living in this house. He lived in this house 20 years and his design studios right there next to the house. His mother and sister even lived on the property. It was a very fun and informative tour and the house was amazing . The Fercho kids even enjoyed it.
We left there to get dad back for an appointment at 2 pm. Then the rest of us headed into the city limits of Chicago. We decided to go straight to Lake Michigan and find parking and then walk around the city. We planned ahead and wore tennis shoes – although Franki wore converse and paid for that when we got home with some sore feet.
Mom was on a mission to find the “bean”. She has seen photos of it and that is what she wanted to see. We first found Soldier Field and did a quick photo shot there. Then we went down by the aquarium and walked the park down there. We came out by the art institute and mom was excited because she knew the bean was close. We saw the lake which Franki and Mena debated with me and mom that it was an ocean. So we need to have a lesson on the great lakes.
We walked into Millennial Park and guess what we found – yep you guessed it – “the bean”. It was super cool how you could see the reflections of yourself and the skyline in the side of the bean. Each side had different looks…we loved going under it and taking photos in and under the bean. The bean provided awesome photos and great people watching. We all loved the silver bean and where glad that mom took us to find it.
We then headed down Michigan Avenue for a while – took a short break and pitt stop and then decide per Franki’s request to go to the top of the Sears Tower. We scouted out a walking route and took out for the building and the skydeck. We got there at about 5:30 or 6 and it stays open until 8. It was a good time to go – short lines/ not a lot of people and the sun was setting…so we got to see it in light and in dark. Very fun experience. We did the sky deck and it was sort of freaky standing out on it over the city and looking down. Weird feeling to be up 103 stories in the air in a glass deck looking out at the city below. Looking out was ok – looking down was freaky! Our ears popped more going down the elevator than up -but both ways in the elevator was also a little bit of a strange feeling.
We started our walk back to the car and mom let us stop and get some ice cream cones to eat while walking back to the car. Mena had some challenges with it melting and blowing in the wind – but they were tasty treats. Thanks MOM! When we got back to the car it was fun to drive out of the city and see all the buildings lit up and decorated for the cubs. Mom said that she would have liked to find OWN and met Oprah but doesn't even know if she is in Chicago anymore. She loves Oprah and would love to meet her someday. Mena enjoyed her visit but said Chicago was too big for her and she only liked to visit. Franki and I liked it and look forward to a return visit someday - maybe coming back this weekend if we don't decide to move "forward" like the Wisconsin state motto (something I learned last week).
We had a long but scenic city drive back to the campsite. It was even longer because of the settings mom had turned on her GPS - once she realized it about 30 minutes into our windy route back - she pulled over and changed the settings again and we finally had smooth sailing back to the RV. That wasted a lot of time but it provided alot of scenery. By the time we got back there both girls were asleep and I was almost out. We got back pretty late to the RV – and mom almost had 3 sleepers on her hands- but somehow when we pulled up to the RV – we all 3 managed to get up and stumble into the RV on our own, even though Dad forgot to leave any of the outside lights on for us. However, mom decided that the stars out in the corn fields were pretty amazing. She was amazed at how wide awake we were and sharing our adventure stories with dad.
Our low light today was that our Royals lost – they just want to go back home to win the division in KC! Here’s to Friday Night ROYALS baseball. Let’s get this done boys in blue!
All in all – it was a fun, adventurous, action packed, lots of driving….day enjoyed in Chicago!
Rolling on down the road-
Quinten & mom (Tiff)