Trip to Chicago

Tommy was at jazz camp at KU starting on July 6, so we dropped him off and headed to Chicago for the week. We stayed at my friends condo - excellent views and location just north of Millennium Park.


We decided that on this visit, we would get a CityPass - allows you to go to the Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Shedd Aquarium, and either the Hancock Building or the Sears Tower. On the first day we took a bus down Michigan Ave., ate a late breakfast at a new south Loop hotspot called Yolk - just across from the museum campus area - and walked over to the Field Museum, and got our picture taken with it's most famous resident, Sue. Sue is the world's largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton.


Although there are a number of world-class exhibits, including some interesting displays on ancient Egypt and the Maya-Aztec civilizations, it's hard to beat dinosaur fossils for getting kids interested in a museum of natural science and history.

We also explored some new neighborhoods this trip. After the museum and some rest back at the condo, we took a train north to Old Town and walked around the shops a bit before eating dinner at an excellent upscale Mexican restaurant right next to the Second City comedy club. After dinner, we toured the Hancock building and took some pictures of the city at night.

On day 2, we went to the Adler Planetarium, saw some shows there, and looked at all of their displays. Kayla had never seen a star show in a planetarium before, so she really enjoyed that, as well as a great show on time and space in their 360 degree theater. After that, we took the train to Chinatown for a great lunch at Joy Yee's, and then did some window shopping in the neighborhood.


For the rest of the day, we went shopping up in the loop (Macy's, etc.) and also checked out a more exclusive area (way too expensive for our budgets, but fun to check out) on Armitage avenue. The shops are all located on this charming old street with fixed up brownstones.

We also happened to walk by reputedly one of the top 5 restaurants in the U.S., Charlie Trotter's. As they take reservations over a year in advance, and the prix fix is over $100 per person, we decided to do pizza instead.


On our last day in town, we went to the Shedd Aquarium for most of the morning. The displays were great, but the highlights had to be the Beluga whales and the dolphin show.


After lunch at an old world Jewish deli called Eleven City Diner, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We had just been there the year before, so we just hit a couple of favorite exhibits and then went to the IMAX show that was included with our CityPass - it was a great show about the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon - perfect subject matter for an IMAX theater. We then finished up with some more shopping, dinner at the Italian Village in the Loop, and a late flight to Kansas City to go pick up Tommy the next day.

Tommy did well at the camp, landing positions in the top combo and big band, and was named MVP on trumpet for the camp.