Gretchen posted on October 09, 2013
Our long-awaited Chicago trip is here! And it's over! We took 535 photos, of which I've curated down to only 150, so we'll have to do this blog post in sections. Part I: Chicago Round 1. This is the part where we fly direct Cancun to Chicago, go to my sister Beth's house, then stay downtown two nights while I attend a travel conference.
We were definitely nervous about flying with a one-year-old, although the fact that it was a direct flight helped. We even ponied up the extra money (I believe this is what the airlines call "ancillary revenue") in order to get the "Economy Plus" seating, ie, the bulkhead, which is the very first row of seats after first class. This was especially desirable for us because it not only has more legroom for Adam, but there's no way Isaac would be able to pull the person's hair in the row in front of us, or kick their seat. We were the absolute last people on the plane, because when you're flying with a toddler, would you really want to be on board any longer than you have to? As we were walking down the jetbridge, I said to Adam, "Some poor schmuck in seat 1C is probably thinking they'll have the whole row to themselves." "Yeah," Adam replied, "then we walk in."
That poor schmuck turned out to be a professional-looking woman who was immediately upgraded to first class, leaving us with the entire row. This was perfect, as Adam sat on the aisle seat and blocked the row in, making a type of playpen for Isaac. Which was especially fortunate, as we experienced two different delays (weather and then mechanical issues), which kept us on the tarmac for three hours before finally taking off on our four-hour flight, making a total travel time (as any first-grader will tell you) of seven hours. With a one-year-old. Although it went pretty well. We didn't even have to resort to the baby Benadryl (kidding, just kidding of course....ahem). We did resort to quite a few renditions of the Swedish Chef's Popcorn, and my favorite, Sean the Sheep. Isaac read the emergency instructions, and tasted them too. He did manage to catch a snooze in there.
Anyway, we arrived to find an unusually warm Chicago night, and took a taxi to my sister Beth's house in Portage Park, on the northwest side of Chicago. There Isaac (or "Ike" as he's also known), got to meet his cousins for the first time: Lily, almost four; and Sonia, almost two. As you can see from the pictures below, they are very calm and collected girls. The next day on Sunday, Adam bravely volunteered to watch all three kids while Beth and I went to a yoga class in her neighborhood. After I had somehow gotten myself out of the pretzel-like contortions that the yoga instructor had gotten me into, we decided that we had burned off enough calories for a Chicago-style pizza. (Maybe we were stretching it a bit.) After that we took the girls to the local park for some playtime.
Later in the afternoon, Adam, Isaac and I headed downtown and checked into the Hotel Monaco. I was attending the Eye for Travel conference downtown on Monday and Tuesday, and we wanted to stay closeby to lessen the travel time. On Sunday night, we met up with my former boss Joyce and former co-worker Ashley (from Alamo, both currently living in St. Louis), who were fortuitously also attending the conference. We had a very good dinner and a great talk at McCormick & Schmick's, and they got to meet Isaac.
On Monday I headed to the conference and Adam met up with another Titanium developer he'd met at the tech conference he had attended in Baltimore this summer. In the evening, we headed for the West Loop and met up with Theresa, Brandan, and Joe for a surprisingly delicious dinner, including the best nachos I'd ever had in my life. We also took advantage of the retro photo booth they had on the premises.
On Tuesday morning, Adam, Isaac and I headed to the Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, and marveled at the incredible efficiency of the staff there. They must have served 50 people in the 5 minutes we were there! Later I went to the conference and had a "working mom" moment when I discovered Isaac's sippy cup sticking out of my purse, the owner of which was strolling with his dad heading to the Navy Pier Children's Museum. In the afternoon, we checked out of the Hotel Monaco and Grandpa Jim came up from Peoria to take us back downstate. To be continued....
(VIDEO: Sneak peek of the trip, including some of the Peoria action.)