Chicago Day 1

We got up early on Sunday morning. For me, it was slightly over 2 hours of sleep. Why? Someone was shooting off very loud fireworks all night. Also, some neighbors were having a party and were loud.

Anyway, either way I was fine and very happy to be on vacation! The train was a bit late, but that did not matter a whole lot because we made up time on the train. All of us snoozed a bit at some point on the ride. We arrived in Chicago 15 minutes early!!

As is typical, there was some large event going on in Union Station. It was Disney's Christmas Carol. It looked cool, but I'm not into Christmas in July--sorry.

We took a quick cab ride to our hotel (same one as last year). We were able to check in and get a great room view.

We decided to walk to PF Changs since it was still a bit early. We had plans of visiting the Pier and the beach. The walk only took like 10 minutes. Lunch was very yummy and much needed. Since we thought they had discontinued the free trolleys, we took a water taxi to Navy Pier. Turns out they hadn't discontinued the trolleys completely, just scaled them back A LOT! Aliyah was pretty animated on the ride. She was cheering about everything we saw. The captain told her to have fun on the Ferris Wheel.

Again, as is typical there was another event going on...the AB Clydesdales were all on display at Navy Pier along with their stagecoach and dalmation. I have seen them before (obviously a different group of them several years ago). Josh and the girls on the other hand, haven't seen them. They are MASSIVE, beautiful, muscular, and amazing. What do you know, I left my camera in the hotel room--duh! We enjoyed looking at Scott, Curly and others. It seems like it would only take about 1/4 of one Clydesdale to pull that Stagecoach =).

Navy Pier was busy and we only stayed a short time to look at one little shop. We took the short walk to the Ohio St. Beach to check out the water. It was a bit chilly, but we managed to enjoy it. We got to ride the trolley back =).

Following a quick nap, we were back out in the city again. We visited American Girl and picked up the items that were on Aliyah's birthday list as well as a few books that she wanted to read.

For dinner, we went with familiar and chose Chili's. It was tasty!

Since everyone was pretty tired and I was battling a cold, we headed back to our hotel. We chilled out for the rest of the evening and enjoyed the gorgeous view from our hotel room. Every night, we made sure to keep the curtains open every night to take in the gorgeous lights and sights of the city. We were on the 27th floor overlooking the river. In the picture, you will see NBC tower on the right, the Hancock building in the background (white line across the top), Tribune bldg. etc...

Stay tuned for the rest of the fun as well as many more pictures!