The Windy City! No, not Eagle Mountain...

On September 15, Jessica, Logan and I embarked on our adventure to visit a few places we had never been.  Our first stop was Chicago.  Chicago is home to a couple baseball teams, a football team, really tall buildings, great museums, delicious pizza, as well as a couple universities that I wanted to get a first hand look at as potential options for furthering my education.  Plus, we just thought it would be  fun place to visit.  And it certainly did not let us down.

We flew to Chicago.  It was Logan's first flight.  We were a little apprehensive, but overall it was a good experience.  I think this first flight was the easiest of our four flights for the trip.  He was well rested and he ate on take off and landing. 

We stayed about 30 minutes outside of Chicago because it is much cheaper.  We found a great hotel and it had a nearby mall.  We didn't know what to do that first night we were there, so we went exploring.  And we found a Lego store.  I was not disappointed by this visit to the mall.

Logan was generally very happy on this trip, especially considering his nap schedule was all thrown off.  Most of his naps were in the car or in the stroller.  So we tried to spend a good portion of the evening in the hotel to relax.  Here Logan is showing off his pretty blues.

Our first day in Chicago we went to the Museum of Science and Industry as recommended by our friends John and Holly who had been earlier this year.  It was a great museum and there was probably too much to see in one day, but we made a valiant effort.  Here I am in front of an actual German U-Boat.

I also got to drive a combine harvester, although, the steering, accelerator, and brakes did not work, and I think it also didn't have real wheels, but that didn't stop the fun.

After the museum closed, we decided to head into downtown, but made a quick pitstop at a park near Lake Michigan.  It was super windy (a la Eagle Mountain) so it created some beautiful waves crashing against the shoreline.

Our main draw to the city was Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and the Skydeck, a four foot glass-floor extension over the city a mere 103 stories up.  Jess was a little apprehensive about going out, but I found it exhillarating.  We did get a hard copy photo of us together on the Skydeck as proof that Jess went out there, but I'll have to upload it later once I get it scanned in.

The morning of our second day in Chicago was spent on the campus of Northwestern University.  It is a beautiful campus on the shore of Lake Michigan about 30 minutes north of Chicago.  It has some really amazing parks nearby.  After visiting, this is definitely a top choice of schools for me.  No plan yet to apply, but we are open to whatever the future might bring.

After our campus visit, we went back to Chicago to spend the rest of the day at the Shedd Aquarium.  The picture below is actually Jess in front of the Natural History Museum, but we ended up not having enough time to visit.

Here is Jess in front of the Aquarium.  It was a nice aquarium with some really cool displays.  Jess liked the penguins best.  I liked the whales and dolphins.

This is a piranha display.  You can see our reflections in the glass.  When Logan was awake, the fish were really good at keeping his attention.

This is a self picture right before their dolphin and whale show.  We had really high hopes, and don't get me wrong, it was pretty good, but not quite as cool or fast-paced as SeaWorld.  Hard to beat killer whales though.  We did have a good time though, and I really wanted a copy of the techno-fantasy soundtrack.

This was our last evening in Chicago and we got a few pictures with the skyline behind us.  Chicago is a really cool city and definitely a place I would not hesitate to visit again, and I would even consider living there.  Plus, we had Chicago style deep dish pizza our last night, and I must say, it was definitely worth the calories that one night.