Chicago Vacation
The Sniper
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After the insane beginning of my family vacation detailed in my Eight Lives Remaining post, we were picked up by my Uncle whom we were staying with (Enterprise rental car, whose slogan is "We'll pick you up!"? Yeah, dont believe THAT sh!t fellas!) we eventually made our way to Chicago and started our week long vacation. The girls and I had an absolute ball and it was the same story every single day we were in Chitown - wake up around 7 or 8 in the morning, enjoy a cigar with my Uncle on his back porch and solve the world's problems (yeah, my Uncle is a cigar guy. Of course!), wake the girls up, RUN RUN RUN all day painting the town red, get home around midnight or 1am, crash, get up and do it all over again all week long. Here are some of the highlights, in picture form...
At the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the very best museums in the entire world. My Uncle Jimmy was very excited to play tour guide and lay some culture on the girls! Note my daughter Courtney doing her best McKayla Maroney "NOT IMPRESSED!" pose... LOL
They were much more impressed with Millenium Park, featuring the world famous "Bean". I've never seen anything like this, and the girls & I were completely blown away!
We took an architectural tour of the downtown area by boat...
... before continuing on to spend an evening at Navy Pier.
We took in the Shedd Aquarium...
And stopped by Soldier Field (GO BEARS!) while we were in the neighborhood.
Spent an afternoon at the beach on Lake Michigan... sorry boys, ya dont get the pics of the girls running around in their bikinis! LOL
Also took in the Blue Man Group - best concert / live show Ive seen in my entire life! If you ever get the chance to check out one of their shows, jump all over it!
Took a Segway tour of the downtown area - the Segways were friggin AWESOME! If anyone is trying to come up with a Christmas present idea for me, a Segway would do just fine! Again, make sure you check a Segway out at some point in your life!
A nice shot of the wild bunch, with the Chicago skyline in the background (l to r - my youngest Ashley, me, my oldest Courtney, and my Uncle Jimmy).
We ended the trip with an evening at US Cellular Field for a White Sox game. A pic of the girls with The Cuban Comet, Minnie Minoso...
... one with Lady Liberty (of COURSE she's a White Sox fan!)...
... the aftermath of blue italian ice's....
... and it was a great night! Sox won on a homer in extra innings, it was Fireworks Friday, and if all THAT wasnt enough - yeah, it was ELVIS NIGHT TOO!!! LMAO!!!!
All in all, we had a great trip! All the fun times we had were enough to turn the trip from "WE ALMOST DIED!!!" from the accident that started in the trip in the girls minds, to "OMG we had SO MUCH FUN! We did this and this and this, and that and that and that, oh yeah we had a car accident... and we saw this and this and that and that and....". Had a ball and cant wait to do it again.
But next time, we're either flying or taking a train... ;-)
At the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the very best museums in the entire world. My Uncle Jimmy was very excited to play tour guide and lay some culture on the girls! Note my daughter Courtney doing her best McKayla Maroney "NOT IMPRESSED!" pose... LOL
They were much more impressed with Millenium Park, featuring the world famous "Bean". I've never seen anything like this, and the girls & I were completely blown away!
We took an architectural tour of the downtown area by boat...
... before continuing on to spend an evening at Navy Pier.
We took in the Shedd Aquarium...
And stopped by Soldier Field (GO BEARS!) while we were in the neighborhood.
Spent an afternoon at the beach on Lake Michigan... sorry boys, ya dont get the pics of the girls running around in their bikinis! LOL
Also took in the Blue Man Group - best concert / live show Ive seen in my entire life! If you ever get the chance to check out one of their shows, jump all over it!
Took a Segway tour of the downtown area - the Segways were friggin AWESOME! If anyone is trying to come up with a Christmas present idea for me, a Segway would do just fine! Again, make sure you check a Segway out at some point in your life!
A nice shot of the wild bunch, with the Chicago skyline in the background (l to r - my youngest Ashley, me, my oldest Courtney, and my Uncle Jimmy).
We ended the trip with an evening at US Cellular Field for a White Sox game. A pic of the girls with The Cuban Comet, Minnie Minoso...
... one with Lady Liberty (of COURSE she's a White Sox fan!)...
... the aftermath of blue italian ice's....
... and it was a great night! Sox won on a homer in extra innings, it was Fireworks Friday, and if all THAT wasnt enough - yeah, it was ELVIS NIGHT TOO!!! LMAO!!!!
All in all, we had a great trip! All the fun times we had were enough to turn the trip from "WE ALMOST DIED!!!" from the accident that started in the trip in the girls minds, to "OMG we had SO MUCH FUN! We did this and this and this, and that and that and that, oh yeah we had a car accident... and we saw this and this and that and that and....". Had a ball and cant wait to do it again.
But next time, we're either flying or taking a train... ;-)
Comments
I was beginning to wonder after looking through the photos if they were all going to be of your lovely daughters or if we were going to get to see SuperSniper himself. And then, lo and behold, there he is on his Segway. Musta finally figured out that he might get someone else to take the picture.
Anyway, Bro, it's good that your trip turned out so well. I'm happy for ya.....
I grew up in Detroit and I used to feel the same way about it. Anything you wanted or wanted to do was there. Restaurants, night life, all of it. Then, in 1956, I was hired by a major aircraft manufacturer and transferred to a dinky little town in the high desert of California. And to make a long story short, once you've lived in a small town you'll believe that the big cities are a nice place to visit but not to live there.
Did you stop at Giordano's for pizza while you were there?? Or did you at least get some good "Chicago-style hot dogs"???
IF not, I don't know if we can be friends any more...LOL
Home Run Inn, Fox's, Salerno's, Lou Malnotti's... the choices for amazing pizza in Chicago are plentiful, and I expect that will be one of our excuses for going back. ;-)
As far as dogs go - you ever been to any of the "exotic/famous" dog locations? Like SuperDawg, Gene & Jude's, Hot Dougs....we want to try and make it to one of these next time we're in Chicago.
And Gino's is on our "to try" list as well, never made it there because we ended up getting Giordano's multiple times.
Funny Coincidence # 1 - Ive got family up in Gurnee also... all over the city actually, but mostly north and west sides these days.
Funny Coincidence # 2 - you mentioned Taste of Chicago. The day before I joined the Air Force a million years ago went like this: Taste of Chicago, Sox game, Blues Fest following those. Still one of the greatest days of my life! LOL Tons of hilarious stuff happened that day & night... unfortunately most of it is NSFW so I cant share it on the open forum, but trust me - that day could have been the script for the next Hangover movie! LOL