Day Eighty-Three

Day eighty-three is another rainy day, but my cold feels much better!  J  Sam spent the morning playing with his friends, and now we are all relaxing for the afternoon inside.  It is nice and cool outside, only in the 60’s or 70’s – ahhh!  Jim is making noise about turning on the heater, but I not going for it!  J

Day Eighty-Two

Day eighty-two and I had a head cold – yuck!  It was lightly raining outside, so Sam wanted to stay at the campground and play all day with his friends while I took cold medicine and slept.  Jim worked on paperwork.

Day Eighty-One

Day eighty-one we finished our trip to end in Sheffield, PA and the Allegheny National Forest.  Although Jim had to drive around a curve and down a hill to get to the campsite, it was a very nice site right next to the pool and playground, with a little stream running across the back.  Sam met up with some other kids and spent the rest of the day into the evening playing away!

Day Eighty

Day eighty we headed out of the KOA, going back east toward PA.  Because this was Labor Day weekend, we were not able to secure a campsite for the night at our destination, so we opted to drive about 300 miles and spend the night somewhere along the way, then finish up the trip the next day.  We found an overnight site in Milan, OH – our first call!  Nice little spot for an overnight stay right off the highway.

Day Seventy-Nine

Day seventy-nine we went back downtown to see the Whale Exhibit we had missed at the Field Museum and to also visit the Shedd Aquarium.  The Whale Exhibit was awesome!  What magnificent and massive creatures!  There was a scale model of the blue whale heart that Sam could climb through!  Wow!  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t allow pics, so I can’t show you.

We then went to the Shedd Aquarium, and it was absolutely beautiful!  There were a lot of wonderful displays of different water regions of the world full of the fish and creatures native to that area.  We enjoyed the penguin exhibit, where a couple of the caretakers were inside giving the penguins some attention and belly rubs.  The penguins were lined up for their rubs!  They also had beluga whales, who are simply gorgeous.

Sam had a really great time playing in a simulated submarine display with a lot of other kids – we practically had to pull him away after 45 minutes!  J

This was our last night in the area, so we decided to eat out at the steakhouse that was next to the campground and the wild west place.  They had excellent food, and we all left there stuffed!

Day Seventy-Eight

Day seventy-eight and the guys picked me up at the airport right after lunchtime.  It was so good to see my guys! We took the train downtown to visit the Willis Tower that afternoon.  What an awesome view!  The elevator ride is only sixty seconds to go up 103 floors – whew!  You can feel your ears popping!  They also had the “Ledge” overhand where you stand on a glass floor and look down.  It was funny to watch some people being VERY hesitant to walk out on that glass floor!  J

Day Seventy-Seven

Day seventy-seven the guys hung out at the coach all day saving their energy to go to a White Sox game that night.  Jim drove the car to the stadium because he didn’t want to take the train late at night, but he said the traffic was horrible!  They just made it into the stadium right after the game started.  White Sox won – yeah!

Day Seventy-Six

Day seventy-six and the guys went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  They said it was huge and they couldn’t even see it all in one day!  Sam told me it was really cool, and he took several video clips with his camera.  There was even a tornado machine that was two stories tall!

Day Seventy-Five

Day seventy-five and I had to hop a plane back to FL for a couple of days to take care of some business.  Jim and Sam dropped me off at the airport in the morning, and then headed back to the coach and went back to bed!  J  They spent the afternoon doing some shopping and chores.  Jim got Sam a REALLY late Christmas present – a Flip Video Camera.  He said Sam spent the rest of the evening making movies!

Day Seventy-Four

Day seventy-four we headed to Chicago to visit the Field Museum, home of Sue the T-Rex!  Sue is the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found to date, and on display at the Field Museum.  We drove to the Rosemont train station, and took the train into town.  Sam loves to ride the train, as do Jim and I, so that was part of the attraction for us!  Sam has ridden on more trains and subways at only eight years old than I did before I was 40!

The Field Museum was HUGE!  We didn’t realize how extensive it was, and we bought tickets to see the 3D movie as well as two special exhibits they had on display.  By four o’clock, we were racing around trying to get to the Whale Exhibit, but didn’t realize it closed at four.  The staff was kind enough to make a note on our tickets to honor our visit for another day during the week.

The Field Museum is located right on the lake, next to the Shedd Aquarium, and just down the way from the planetarium.  We snapped a few pics of the gorgeous Chicago skyline, which included the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sear’s Tower).

Before hopping on the train for the journey home, we stopped at Giordano’s for their famous deep dish pizza!  Yum yum!!  It was delicious!

Day Seventy-Three

Day seventy-three we packed up and headed south toward Chicago.  We camped at a KOA campground in Union, IL about an hour’s drive from the train stop at Rosemont.  Right next door was a wild west place that had shows on the weekends, so we could hear them shooting their guns that night during the show.  Buster doesn’t like loud noises, so he immediately jumped into my lap!  Ha Ha!

Day Seventy-Two

Day seventy-two and the last day of water park fun in the Dells!  Sam and Jim went back to the park while I went to the downtown area to walk around and check out the shops.  I also walked the short “River Walk” as it was labeled, to check out the downtown view of the river.  A couple of hours browsing and strolling on a nice afternoon!

Day Seventy-One

Day seventy-one was another water park day for Sam and Jim while I lounged around the coach and caught up on some reading and laundry.

Day Seventy

Day seventy we all headed to Mt. Olympus for some rollercoaster and go kart action!  There is one go kart track that goes under a huge Trojan Horse, and Sam and I got the slowest car – boo!  J  Another go kart track we drove on was one that goes under a pond, and Sam and I got the lead car AND the fastest car that time!  We smoked them all!  Woo hoo!

After lunch, Sam had to spend some time back at the wave pool, and he spent a couple of hours running like crazy!  We all went back to the coach for some down time for a couple of hours, before our next adventure – Monster Truck Ride!!  They have this HUGE monster truck that a driver takes you zooming around a course of hills, bumps, curves, and mud through the woods.  Oh boy!  It was definitely a thrill ride!  Sam was clutching the sides of his seat pretty good, and his eyes were VERY big!  J  We had a blast, though!

Day Sixty-Nine

Day sixty-nine Sam and Jim hit the water parks again – Sam just LOVES Poseidon’s Rage, which is a wave pool.  They spent three or four hours sliding and swimming.

Later that evening, we went to the downtown main street area to check out the action.  We stopped for some ice cream at the Dairy Queen, then sat at an outside table at a bar and grill for a couple of beers while we watched the crowds walking by.  There are lots of interesting places to go in the area, and it was busy!  We just people watched for a while and let the sunset happen.