Chicago- Magnificent Mile, Hancock Building, Navy Pier, and L Train

 What to do when sleep is no where in the picture for the night?  Well, work on the blog of course.  So here I am.  Long time.  I know.  Back to our trip to Chicago.

We started our first day off with a trip to downtown and we did some serious walking.  If you ever find yourself pregnant and need to keep a close tab on your weight during a vacation, just head to Chicago. I ate real good while on vacation, but did a great job with my weight due to walking 2 miles in the morning before leaving the hotel and at least 5 additional miles each day in the windy city.

Check out this cutie on July 4th

Water Tower Place

Wrigley Field Chairs

 We walked down Michigan Avenue/Magnificent Mile in every which direction.  When you are in the middle of skyscrapers, cell phone navigation systems are not the best idea.  We headed north, south, east, and west, but did get to see all of Magnificent Mile.  We stopped for our first tourist attraction of the morning at the Hancock Observatory.  As you reach the top (94 floors in the sky) your ears begin to pop and you get to view 1000 feet above the Magnificent Mile.  You can view Lake Michigan and see the four neighboring states from one building.

 Next up on the list was Navy Pier, which is a 3,300 foot pier along Chicago's shoreline of Lake Michigan.  The Pier draws crowds for its carnival atmosphere, shows, restaurants, rides, and museums.

Photo on edge of Navy Pier

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel Fun

Go Caroline!

 Our transportation of choice for the trip was the 'L' train, which is short for elevated train.  The train serves over 140 stations and can save you a lot of money and save quite a bit of time if you plan on traveling to Chicago.  We stayed just north of Chicago and this was our transportation for the week.  We never once had to drive into downtown or the loop! I highly recommended this transportation if you plan on visiting the windy city.

Stay tuned for more of our first day soon!

Taste of Chicago

 As I am scrolling through my pictures I realize that a large portion of our trip revolved around food.  Who would have thought?  We did eat at some established and local restaurants known for their Chicago heritage.

1) Uno's Pizzeria- The Uno story began in Chicago in 1943 when Sewell developed deep dish pizza and opened a new type of restaurant. It was here that the pizza were served like a pie with a tall edge.  They welcomed the original deep dish pizza.

2) Little known fact we learned: Deep dish pizza takes at least 45 minutes to cook.  You can order while waiting on a table.

 3) Crust on the bottom and sides, followed by cheese and meet, topped with sauce and vegetables.  It took me a little bit to get used to the sauce on top of the pizza.

 4) Definitely an acquired taste with very thick crust.

 5) Next up on the list...a Chicago Style Red Hot.  Now, I could have a few more of those!

 6) Check out the sandwich on the kids menu!  Huge!  What kid can devour that?

 7) In Milwaukee we decided to take the locals recommendation and try Maders German restaurant. Milwaukee has a section designated to the thick German heritage.  I cannot even begin to remember the name of our choice of appetizer and lunch, but it was thick, heavy, fried, and delicious.  There are not many times when my family does not make a happy plate when we go out to eat, but there was simply way to much food for us to consume.  Huge and heavy German portions.

 8) We walked across the street to the Wisconsin Cheese Market.  Any kind of cheese, you name it, they have it.  Blueberry, cinnamon, basic, you name it and they have it.  I was ashamed to say I get the mexican fiesta blend from Wal-Mart.  These northerners would be in shock!  The following day we went on a cheese factory tour to learn and see the process of cheese making and sampled fresh cheese.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our activities in Chicago!

Vacation 2014-Chicago and Milwaukee

 We set a goal to visit every state as a family and see the highlight of that particular state.  We started checking states off our list after Caroline joined our family and we have officially marked off twelve states.  This summer our goal we set was to mark off Illinois and Wisconsin. We decided that the highlight for those states would be Chicago and Milwaukee.  We had a great time, made lots of memories, and shared lots of laughs.  We hope you enjoy scrolling though our journey over the next few days.

Vacation here we come!

Traveling companion

We split the trip to Chicago up into two days and made the trip home from Milwaukee in one day. Caroline was a wonderful traveler, although this time she did spend a large portion of the trip watching movies.  When the dvd player was not working she would sing!  We have a sweet and animated daughter that kept us rolling on the trip!